“Students should know their low-cost options to access their student loans and scholarships,” he said. “Because we hear that many students don’t always know that there are alternatives. And we want that to be clear for them.”

Federal financial aid is sent directly to colleges, which take the payments due and disburse the remainder to students. But now, many colleges have hired outside financial institutions to perform those functions and encourage students to keep their money with those institutions. As a result, banks and financial firms have “an unprecedented opportunity to market add-on products — bank accounts, A.T.M./debit cards and even loans and credit cards — to students with virtually no competition,” the report said. Students may also be charged automated teller machine fees to access their financial aid funds.

The biggest player in the field is Higher One, which was started by three Yale undergraduates in 2000 and now has contracts with 520 college campuses, the report says. The company’s fees have prompted complaints at Western Washington University and a handful of other campuses.

But Miles Lasater, one of the co-founders, said his company has provided a valuable service for colleges and universities and a good deal for students. Student accounts are meant to be free, he said, and students are charged only for optional services.

For instance, account holders are charged $29 for overdrawing their account once and $38 for subsequent overdrafts, 50 cents for making a debit transaction using a personal identification number, and $2.50 for using a non-Higher One A.T.M.

“I think the important thing is to compare it to the alternative,” he said. “The alternative for students isn’t somehow magically nothing.”

The report highlighted a deal between Ohio State University and Huntington Bank, which pays the university $25 million in exchange for allowing it to open branches and A.T.M.’s on campus and “exclusive access to directly offer tailored products and services to more than 600,000 students, faculty, staff and alumni,” according to the university. Ohio State has called the partnership an innovative way to raise new revenue, since the state’s contribution to the university budget has sharply declined.