“Students are carrying less cash,” he added. “It’s safer.”

Vasu Vadlamudi ’06, who anticipates frequent visits to Pinocchio’s next year, said he would spend Crimson Cash at the popular pizza establishment because of the convenience.

“If I have some Crimson Cash, it’d be a nice way to get rid of it,” he said.

“You get Crimson Cash for other things that you need,” Alex Potopov ’05 said. “It’s just convenient.”

But students who have grand visions of turning Crimson Cash into booze will be disappointed—alcohol is the one product that may not be purchased through the debit system, HUDS officials said.

Other colleges have implemented similar programs, with debit programs allowing for purchases from local businesses.

Bonosoro, the Uno’s manager, alluded to another benefit of the expansion—for students whose parents provide them with Crimson Cash to make laundry or late-night food cravings a little easier to handle.

“I wish that when I went to school, I could come to Uno’s and have my parents pay for it,” he said with a laugh.

The program didn’t get off to a smooth start at all locations, however.

Late last night, C’est Bon cashier Rene Naloda said the Crimson Cash machines experienced a few glitches.

“We used it for several transactions and now it’s not working,” he said. “I don’t know why.”

Jeffrey Cuppett, manager for card system application technology who worked on the expansion of Crimson Cash, said late last night from New York that the problem could have been caused by merchants buying the technology second-hand.

“We’ve run into some issues,” he said, noting that there is a technology support phone number accessible 24 hours a day.

“We’re improvising with the merchants.”

—Staff writer Alexander J. Blenkinsopp can be reached at blenkins@fas.harvard.edu.