Electronic money system

cambridge

Many other universities and campuses around Ireland and further afield implement an electronic payment system for goods and services. These would include paying for your meals in the college eating areas, paying for printer credit, paying library fines etc.

Would people be interested in this system being implemented in UL in the near future? Some pros and cons:

Pros:
Convenience - you won't need to carry as much cash / have correct change.
Security - knackers won't be able to rob your card and buy naggins with it
Control - people can reduce wanton expenditure by not carrying cash and relying on this system

Cons:
Inconvenient - You will need to top up either on line or at cash pay stations.
Snooping - transactions could be monitored for profiling / marketing
Control - people could use this system to try and curtail your spending

There are other issues people may like to discuss and let's see what the boards censensus is. I know the Su did a survey but because derek organised it, it's probably banjaxed and we'll get it next year minus 150k quid.

OhMSGlive

cambridge wrote: »

Many other universities and campuses around Ireland and further afield implement an electronic payment system for goods and services.

In Ireland? Really? Give an example.

cambridge

Waterford IT
Ibm

Popoutman

Reinventing the wheel.

If it's to be used as a credit card with people's money on them then the infrastructure behind it will have to be PCI compliant.

It's be cheaper and more secure to rent cards from a card provider (contact the on-campus bank maybe) and see if they'll sponsor and manage such a scheme.

It's have to be a lot better than cash or laser/visa-debit to be useful otherwise it'd be a solution looking for a problem to resolve.

I'm trying to look up a write-up of a university-based card system that was cracked by the students, cracked through bad design and worse implementation - it's a blueprint as to why local cards are a bad idea when there are already working alternatives in place.

Jester252

For the last time it would be a debit card not a credit card

Popoutman

same requirements still apply - PCI compliancy.

Popoutman

It may be easier to simply implement the handling of cards in general - not a UL-only card - as a payment option throughout the college - it's a more realistic solution with a lower cost to entry, with existing technology and an infrastructure that would require no modification to implement.

cambridge

To the best of my knowledge the WIT crowd use the PCI compliant cards, the cards are the same card as their student card.

As opposed to what ever technology is in the call cards or what ever, these are not designed to be disposable, you're supposed to keep them for the duration of your stay (but they might have to come up with some new time spans to accommodate the derek daly's of this world).

As is implied these cards are probably quite expensive to acquire for all ul students. as the student cards have already been upgraded to the rfid technology, it's not likely the college would consider updating them again to give them the chip.

i personally never really like the option, never liked vouchers either. still open to persuasion and would like to hear some more from the pragmatic / technological side of it.

cambridge

is there any reason why so few of the tills on campus take laser? i know you need to phone line and all that jazz but is this the overriding factor? is there a lot of other expensive in this?

thankfully there's a new atm on the northern campus in the pavillion now.

Popoutman

cambridge wrote: »

To the best of my knowledge the WIT crowd use the PCI compliant cards, the cards are the same card as their student card.

If this is the case it's extremely unlikely that WIT is PCI compliant, and shouldn't be trusted with electronic tokens for handling money.

This is what I mean by PCI compliant :https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/ - it's a standard for the storage and transmission of data nad the requirements are hefty. In a previous role I worked with software that audited for PCI compliancy and there were something like 150 checks per server, and that only covered the hardware and OS setup, nothing about the physical protection required. It's non-trivial to get certified for it, which is why you use a merchant that is - and if you use an external merchant you don't use your own roll-your-own system.

ninty9er

If it happens it will be a debit card. The research has already been done and it's ready to implement as soon as someone comes up with a few million to do it.

A cashless campus won't work in UL, just like it doesn't work in WIT, but a two part system is doable. However as there is a cost associated with implementing and maintaining such a system it would not be possible to incentivise it beyond "you won't have to carry cash on campus". That said, you'd still need cash off campus.

UL has over 100 cash acceptance points, vast multiples of WIT, each needing the infrastructure and each needing to provide a daily/weekly report in order to ensure payment transfer.

If it was simple it would have been done already. (That's fact, not supposition)

cambridge

no need to be so defensive derek. no body is saying you were in the su for 3 years and all you did was cause chaos. we all acknowledge the wonderful work you did this year, and last year, and the year before that, and all the work of all your colleagues past present and future. you're herculean effort will not go unnoticed, you'll get a shrine down in grotto beside mother teresa's, you'll be remembered as a martyr amongst martyrs, the joan of arc of the mid west. you won't be forgotten kid

ninty9er

cambridge wrote: »

no need to be so defensive derek. no body is saying you were in the su for 3 years and all you did was cause chaos. we all acknowledge the wonderful work you did this year, and last year, and the year before that, and all the work of all your colleagues past present and future. you're herculean effort will not go unnoticed, you'll get a shrine down in grotto beside mother teresa's, you'll be remembered as a martyr amongst martyrs, the joan of arc of the mid west. you won't be forgotten kid

Who's being defensive.

I've presented my view on the issue along with a number of facts.:rolleyes:

cambridge

:rolleyes: your self derek.

you're got angsty because you think i'm recycling the same previous ideas while trying to make myself sound innovative. you're saying "sure we were doing that before you even came to ul". but you weren't derek. 126 days left now derek, then it's back to being a manager in lidl or burgerking or whatever it is you do. we'll miss you derek, we'll miss ya.

Red Silurian

Brilliant idea, our student cards already contain rfid technology so it'd be fairly simple to implement, businesses around campus wouldn't need as much cash reserves, therefore increasing security and reducing costs! Also Ulster bank could be providing all the accounts for free considering they benefit from being the only branch on campus

Red Silurian

cambridge wrote: »

As is implied these cards are probably quite expensive to acquire for all ul students. as the student cards have already been upgraded to the rfid technology, it's not likely the college would consider updating them again to give them the chip.

RFID is the technology that's currently being used... We all have rfid cards sooooo....

cambridge

that's what i said ???

Red Silurian

cambridge wrote: »

that's what i said ???

You mentioned something about a chip?