"The City Colleges must scrap its fee-laden debit card program for student loans because the fees are illegal, the U.S. Department of Education said in a recent letter to the district," Chi Town Daily News reports. "In a July 7 letter, the agency wrote that students can't be charged fees for using an ATM or visiting a teller to get their money ... The letter comes two months after the agency first said the existing program was fine. Stephanie Babyak, a spokeswoman at the Education Department, said it reversed its own decision after asking the City Colleges some more questions about the debit card program. While the program was running, the first withdrawal from an ATM or a teller was free but future visits to an ATM cost $2 and talking to a teller cost $10. In May, the Department of Education told the City Colleges the program was acceptable since students had other ways of getting their refund money. They could wait for paper checks or get the funds direct-deposited into a bank account, the agency noted ... Though the City Colleges does not face any sanctions for running the debit card program as it did, the Department of Education said it wants a response from the district about how it will fix the program."