Two-thirds of the vending machines on campus will accept credit cards as a form of payment by mid-March.
Some readers for the vending machines are already being installed, starting north and working their way south of campus, Director of Business Services Matt Stephenson said.
"We worked with the vending company and they said we would get so many, so we won't be able to install the readers on all vending machines on campus," he said.
The credit and debit card readers will accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. The vending machines will also continue to accept cash.
The placement of card readers on vending machines was planned for the convenience of consumers, as many more people carry around cards instead of cash, Stephenson said.
"And it's not just the students, but we do it for the faculty members and visitors on campus," he said.
In an e-mail sent to students through the Ball State Communications Center, the purchasing department said that consumers should be aware of a $3 hold that will be placed on a credit or debit card each time it is used regardless of the purchase amount to insure funds are available in the account. The hold will be released by the bank after the transaction has been processed.
Consumers will not be charged if a product does not vend, but the account will still have a $3 hold until released by the bank.
"The reason we put that [in the e-mail] was because of some people that run close to a $0 balance," Stephenson said. "[The $3 hold] is a vending rule, not a campus rule."
Since vending machine card readers use cellular technology, the locations of the new readers are decided on the areas of campus where card reader signal is most abundant.
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