Top 3 Things Students Want When Paying Tuition

Here are the top three things students and parents want when dealing with their college bills:

1. Digital self-service payment options

   Don’t be offended, but today, parents and students don’t want to talk to someone to make a payment. Our survey revealed that 90 percent of students and parents who pay by calling in or walking into your office would switch to paying you online if they could. They want a few upgrades to your university payment system to make paying online easier, such as:

   – Text message reminders to pay
   – Online answers to billing questions
   – Credit card and ACH payments
   – Incentives

   Implementing these changes and moving these payments online will save your staff time.

2. Interactive and personalized eBilling that answers their questions

   When it comes to billing systems, you can spend less and get more.

   79 percent of students and parents receive tuition bills on their phone or computer. Does your university have this many families using eBilling?

   These eBills save you money. They also offer students bonus features like videos, billing FAQs and personalized messages.

   Unfortunately, 40 percent of families receive both paper and electronic bills. This means you may pay twice to send bills to these families.

   To achieve the cost savings that eBilling offers, follow the lead of a university that achieved 100 percent eBilling. They reached this goal while preventing complaints by communicating the change using: emails, postcards and website messages.

   The top reason people continue to receive papers bills is that they use the paper bill as a reminder to pay. You can address this concern with email and text message reminders that link to the eBill and remind parents and students to pay.

3. The ability to pay with a card, even if there’s a service fee

   The top three things students and parents want when they pay you are:

   – Safety
   – Ease
   – Speed

   To get these benefits, families increasingly pay tuition with credit and debit cards. Millennials especially prefer cards, paying 42 percent of tuition bills with a card and only 5 percent via check. They pay with a card even if there’s a fee to get this service.

   57 percent of colleges and universities don’t let payment processors take a slice of their pie. They avoid paying credit card fees by shifting the expense to those families who want to pay with a card.

   Worried about complaints over the fees? Read how Indiana Wesleyan and Spalding University avoided issues by offering ACH for free.