Lunch is about to get more expensive for students who use a credit card instead of a MealTime account to pay at Café Lab or the coffee shop, as beginning Nov. 1 a 4% fee will be added.

This new fee is intended to speed up the payment process and redirect students and faculty to use their MealTime account. 

The on-site food service director, Alicia Culverson, said the 4% fee is meant to prioritize efficiency for the benefit of students and faculty and will simplify the payment system in Café Lab. 

To avoid the new fee, students can pay with cash or a MealTime account that is funded by bringing cash or a check. Online, users can preload their funds with a credit card, cash or check. A 4.9% MealTime transaction fee will still be charged when accounts are preloaded online. Ms. Culverson said the MealTime service is the ideal alternative to credit cards. 

Some students have prioritized the speed of the MealTime payment option since the beginning of the school year, when credit card lines were long.

Other students disagree and prefer the ease of a credit card.

“I use the credit card option because it is easier because I always have my credit card on me,” sophomore Carter Chang said.