USCard
Billing Rights & Terms of Disclosure 

USCARD HOLDER AGREEMENT
Please read this Agreement before using the USCard.  It contains the terms and conditions of the USCard Account, some of which may have changed from earlier materials provided to you.  In the event of any differences, this Agreement shall control.

1. AGREEMENT TERMS.  The word “Account” means your USCard Account.  The words “you,” “your,” or “yours” mean you, the cardholder, who are contractually liable under this Agreement, or your parent(s) or legal guardian(s) if they have signed the agreement because you are under age 18.  The word “USC” means the University of Southern California.

2. ACCEPTANCE OF AGREEMENT.  Your use of your Account or your USCard means you accept this Agreement.

3. USE OF YOUR ACCOUNT AND THE USCard.  You agree that you will only use your Account or the USCard for personal, family and household purposes.  Your Account and the USCard may be used to purchase goods or services from participating establishments at USC.

USC is not responsible for the refusal of anyone to accept or honor the USCard.  The USCard is the property of USC.  You must return it to either the USCard office or a designated agent of USC upon request.

4. ACCOUNT BALANCES.  Account balances are non-interest bearing for the cardholder.

5. LIABILITY FOR UNAUTHORIZED USE.  If your USCard is lost or stolen, or if you think that someone is using your Account or your USCard without your permission, notify the USCard office immediately.  You can notify the office 24 hours a day by telephoning (213) 740-8709, or by writing to USCard Services, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1623.  You may be liable for the unauthorized use of your Account or the USCard.  After reporting, your liability will not exceed $50.00.

6. PROMISE TO PAY.  You agree to pay USC in U.S. dollars for all purchases including applicable finance charges and other charges or fees you may incur on your Account. 

Failure to make payments of indebtedness to USC when due is considered sufficient cause, until the debt is settled to USC, to:

1. bar the student from classes or examinations;

2. withhold diploma, scholastic certificate or transcript;

3. bar the student from University Housing;

4. suspend all University services or privileges;

5. suspend the student;

6. assign the account to a collection agency; and

7. report the student as delinquent to a credit bureau.  USC also retains the right to proceed with action through the University conduct system until your debt is settled.  Permission to cancel enrollment does not constitute and shall not be construed, as, a waiver by USC of your financial obligation.  You are still responsible for all outstanding debts and contracts with USCard and USC.  Furthermore, a student must not have any delinquent financial obligations to USC at the time classes begin or their registration may be revoked.  The USCard office and USC can accept late payment or partial payments in checks and money orders marked “payment in full” without losing any of the rights under this Agreement.

7. PAYMENT OPTIONS.  The entire new balance shown on your billing statement is due and payable upon receipt.  All payments must be mailed or delivered to USC at the address shown on your monthly billing statement or by using the envelope enclosed with such statement.  All payments will be applied in the following order:  finance charges and other charges or fees, and new charges in the order made.

The payment due shall be reduced by amounts paid during the previous months which have not already been so applied.

8. CREDIT BALANCES.  We will refund any credit balance within seven business days from receipt of your written request less 5% service charge.  To obtain a refund from USCard you must first meet the criteria set forth in the deposit contract.  USCard only issues refunds through the university billing system.

9. DEFAULT-COLLECTION COSTS.  You are in default if you fail to comply with the terms of this Agreement, including failing to make a required payment when due.  If you are in default and USC refers the collection of your Account to an attorney, USC may charge you reasonable attorney’s fees and court or other collection costs as permitted by law and as actually incurred by USC.

10. CANCELLATION.  You may cancel your Account by notifying us in writing and returning your USCard to the USCard Office.  You will still be responsible to pay any amount you owe USC according to the terms of this agreement.  USCard may cancel or suspend your Account at any time with 30 days written notice.  If your Account is canceled or suspended, USC may declare the entire balance of your Account immediately due and payable.

11. UNUSED BALANCE POLICY.  Accounts with a remaining balance and no transaction activity for a 12-month period covering July 1 to June 30 will be assessed a $1.00 per month maintenance fee.  The fee will be assessed annually on June 30.  Any account with a zero balance and no transactional activity in the proceeding 12 months shall be closed.

12. USCARD PRIVACY POLICY.  Information we collect, or correspondence we receive from the student is a component of the student’s education record.  The University of Southern California maintains the privacy of student education records and allows students the right to inspect their education records as stated in the university’s Student Education Records Policy, consistent with the requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974.  The entire text of the university’s policy is located in the Office of General Counsel and in the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs.  More information about USC’s policy on the privacy of education records is available online at http://www.usc.edu/dept/ARR/ferpa/. 

Your privacy is important to us.  To better protect your privacy we provide this notice explaining our online information practices.  To make this notice easy to find we make it available on our homepage and at other points before we collect personally identifiable information, i.e., the account management services and meal plan administration sections. 

We reserve the right to change or update this Privacy Notice at any time.  Any such changes or updates will be effective immediately upon posting to this website.  Further, your use of this site following such posting constitutes your acceptance of the Privacy Notice as so changed or updated.  If we make material changes to this Privacy Notice, we will ask you to agree to the new terms by clicking on the acceptance of changes notification.  If you choose not to accept amended terms of the Privacy Notice at that time, your access to on-line USCard Services will be disallowed.

THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT.  This notice applies specifically to all information collected or submitted by USCard Services.  It does not apply to other websites, or information collection efforts belonging to the University of Southern California.  USC is the sole owner of all of the information USCard collects and maintains.

Through our account management service, you (or a guest authorized by you if your account is a student account) can review your account, and/or receive low balance warnings.  The types of information displayed, or collected on these pages include:

Name
University ID Number
Email Address
Password

Through the “Add Funds” process you, the student, and your authorized guest may add funds to your USCard account and authorize us to bill the value of the addition to your university student account.  Information gathered to process this type of transaction includes:

Name
University ID
Password

Finally, USCard offers a credit card processing service via web settlement through a university approved 3rd party contractor.

We do not publish content directed at children or collect information from minors.  No information may be submitted to us by persons under the age of 13, nor may persons under the age of 13 undertake transactions, or take other action on this site unless permitted by applicable law.

HOW WE USE INFORMATION.  Any information you provide, or information provided when authorizing guest users may be stored on our secured web server, or a secure server administered by an authorized agent.  The information will be available only to USCard employees, or their authorized agents as described below.

We use the information you provide only for the purposes of verifying that you are an authorized user when logging in, protecting against potential fraud, providing the USCard Account Management service, processing deposit requests, providing customer service and emailing notices about services and activity to you.  We do not share information with outside parties but to the extent necessary to complete related requests we do work closely with other university departments, namely, Student Financial Services and University Payroll Services, or as required by applicable law or court order.

Any credit card information you provide will be used only to process a single transaction.  You can also opt-in to the automatic recurring deposit process which only offers settlement to your university account.  Your USCard account number (University ID Number) will only be displayed while you are signing on.  Once you have signed on, all but the last four digits of these numbers will be masked.  The password creation process does email a temporary password to you and you are encouraged to change it immediately upon receipt. 

We never use or share the personally identifiable information provided to us in ways unrelated to the ones described above.  Specifically, we will not provide your information to third parties for commercial purposes.

OUR COMMITMENT TO DATA SECURITY.  To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures which we regard as appropriate to safeguard and secure the information we collect and use both on-line and in our offices and customer service locations.  We use encryption technology to protect the security of the information transmitted on our website.  However, transmissions made by means of the Internet cannot be made absolutely secure.  USC will have no liability for disclosure of data due to errors in transmission, or through the use of third party cookies or other devices on your computer.  Once you leave our website, you will be subject to other privacy policies which may differ significantly from the policy described in this notice.

13. CHANGE OF TERMS.  USC may change any term or part of this Agreement, including any finance charge rate, fee or method of computing any balance upon which the Finance Charge rate is assessed, by sending you a written notice at least 30 days before the change is to become effective.  Your expressed written Agreement to any such change or the use of your Account or USCard on or after the effective date of the change means that you accept and agree to the change.  USC may apply any such change to the outstanding balance of your Account on the effective date of the change or terms and to the new charges made after that date.

14. CHANGE OF ADDRESS.  If you change your address you must notify either the USCard office or USC Financial Services of your new address within 15 days.

15. GOVERNING LAW.  This Agreement will be governed by the laws of the state of California for agreements to be performed in the county of Los Angeles and all applicable federal laws.  If any part of this Agreement becomes unenforceable, it will not make any other part unenforceable.

16. STATEMENTS.  USC may provide a web based account service that will allow you to review the transaction history for your account and the current balance.  This may be accessed at www.usc.edu/uscard.  You may also obtain statements by placing a written request at the USCard Customer Service Office.

17. BUSINESS DAYS.  The University’s business days are Monday – Friday, 8:30am to 5:00pm, excluding holidays and December 25th through January 1st.

YOUR BILLING RIGHTS

KEEP THIS NOTICE FOR FURTHER USE

This notice contains important information about your rights and USC’s responsibilities under the FAIR CREDIT BILLING ACT.

1. Notify us in case of errors or questions about your bill.

If you think your bill is wrong, or if you need more information about a transaction on your billing statement, notify USC as soon as possible, on a separate sheet of paper at the address listed on your bill for Notice of Billing Errors.  USC must hear from you no later than sixty (60) days after they sent you the first bill on which the error or problem appeared.  You can telephone USC or the USCard office, but doing so will not preserve your rights.

In your letter, please give USC the following information:

• Your name and Account number:

• the dollar amount of the suspected error; and

• describe the error and explain, if you can, why you believe there is an error.  If you need more information, describe the item which you are unsure.

HOW TO CONTACT US.  You can write us:

University of Southern California
USCard Services
649 W 34th Street PSD 102
Los Angeles, CA 90089-1623

Or call us:  (213) 740-2044
Or email us:  uscard@usc.edu

2. Your rights and responsibilities after we receive your written notice:

USC must acknowledge your letter within thirty (30) days, unless they have corrected the error by then.  Within ninety (90) days, USC must either correct the error or explain why they believe the bill was correct.

After USC receives your letter, USC cannot try to collect any amount you question, nor can USC report you as delinquent.  USC can continue to bill you for the amount in question, including applicable finance charges.  You do not have to pay any questioned amount while USC is investigating, but you are still obliged to pay the parts of your bill that are not in question.

If USC finds that they made a mistake on your bill, you will not have to pay any finance charges related to any questioned amount.  If USC did not make a mistake, you may have to pay the finance charges, and you will have to make up any missed payments on the questioned amount.  In either case, USC will send you a statement on the amount you owe and the date on which payment is due.

If you fail to pay the amount USC thinks you owe, USC may report you as delinquent.  However, if USC’s explanation does not satisfy you and you write back within ten (10) days to notify USC of your intent not to pay that amount, USC must tell anyone they report you to that you have a question about your bill.  Also, USC must tell you the name of anyone to whom they report you to.  When it is finally concluded, USC must tell anyone to whom it was reported that the matter has been satisfied.

If USC does not follow these rules, they cannot collect the first $50.00 of the questioned amount, even if your bill was correct.