Why you Need Held FX Rates in your International Student Payment Plan Solution

One of the biggest gaps that the pandemic has exposed for educational institutions, and their foreign students, is international payment plans. There is demand from educational institutions to find alternatives for processing of international payment plan payments to help students with settlement times and transfer fees, but payments processing is not the only challenge students are facing.

Some fintech’s have created solutions to provide schools an alternative to help international students manage their payment plan payments more efficiently but unfortunately have still left gaps when it comes to payment options, plan flexibility, payment scheduling, and most importantly, protecting students from fluctuating foreign exchange rates, costing them even more money when paying for their higher education.

FX rates are costing students upwards of 5-7% on top of their tuition payments

When international students pay for their tuition to foreign institutions, they are forced to use invoice-only payment plans, making individual international payments on a routine basis. When students make these ongoing payments, not only do they have to pay a large amount of money for their tuition and fees, but in some cases almost 7 percent is added on top when the final transaction is settled and completed due to fluctuating exchange rates.

When it comes to fluctuating exchange rates students are left vulnerable to the market until their payments are completed, sometimes taking up to two weeks, and if their currency becomes unfavorable at settlement time students are left to make up the difference.

Currency fluctuation in the FX market creates a lot of exposure and risk for students, especially when it comes to more exotic currencies, hindering their overall investment in their higher education.

What students need now is cost certainty with held rates

Luckily, one of PayMyTuition’s Payment Wheel solutions that incorporates open banking has the answer to equip schools with an alternative that provides seamless integration of an innovative international payment plan solution, while at the same time, including the option of providing students locked-in FX rates for their payment plans. 

The ability to lock-in FX rates and incorporate open banking into international payments plans is a game changer for colleges and universities as these technologies are an important element of enabling alternative student payment methods, while at the same time eliminating the invoice-only payment plans that students and institutions are forced to rely on today.

Not only will students see a benefit of the held rates, but institutions will be able to validate student information in real-time while simultaneously identifying fund availability with financial position detection technology removing instances of non-sufficient fund payments.

This solution will equip educational institutions with the ability to offer students an enhanced user experience and replace traditional plans with a digital alternative that incorporates personalized payment scheduling with automatic withdrawals to keep students on track with payment commitments and remove any additional fees that would arise from late payments.

A digital payment plan alternative with direct ERP integration

With PayMyTuition’s solution for held rate international payment plans institutions will also be able to manage active plans simply and easily with a fully integrated dashboard directly linking student accounts within the school’s student information systems where they can review payment activities, identify late payments, receive real-time validation of banking information, and preform financial position validation prior to pulling funds.

Utilizing biometric verification technologies, this solution provides institutions enhanced payment processing security, identity authorization, and fraud protection, giving both the school and the student payment safety and peace of mind.

With full real-time integration into institutions student information systems, this solution offers schools and their students a multi-tiered plan enrollment solution where schools can define enrollment criteria at a more detailed level than traditional plans offer today.

In conclusion

Students need an alternative to how they are paying for their education during todays economic client. At PayMyTuition we solve the complex challenges that educational institutions experience with traditional ways of processing student payments with our innovative, next-generation solutions. Contact a member of our team to find out how we can remove the friction within your international or domestic student payments process while simultaneously saving staff resources and eliminating costs.