Bear Bucks has changed and can be used as a purchasing option exclusively at on-campus establishments and campus stores. View all official on-campus Bear Bucks locations on our website here. Additionally, Bear Bucks can be used to conveniently pay for orders from any Grubhub merchant nationwide, via pick-up and delivery through the Grubhub app.
Opening a Bear Bucks account is free of charge and no minimum balance must be maintained to keep the account open. Your account will remain open as long as you are a student, faculty, or staff member of Washington University in St. Louis. Please see the Terms of Service below for more information.
Activating the Charge Feature:
To activate the Charge Feature so Bear Bucks can be deducted from your next pay check, please navigate to Atrium Connect, log in, and fill out the “Payroll Deduct Request” form found in the Account Management settings on the left-hand menu.
Faculty and Staff may add funds using a domestic credit/debit card by selecting the “Deposit Bear Bucks via Credit Card” option after logging in.
Faculty and Staff may add funds by cash deposit, check, or international credit/debit card in-person at the Campus Card Services office.
Faculty and Staff may charge transactions to deduct from payroll using the Charge Feature detailed below. Please note that any funds deposited via the former two payment methods must be expended before the charge feature can be used.
Terms of Service
Eligibility
In order to be eligible to open an employee Bear Bucks account, all of the following must apply:
You are a full-time faculty or staff member directly employed by Washington University in St. Louis
You receive paychecks either bi-weekly or monthly
In order to be eligible for the Charge Feature on your employee Bear Bucks account, all the following must apply:
Faculty & Staff Payroll Deduction/Charge Feature
Participation in Bear Bucks is a perk offered by Washington University, not a guaranteed benefit of university employment. Violation of these terms and conditions may result in cancellation of the account.
To sign up for the payroll deduction feature, please fill out the “Payroll Deduct Request” authorization within Atrium Connect. Instructions to do so can be found in the User Guide linked above.
Hourly employees paid biweekly may charge up to $200 per pay period. Salaried employees paid monthly may charge up to $400 per pay period. If purchases in excess of this limit are desired, additional funds can be deposited online via credit card or in-person at the Campus Card Office. Please note that a 3% convenience fee will be added to all credit/debit card deposits.
Authorized payroll deductions are tallied and forwarded to the Payroll Services Office on a regular schedule.
For employees paid biweekly, this occurs every 14 days. All spending during this time is tallied and submitted on the Tuesday prior to the end of the pay period.
For employees paid monthly, this occurs on the 15th day of each month or the nearest business day.
Payroll deductions for Bear Bucks will appear on the payslip as a Post Tax Deduction labeled “Bear Bucks.”
In the event that payroll deductions exceed the value of a paycheck, any excess funds due to the university will be placed in arrears and collected from the following paycheck. If an employee account goes into arrears, it is deactivated until the employee is back in good standing and manually requests reactivation of their account.
Food & Drink purchases on campus are exempted from sales tax when paying with Bear Bucks. Merchandise purchases on campus will be taxed. All off-campus purchases will be taxed.
Bear Bucks are non-refundable and non-transferable.
Separation from the University
In the event of separation from the university, this charge feature will be automatically deactivated on the employee’s account. Any transactions charged prior to separation will be deducted from the final mailed paycheck.
Funds deposited via credit/debit card will remain in the employee account indefinitely while they remain employed with the university. Any remaining funds deposited via credit or debit card are immediately surrendered upon separation from the university and cannot be recovered.
Retirees and Emeritus Faculty who are frequently on campus after retiring from their original capacity may request to have their Bear Bucks Account remain open. Please email campuscard@wustl.edu for further information.
