With the ID card update students and parents can now go online to view transactions and transfer funds, called Knight Cash. They can also set or change their PIN or even suspend the account in the event a card has been lost or stolen. The transactions will now appear in real time. With the previous version of the cashless payment system, the accounts didn’t reflect the transaction for a couple of days after it had taken place.

To implement the system, UCF will not be issuing new cards. Instead, the university placed special stations around campus for students to transfer their account that was previously recorded on a smart chip to the magnetic stripe on the back of the card. The station will read the amount from the smart chip and move the funds to a student’s online account. While the new system is much more user-friendly for both students and parents, it will also save the university money because magnetic stripe technology offers a more cost effective solution when compared with the previous system of smart chips.