ACH Payments & Educational Institutions

Schools need better ways to process transactions to improve operations. Tracking down payments for meals and school fees places a burden on administrative staff. Prompt collection of payments for tuition, books, parking, and fees ensures a positive bottom line. Furthermore, institutions can improve the size and frequency of alumni donations with automated payments. If your organization is still using offline payments, isn't it time to look at the best ACH processing solutions?

1. What is ACH for Educational Expenses?

ACH refers to a U.S. financial network that allows the electronic transfer of funds from one account to another. For example, parents can set up an automatic payment from a bank account to their child’s school account to pay for meals weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Parents know their children will have meals, and schools can reduce paper costs and decrease delayed payments.

Here are three ways that VCI’s ACH solutions can help your educational organization.

2. Tuition, Books, and Fees

Offering payment options that make it easy to pay for tuition, books, and fees can reduce late payments.  Not only is ACH processing convenient, but it is a secure way for parents and students to pay for education expenses. They can even set up recurring payments, so bills are never overdue. With VCI’s payment processing solutions, students can purchase parking permits, pay fines, or shop at on-campus stores. It also eliminates the need for students to carry cash.

3. Meal Plans

VCI teamed with MealpayPlus, now MyPaymentPlus, to offer payment options for meals and fees for public schools. The solution lets parents make payments for education expenses to a student’s account over the internet. The money can then be used to pay for meals or school fees. It is convenient for parents and reduces cash handling and payment processing for schools. Other benefits include:

  • Increase participation in meal plans
  • Improve line speed
  • Minimize student balance calls
  • Reduce fraud

Running a school cafeteria is hard enough without adding the burden of payment collection. This solution can also reduce those embarrassing moments when children forget their lunch money.

4. Donations

Fundraising has never been more critical. Letting donors use ACH solutions can not only increase the per donation amount, but it can also turn one-time donors into sustaining ones. People can easily set a donation amount and schedule the payments at set intervals, such as monthly or quarterly. Using a bank account means that ACH payments are less likely to be declined than with cards or checks. With ACH processing, institutions do not have to remind donors to update credit card information. Plus, expiration dates may change on credit cards, but bank accounts don’t expire.

5. Benefits of VCI's ACH Processing Platform

With 20 years of experience, VCI has the expertise to help organizations accept traditional and alternative payment methods. Our solutions provide ways to verify payments, recover funds, and prevent fraud. ACH payment processing is PCI-compliant, which ensures cardholder and transaction data is secure. Our solutions offer organizations the following benefits:

  • Lower administrative costs
  • Reduced payment maintenance
  • Less paperwork and manual processing
  • Flexible reporting

If you are looking for ways to improve your payment processing, contact us for a free cost analysis.

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