Mailboxes will be filled this week with a new kind of student refund.

Western, with the help of a financial services and payment company called HigherOne, has started mailing out debit cards that students can use to manage their leftover scholarship, loan or grant money.

The cards will eventually replace the paper residual check system.

Bursar Belinda Higginbotham said the debit cards will be mailed in stages — first to dorms, then to local addresses and, finally, to home or mailing addresses.

The cards will be ready to use by Winter Term, she said.

Western officials have been trying to get the word out about the cards this semester through posters hung around campus and a series of e-mail notifications, she said.

Higginbotham said she hopes most students know the cards are coming.

She said she’s heard quite a bit of student feedback, mostly positive.

There’s some concern that students will be forced to set up a HigherOne account and abandon accounts they have with other banks, which isn’t the case, Higginbotham said.

“We’re not forcing the HigherOne accounts on them,” she said.

Upon receiving a card, students should go to wkudebitcard.com to let officials know how they would like to receive money, according to an e-mail from Western and HigherOne.

Students have the option of transferring money to their personal bank accounts or sticking with the paper check system, Higginbotham said.

But this spring will be the last semester paper checks will be an option, she said.

Student Government Association president Kevin Smiley said he tested the cards, and the activation process is simple.

“Some students see a debit card and think it’s the worst thing ever,” he said.

But Smiley said he thinks students will be open to the cards when they understand that they have options.

He said he thinks the cards will end up being more convenient than students think.

For example, if two students are renting an apartment together, one can wire money to the other directly out of the HigherOne account instead of writing two different checks for rent, Smiley said.

He said he’s given many of the SGA senators pamphlets on the activation process and encouraged any students who have questions to meet with a senator.

“To a lot of people, this is a big deal,” he said. “That’s perfectly fine — everybody’s ready to talk about it.”