Vending is one of the many uses for a campus card, but it's an oft-overlooked service. Heartland's Fred Emery highlights just how valuable of a service on-campus vending can be when it taps into a university's campus OneCard.

In a blog post on the company's website, Emery points out that the average student's schedule can be hectic. With a majority of students hustling from class to class or activity to activity, a sit-down meal at the dining hall isn't always an option. The substitution, then, is often a vending machine.

Many major vending companies are deploying machines that boast credit card terminals as the standard payment method, and as Emery sees it, that comes as little surprise. "We have seen an increase in the use of credit and debit cards in on-campus vending machines. And the vending machine companies have seen it too," says Emery. "While this provides a great service to the students, it quite often removes the ability for students to use their campus cards to make purchases at these vending machines."

It's for this reason that the OneCard is an ideal medium for vending machine purchases, and as Emery explains, is a great service and convenience to the student and campus alike. "It can be an additional source of revenue for your school," he says. "Many campuses report an increase in purchases of 30% or higher once card terminals are added to vending machines."

Heartland has recently partnered with terminal provider UIC on the company's new OneCard Vending terminal. As Emery explains, the the new vending terminal supports payments made via OneCard, credit and debit cards, and mobile device.

In addition to an updated look and feel, the terminal is standard size and fits into the vending machine bill acceptors or knock out locations, which makes standard mounting a non issue. "It is multi-drop Bus (MDB) compatible and can be installed in a wireless or wired environment," says Emery.

See more information on Heartland's vending integration here.