Oklahoma City Community College is one 700 colleges and Universities across the nation that has contracted with Higher One to provide financial services like the processing of their student aid funds and payroll. In tandem with their growth and fattening receipts, complaints of lags in processing, egregious fees, irresponsible financial advice, and unresponsive customer service multiply.

Higher One's reported 3rd quarter earnings were an astounding $48.1 million and serves an internally estimated 5.8 million students. Account and transaction fees account for a shocking 88% of their total revenue according to their own data. In fact, their expected revenues for fiscal year 2011 is a whopping $186 million.

It doesn't take a genius, or even a college student to do the math. Higher One is banking on fees that target inexperienced and international students who have little to no options. In response to Felix Salmon's article, "Making Money Off Students, Debit Card Edition," spokesman for Higher One, Donald Smith attempted to both confirm and deny one of their more onerous fees:

"We do not have an inactivity fee on our fee schedule – we don’t penalize students who do not use their accounts. We do have an Abandoned Account Fee of up to $19, for those who have abandoned their accounts, but this has been charged to less than 1% of all OneAccount holders in our company’s history because of our proactive outreach plan. "

One can imagine the amount of sleaze a sharp and greedy man like Donald Smith can justify. All at the expense of our nation's future.

Higher One is not alone in the market to fleece college students of their endowments. Sallie Mae, Nelnet, and Blackboard are among the vultures that are beginning to circle the beleaguered and betrayed student body. It's only a matter of time until they begin to collaborate in the same kind of atrocities that we've seen in the housing market, but this time with fees; fees that narrowly avoid the image of an additional origination fee.

How long will we tolerate predatory bankers? How long must we bow to their bully tactics? It's time to throw off the chains of fealty for the sake of convenience. Send OCCC and other schools who contract with Higher One and their ilk a message.