"CampusCa$h," a debit card system developed by three Wharton students, is the latest in a series of electronic cash card proposals for the Penn community. The University is currently working on a similar project that would wire various on-campus buildings together to allow students to use their PennCards to pay for vending machines, laundry machines and copy machines. The idea first came up three years ago when 1995 Wharton graduate Michael Agha was working on a project for his management class that allowed students to pay in advance for meals consumed at local restaurants. Agha then met up with Wharton and Engineering senior Raja Gupta and Wharton senior Scott Kurland in October 1995 and formed the Creative Software Company. The three were originally interested in promoting plans for a 24-hour or late night on-campus dining facility that would allow students to pay using a debit card system. Students would have been able to spend money deposited into an account. The main focus of CampusCa$h is the incorporation of local off-campus restaurants, photo-copying stores and retail outlets into a similar system. "Right now security is our biggest issue," Agha said. "The restaurants don't want to attract crime by staying open late, and the system with which students will pay must also be secure." Agha, Gupta and Kurland said they explored several alternatives to cash payments, including various check and credit concepts, but ultimately decided to pursue a debit card system. This concept was modeled after a system used at many other colleges and universities across the country. Kurland said the debit card system "seemed to present the least security risks to students and businesses." Agha said the group is working on a program which would provide incentives to debit card holders. "We're looking to form a rebate program of up to 20 percent, which would increase students' buying power depending on the number of purchases they make," Kurland added. Keeping costs low is also a priority of the group, he said. "Our goal is to find a program that would allocate the best benefits to students and would be as costless to the community as possible," Gupta said. The group has sparked the interest of a number of different off-campus merchants who have been very helpful, Agha said, adding that there has been "a lot of enthusiasm" from the merchants. "They are interested in giving benefits to the user of the debit card to promote business," he added. The group is currently presenting their idea to several local banks in order to find a flexible system. But Kurland added that banks can be "notoriously slow." "We're looking to bring the right people together into this system so that it is the most beneficial to everyone," Agha said. Although CampusCa$h is working independently on the project, they hope to work alongside the University to best integrate the on-campus and off-campus systems, and have already met with several administrators. "In the long run, we hope to expand our idea so that someday it will be possible for students to use their debit cards at other schools as well as Penn," Kurland said. In the interim, the group's time frame will depend on how quickly and inexpensively a debit card system can be installed.
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