Why Open Banking is Changing the Game for International Payment Plans

Open banking is a game changer for the international student payment plan space. This innovative technology is an important element within the emergence of alternative student payment methods bringing significant benefits for colleges and universities, while at the same time eliminating the challenges associated with the traditional ways of making and processing international tuition and fees payments for students and institutions.

The challenges institutions and students face with international payment plans

Traditional international payment plans force schools to rely on an invoice-only payment process where students are left to make routine international wire transfers at their local financial institutions. This process leaves a large window for students to forget payment deadlines and if due dates are missed, additional late fees are then charged to the student.

Even if the student does remember to make the transfer on time, the process to settle the transaction is not only time consuming for the school, but the manual intervention process opens space for human error with payments usually arriving much later than scheduled due date, causing financial headaches and burdensome levels of admin for students and universities alike.

How open banking can help

Solutions that incorporate open banking technologies can provide institutions with safe, fast, and accurate payments processing, while at the same time, remove the manual invoice-only payment plans that traditionally lay all the burden of remembering to make tuition and fee payments upon the student.

Innovative products from fintechs like PayMyTuition fill a gap within the international student payments space allowing students to make international tuition payments without having to remember to make routine wire transfers at their local bank. These solutions enable education partners to facilitate more accurate payments using embedded identifiers that can be instantly matched to the right student account, providing an efficient way to facilitate education payments in real-time.

PayMyTuition’s open banking solution for higher education

PayMyTuition’s open banking solution for international payment plans equips educational institutions with the ability to offer students an enhanced user experience, enables direct local in-country ACH debit capabilities eliminating interchange fees from using credit cards and e-wallets, and removes the friction that students experience with having to remember routine tuition payment due dates saving them from having to pay additional fees to the school.

Instant funds availability with real-time financial positioning technology

Through a financial data API, both student data and funds availability will be instantly authenticated for schools ensuring faster and easier tuition and fee payment transactions can be made. This solution, that is fully equipped with direct API integration into a school’s student information system, protects schools and students against overdraft and NSF fees with real-time funds verification and balance checks of student banking accounts before any transfer can be initiated.

Student payment plan scheduling with automatic withdrawals

This solution allows both schools, and their students, to no longer rely on invoice-only payment plans, but institutions can now provide students access to a payment plan schedule feature with automatic withdrawal functionality. This solution enables better payments management, reminders so students can actively manage plans and allows schools to be proactive with their receivables, creating a highly efficient payments process saving both the student and institution time and money

Adopting contactless payments combined with open banking technologies is the next step for educational institutions to provide student choice, remove payment friction and support attrition rates during these trying times. PayMyTuition’s open banking solution for international payment plans is enabled in over 80 countries globally.

In conclusion

Students need an alternative to how they are paying for their education today. 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 and domestic student payments business while saving staff resources and eliminating costs.