OUR VIEW: Sluggish credit card is costing Utah State

The Quickstop, The Hub, the Copy Center, the Skyroom and the Bookstore.

All of these places in the Taggart Student Center have one thing in common. Between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on a regular weekday, it takes 10 times as long to pay for anything with a debit or credit card than with cash or check.

But this isn’t a new problem. It has been going on for more than a year. The only problem is that students are becoming impatient and going elsewhere or just not buying things at all.

Although the cause of this slow system is debatable, the university is losing valuable business in the meantime.

Many students only pay for certain items in the TSC with their debit or credit cards. So when a 10-minute waiting period is tagged onto the process, people may be looking to sources other than the university for their needs.

Granted, upgrading the university’s system to a more efficient one may be expensive, but more money might be going down the drain from frustrated students not willing to wait to pay for their items.

Something needs to be done. If the system actually is upgraded like some university officials say it will be, it needs to be in a timely manner or the consequences may be bigger than they might expect.