Why We Built International Payment Methods into Transact Integrated Payments

At Transact, we pride ourselves on our International Payments solution. Because we understand the logistics of managing college payments internationally can be challenging, our solution simplifies international payment processing and reconciliation and ensures transactions are secure and compliant. 

The solution supports students from more than 162 countries, accepts 134 currencies, and offers faster disbursements with no additional cost when added to the ePayment or eMarket modules. 

Process payments directly from the student account portal with no international wire fees, same-day fee transfers, real-time account balance updates, and the ability to support multiple international alternative payment vendors are just a few of the highlights of Transact International Payments. 

There are plenty of reasons why we built our integrated Transact International Payment solution. However, the growing demand for a seamless solution reigns supreme and is still the primary reason we are focused on helping more universities implement this solution as part of their campus payments offering. 

Demand for Cross-Border and Global Payments is Growing

Since the 2009/2010 school year, there has been a 40% increase in international student enrollment, making up 5.5% of all U.S. college students. 

Of the international students, 56% of their education was funded by parents and family. Additionally, 60% of all international students receive the majority of their funds from sources outside of the U.S. 

These metrics make it clear that the demand for cross-border global payments is growing. Students, parents, and other international payers need an easy way to make tuition, housing, and other payments from around the world. 

However, as we built our international student payment solution, we knew we needed to provide a seamless user experience so students and administrators could easily and effortlessly make payments. 

Create a Seamless User Experience 

At Transact, all of our solutions are built with students in mind, but we knew international payments needed to cater to both the students, parents and administrators. With a focus on both use cases, Transact is able to create the seamless user experience that sets us apart from our competitors.

To break it down, our solution works like this: 

When a student makes a payment via Transact International Payments, there is no need to open a new web browser tab or create a separate account on a third-party website. The checkout flow is seamless within the Transact integrated payments platform, so users can experience a faster checkout process, and administrators can see a higher conversion rate for international transactions. 

All of this happens behind the scenes with no delays for the student or the school. 

For students and parents, the benefits of using Transact International Payments include: 

• Competitive exchange rates with no international bank wire fees

• Alternative payment options like Alipay, WeChat, Union Pay, etc. (with more added on a as they become available)

• 24/7 multilingual client support 

• One seamless payment platform within the student account portal 

For administrators, the benefits of using Transact International Payments include: 

• A centralized platform for managing global payments and transactions 

• Student Information System integration, including payment entry and data retrieval

• Compliance with global, regional, and local regulations

• Multiple funds disbursement schedules; daily, twice a week, or weekly

Each of these benefits combines to create a simple, streamlined international payment experience with convenient, centralized tools for both students and administrative staff. 

Lessons Learned From Incorporating International Payment Methods into Transact Integrated Payments

As we built our international payment methods into Transact Integrated Payments, we learned plenty of lessons along the way. These lessons helped us build the solution into what it is today. 

One of the biggest lessons learned stemmed from the demand for a seamless integrated solution. 

Once our international payment methods were introduced, the majority of the schools we work with saw the benefits and wanted to implement the solution. While we knew this solution would be in high demand, we weren’t expecting as large of demand as we received. 

However, considering that during the 2019/2020 school year, 225 institutions hosted at least 1,000 international students, the well-received solution shouldn’t have been a surprise. 

We also quickly learned how much the option for a seamless solution impacted the student's decision to attend a university. 

Many students consider international payment options essential and feel that having the ability to use their home country currency to make payments is an added value to attending the university of their choice. It became clear how much students and parents preferred paying in the currency of their choice and the ease of using one seamless payment platform. 

Have Questions About Transact International Payments?

We proudly offer Transact International Payments to universities across the globe. Because demand for this solution is growing, we made it our goal to create a seamless user experience by providing international students an easier way to pay for tuition, eCommerce transactions, housing, student fees, and more.

If an all-in-one international student payment platform will bring value to your campus, contact Transact today! 

We’d love to walk you through the advantages of our international payments platform so you can see exactly how it will benefit your school and its unique needs.