Late payments are a cash flow nightmare for any organisation – which is why the University of the Western Cape (UWC) turned to payment services provider PayGate to make revenue collection easier and more effective.
“Every year we need to collect millions in student fees, as well as application fees from prospective students,” says UWC’s finance director Shaun Jonkers.
“Making the process easy for students and their families is an important way for us to reduce the risk of late payments.”
Making it easy to pay without travelling to the campus was a critical step, says Jonkers. “We’ve long had credit card facilities at the main campus, but over the past few years more and more people have been wanting to use their credit cards to pay online.”
Processing a credit card payment where the card and the card holder are not present posed risks to the University, notes Jonkers, so his team contacted secure payments provider PayGate.
“PayGate’s secure payment facility, and the support they offered when we started exploring online payment options, convinced us they were the right choice,” says Jonkers. “Our clients can now confidently transact using a secure web platform, which was easy for our staff to implement.”
The value of online payments has more than doubled since the system went online, says Jonkers.
“Setting up an online banking facility was a new challenge for us, but with PayGate’s support we have accomplished something we can be proud of. It puts UWC at the forefront of technology usage when it comes to business processes involving students.”
UWC is now also planning to accept online payments from its alumni network.
