by The pandemic has made most people prefer contactless or touchless payments. It has pushed people to adapt quickly to these new payment techniques. Even educational institutions have embraced this revolution, giving way for automated payment services. Because of COVID-19, schools, colleges, and universities worldwide had to be closed for an indefinite time, leading to the adoption of remote learning platforms. Hence, parents had to ditch conventional payment methods and welcome frictionless and automated payments services for paying education-related fees in a safe and convenient manner.
You no longer have to wait in long queues or excuse yourself from work to deposit your child’s fees using cash, demand draft, or a cheque. It can now be done on your mobile phone or laptop using one of the payment gateways in India, in the comfort of your home.
Accessible University Payments
Replacing traditional payment systems with digital payment technology can reduce errors and simplify transactions for students and parents. In addition, it can be a boon for students who depend on scholarships and other financial aids for their education. It usually takes up to 3 weeks to deposit these funds using conventional methods, whereas, with mobile or automated payment solutions, you can instantly get the funds deposited.
Employment of digital payments into the educational system drives efficiency and improves the overall experience. In addition, it further helps institutions go paperless in their transactions. Now, let us look at some of the advantages of digital payment systems in the education industry.
- Reduces late payments: Some parents delay the fee payment for various reasons, like having busy schedules, lack of reminders, or a really long commute. An effective online payment system can help an educational institution manage these issues. It will send timely reminders to parents before the due date of fee submission and similar other deadlines. There are many payment gateways in India like Zaakpay, which help in achieving the same.
- Saves administrative time: Without having to stand in a long queue to make the payment of their fees, parents can transfer money using a variety of payment facilities, including net banking, mobile apps, or scanning a payment link (QR code). In addition, digital payments save administrators a lot of time spent in processing payment, as it eliminates counting and handling of wads of cash and storing it in a safe place. Moreover, online payment services ensure a seamless experience for the users. It also lets you right away download fee receipts for your record.
- Saves costs and minimizes chances of theft: Digitizing payments removes educational institutions’ ledgers, registers, fee cards, and other paper-based documents. As a payment system, this is highly cost-effective and saves many types of unnecessary expenses and costs for both institutions and parents. It also saves transportation costs for parents because they don’t have to visit the school or college to make fee payments.
When parents make a payment, the amount directly goes to the institute’s bank account. Bank’s storage and security systems are far safer than any educational institute. This minimizes the risk of theft. Also, parents don’t have to carry cash by employing a digital payment system, which reduces the risk of getting robbed or the money being dropped somewhere by mistake.
In addition, payment gateways like Zaakpay, a PCI-DSS compliant system, ensure that the customer’s sensitive information is handled with utmost safety. They encrypt the cardholder’s data with their Transport Layer Security (TLS), minimizing the scope of data theft.
- Greater value-for-money: Some educational institutes offer cashback, discounts, and special discounts for advance payment of the fee. Hence, a digital payment system can provide more excellent value for money than a traditional payment system.
Apart from providing various payment facilities, a digital payment system also shows real-time analytics, helping users view all the details in a single glance. As a result, many educational institutions are looking to adopt complete digital solutions to provide a seamless experience to students and their parents.
Different Modes of Payment
There are different payment methods that can be used to make digital payments. These may be UPI, net banking, mobile wallets, etc. You can choose the option which is the most suitable for you. Here is a brief description of how each payment method works.
- UPI (Unified Payment Interface): UPI merges various banking services and features into a single platform. The only elements which you require are a UPI ID and PIN to send and receive money. In addition, real-time bank-to-bank payments can also be made with a mobile number or virtual payment address (UPI ID).
You do not even have to remember the receiver’s account number, IFSC code, and bank name. Instead, you can transfer the money just by entering their unique UPI ID. However, you first have to scan the payment link, such as a Quick Response code (QR), to make the payment, and the rest is straightforward.
- Internet banking: Internet banking is an electronic payment system that lets an online financial transaction with the help of the internet. To use internet banking, the customer must have an active account registered with any bank of their choice. Internet banking provides banking services such as fund transfers, deposits, and online bill/fee payments.
Hence, you do not need to visit the bank every time you want to avail a banking service. It is not only highly convenient but also a secure banking method, as it involves unique user IDs and passwords.
In a nutshell, a digital payment system in educational institutions benefits both parents and administrators. It guarantees security, saves time, and enables a quick move towards paperless administrative services in the educational sector. This system results in better management of fees, simplifying fund disbursement processes, and reducing manual errors associated with collection processes. With the advent of many payment gateways in India, like Zaakpay, parents can pay fees in a timely fashion. In addition, educational institutions can maintain records, keep track, and view transaction details whenever needed.
