UM Dining now accepts credit

This is an article about the new payment option available to students for dining purchases at the University of Maine in Orono.

http://mainecampus.com/2010/01/14/um-dining-now-accepts-credit/

UM Dining now accepts credit

By Sara Breau
Posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010, 12:41 am

Credit and debit cards are now accepted at each of the dining locations on the University of Maine campus. The option became available Jan. 8 after several previous attempts to get the service up and running, according to Kathy Kittridge, director of dining operations at UMaine.

Dining officials hope the option of paying with plastic will add convenience for customers and shorten lines at the cash registers.

“Basically, we’ve been wanting to take credit and debit cards for quite some time now,” Kittridge said. “The thing that was slowing us down is being in compliance with security issues having to do with the transactions. We’ve updated the software on our cash registers now, so we’re all set with that.”

Credit and debit cards are accepted at each of the dining locations on campus, including the kiosk in Donald P. Corbett Hall and at concessions stands. Visa or Mastercard are accepted. There are no plans to bring in new cards either way.

“Those are the two most popular, and it basically just cut down on paperwork to stick with them two for now,” Kittridge said.

“We had a lot of students ask for this, and we really did it for the customers, for customer convenience,” Kittridge said.

While credit cards can be used on a purchase of any amount, members of dining services are hopeful that the use of debit and credit cards will generate increased revenue to cover the fee credit companies charge for each transaction.

“We’re hoping that it will actually bring in additional revenue because there is a cost associated with this, and we’re hoping that it will bring in enough so we won’t have to do any price changes or increase prices. We don’t have any minimum purchase at this point,” Kittridge said.

Currently, there is no fee for customers associated with using credit or debit cards on campus. Shirley McClure-Harris, a dining employee at the Memorial Union, said that using debit or credit cards will be more convenient than cash.

“I think people are going to like this a lot better,” she said. “It’s basically just like swiping the MaineCards. You hit ‘credit card,’ swipe, confirm it and we’re done.”

“I think it’s a lot more convenient because you don’t have to go downstairs to withdraw money, which can be a pain,” said Dinny Loring, a third-year zoology major.

Al McAvoy, assistant dining services manager in the Union, stated in an e-mail Tuesday that Markeplace cashiers have reported “customers are thrilled” with the convenience the new service offers.

With dining funds and Black Bear Bucks on their MaineCards, students can easily check their balance at the cash register. This feature is unavailable to the plastic-wielding credit and debit customers, a fact that leaves some students concerned.

Rosie Tanabe, a second-year English and music performance student, worries about the effect it may have on students’ bank accounts now that they have the responsibility of keeping track of how much money they spend with their credit and debit cards on campus.

“If people aren’t careful, they could end up spending more,” she said.

The payment method has been popular so far, with 153 credit card transactions completed between Friday and Monday. Dining services is hopeful the added payment option will help eliminate the theft problem UMaine has faced in the dining commons and Marketplace.

“I believe this will also give the students another option of payment when they are out of money on their MaineCard or are without cash. This will deter them from taking the food without payment,” said Melissa Lewis, dining service manager at the Maine Marketplace.

“This also helps with our speed of service here at the Marketplace since the credit and debit card purchases are faster than cash. This is always a good thing for the long lunch lines,” Lewis said.