Online Parent Payments just got much cheaper

[Schoolcomms]

Hi all,

 

We haven’t posted anything for a while and we are just releasing a pretty innovative new feature in our online payments system and we thought you might be interested: It will save schools A LOT of money.

 

Parent payments in schools is now mainstream. You are probably in the minority now if you are a secondary school and don’t let parents pay for trips, dinner money etc. online, and if you are a primary school you will be in the minority by next year we think.

 

So we wondered if we could do the same for Payments as we did with push notifications for texting – reduce the usage costs. If anything there is a bigger problem in online payments – whereas an SMS might cost 4-8p, transaction charges on payment systems are typically around 30-35p for debit card and 45-60p for credit card.

 

Our existing debit and credit card payment methods are great – lots of people have got a card, many people are familiar with paying online, and we can provide great reports to mean your business manager doesn’t just get a lump of money turn up in their account, not knowing where it came from and what it’s for. Everything can be reconciled back.

 

So we wanted to offer all of that convenience, but… cheaper

 

Turns out we can make it cheaper, much cheaper. In fact we can do it at less than half the cost – just 16p.

 

Instant Bank Transfer will go live for our payments customers next month. When parents pay, they will be presented with the option to pay by Instant Bank Transfer or card. If they opt for Instant Bank Transfer, they will be asked to enter their bank account details and confirm the payment. When they make subsequent purchases they won’t even need to re-enter details just confirm the amount. Even simpler than paying by card.

 

And for the Business Manager – nothing much changes. The reports still show who paid for what and when regardless of what method they chose to pay with. It’s just cheaper than it used to be.

 

We reckon this will save the average secondary school £1000 - £2000 a year vs. using card payments only.

[Edu-IT]

Sounds interesting. Does your software support 'trip management' in that schools can manage pupils on trips, produce reports etc?

[Schoolcomms]

Yes you can set limited number of places for trips, ask for consent, generate reports on all this etc.

 

If you'd like a demonstration or want a free trial just PM me.

[dry]

I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way, but what's the incentive for parents to pay via Bank Transfer instead of card?

 

I'm sure there must be quite a few parents who'd (probably wrongly) feel safer submitting their card details over the internet as opposed to their bank account number- even if it did cost the school more than double to process the transaction.

[Edu-IT]

I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way, but what's the incentive for parents to pay via Bank Transfer instead of card?

 

I'm sure there must be quite a few parents who'd (probably wrongly) feel safer submitting their card details over the internet as opposed to their bank account number- even if it did cost the school more than double to process the transaction.

To a parent, no incentive, unless you charge them the transaction fees in which case this is cheaper for them. It seems.

 

Both methods appear just as secure as each other. The Instant Transfer is covered by the Direct Debit Guarantee as well.

 

Conveniently as pointed out they only have to enter details once. Whether parents consider that a risk or a benefit is down to how they look at online payments and security in general. There will always be parents who are dubious about paying for things online in any way. I don't see this extra option solving that, or adding any obstacles either.

Edited April 17, 2015 by Edu-IT

[Schoolcomms]

It is actually quicker and easier for a parent to make a transaction using Instant Bank Transfer than it is with Debit/Credit card. As many parents are topping up dinner money quite often we think parents will find the slicker checkout process preferable.

 

We don't know what the uptake will be until we launch it at the end of this month, but we've done our research with parents and typically we are seeing similar feedback as with the free app messaging - parents do want to help their schools save money.

 

Also we give our schools "parent packs" which many schools use to help encourage parents to use the service and these will include lots of good stuff about why Instant Bank Transfer is safe, easy and cheaper.