Higher One, a financial services and payment company focused exclusively on higher education, has expanded the company’s services to include the collection of incoming tuition and fee payments.
Known as OnePay, it is being used by three Higher One clients to accept electronic payments from students, parents, and other family members. With OnePay individuals who want to make payments are given three ways to deliver money to the institution; credit card (American Express, Discover, and MasterCard), echeck/ACH from any existing bank account, or a transfer from a Higher One marketed OneAccount, a no minimum balance, no monthly fee checking account.
“The simplest function should be incoming funds. Students and their families were asking about web check because debit cards usually have limits on them,” said Patricia Noren, director of student financial services and bursar at Dowling College, Long Island, N.Y. “OnePay came along and it was simple both for us to get up and running and for our customers to navigate.”
According to Higher One, the new system was designed to increase choice for the individual making the payment to the student and save the institution money. It accomplishes the latter by decreasing the amount of paperwork and customer service inquiries in the business office. Additionally the institution will avoid the expense of interchange fees by implementing the convenience fee model.
With OnePay, colleges and universities receive the same support they currently receive from Higher One with OneDisburse Refund Management, the company’s streamlined refund distribution process. This means that Higher One markets the program and educates students on how to take advantage of the service, handles any exceptions or returns, assumes responsibility for the security of any sensitive information, and provides customer support for both administrators and the individuals making payments.
“Students and parents can now make payments online when they find it convenient to do so,” said Richard Jacobs, director of student accounts at Flagler College, St. Augustine, Fla. “OnePay is fast and easy to turn on and greatly improves our cashiers’ experience while providing the desired level of service to our students and their parents.”
Implementation of the new service requires no special IT projects and can be completed within a few days.
“Implementation was extremely fast. IT was not involved,” said Noren. “OnePay has performed to our satisfaction. We have received no complaints from the users. OnePay allows the parent, grandparent or spouse to pay without having to log in to our website with the student’s login and password. All they need is the student’s identification number and the payment will go to that account.”
Higher One currently serves over 180 institutions of higher education across the country with its OneDisburse Refund Management service.
More information on OnePay can be found here. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/cr80news-4.gif)
