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Best payment gateways for the education sector

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The GoCardless content team comprises a group of subject-matter experts in multiple fields from across GoCardless. The authors and reviewers work in the sales, marketing, legal, and finance departments. All have in-depth knowledge and experience in various aspects of payment scheme technology and the operating rules applicable to each. The team holds expertise in the well-established payment schemes such as UK Direct Debit, the European SEPA scheme, and the US ACH scheme, as well as in schemes operating in Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand. See full bio

Last editedJan 20232 min read

Almost all organizations need access to some kind of payment and billing system, including nonprofit organizations like universities and colleges. But while the education industry is fast-moving and deals with a broad range of payment types that – in an ideal world – would be met with an agile and intuitive payments solution, many schools continue to labor under outdated payments systems.

While some organizations work with payments technology that isn’t best suited to their particular needs, other educational institutions persist with a confusing mélange of paperless and digital technology that students and payors find difficult to deal with, leading to high levels of customer dissatisfaction.

That’s why it can pay dividends for businesses in the education space to invest in a payment gateway that’s tailored to their particular industry. We’ve put together a guide to the best school payment gateways and payment gateways foreducation, giving you the insight you need to select a payment and billing solution that works for you.

What is a payment gateway?

Payment gateways are tools that companies use to validate and approve a customer’s credit card information, enabling businesses to make and accept online payments. This makes them extremely beneficial for any business that can benefit from receiving payments online. With digitalization continuing apace, online payment and billing solutions are less labor-intensive, cheaper and offer greater customer satisfaction, making payment gateways a must-have for businesses across a broad range of verticals, including those in the education sector.

Payment gateways for educational institutes

Education is an extremely diverse, continually growing industry. It encompasses a broad range of potential payments, including exam charges, school fee payments, college fees, and so on. As such, businesses in the education industry require an integrated payment system that can accept payments from a broad range of preferred payment methods, including card payments, QR code, Google/Apple Pay, etc. Payment gateways for educational institutes need to be flexible enough to accommodate all of these potential payment methods. Furthermore, for organizations that are on the road to becoming a cashless school, a school payment gateway is absolutely non-negotiable.

Higher education payment gateways

Of course, payment gateways for the education industry encompass both higher education and secondary education, while there are also apprenticeship payment systems for individuals taking a more practical and work-oriented route. Lower education and higher education deal with different types of payments, with higher education institutes dealing with more complex and diverse payments like tuition fees, alumni donations, accommodation fees, and loans. As such, it may be necessary for institutions in the higher education space to invest in a higher education payment gateway that’s fine tuned to the tertiary education space in order to get the specific support that they require.

Best payment gateways for the education industry

There are a broad range of school payment gateways and higher education payment gateways to consider for businesses looking to improve their payments and billing credentials. Here are some of the best options on the market today:

GoCardless
Salesforce Elevate
Paya
Razorpay
Illumine
Rediker Software
SchoolCues
Community Brands

All of these payment solutions have strengths and weaknesses, which means that it can be beneficial to take some time to research every option and settle on the one that’s perfectly suited to the needs of your specific educational organization.

How can GoCardless help with payments for the educational sector?

When it comes to collecting recurring payments (like tuition fees, membership costs, account balance payments, accommodation fees, and so on) via ACH Debit, GoCardless is an ideal solution. Our payment gateway for the education industry is a great way to reduce both costs and admin, and since it enables businesses to pull payment directly from customer bank accounts, it’s far less likely to result in cash flow issues or late payments. In fact, businesses that use GoCardless spend as much as 59% less time managing payments than businesses that don’t, ensuring that your time can be spent on more productive, student and customer-facing issues.

We can help

GoCardless is a global payments solution that helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of financial admin your team needs to deal with. Find out how GoCardless can help you with one-off or recurring payments.