RE: Convenience fees

Judy,

We outsourced our credit card payments at Xavier University beginning last
summer to a third party (Sallie Mae). They process all of our credit card
payments over the web and charge the student or parent a 2.5% convenience
fee. We only allow credit card payments via the web. Sallie Mae pays the
merchant fees and keeps the convenience fees which is something we make sure
our families know - we do not make any money from the convenience fees.

We sent a letter (attached) in June of last year to announce the change. I
tried to emphasize the positive but, needless to say, some people's
intelligences were "insulted" at my used car sales approach. We had some
very angry students about this change but less than we expected. We
weathered the storm and got through the initial outburst and now we may
receive 3-4 comments per month. No question that there are several families
quite upset about our decision but they realize that it is done. The bursar
part of me feels that this is quite a hardship on the students and families
while the accountant in me completely understands why we had to do it -
costs were spiraling out of control.

One tip I have is to maintain the ability to process some payments in your
office. We have to process some third party payments via credit cards, so
we still have the ability to process a credit card transaction in our
office. When the outcry was at its passionate peak last fall, we made the
occasional/rare exception and processed a payment in our office but we made
it clear that this would be the absolute last time we would be able to do
this. That strategy helped us quiet the toughest cases and make a friend at
the same time.

Our receivables are up slightly but not enough to call the decision a
failure. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Steve

Steve Schissler
University Bursar
Xavier University
3800 Victory Parkway
Cincinnati, Ohio 45207-3181
513-745-4834
513-745-2926 (fax)
Schisslersg@xavier.edu
  

-----Original Message-----
From: bursar-l-bounces@list.mail.Virginia.EDU
[mailto:bursar-l-bounces@list.mail.Virginia.EDU] On Behalf Of Judith Salyer
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 1:46 PM
To: Bursar-L
Subject: Convenience fees

At Eastern Michigan University, it has been decided that we will no longer
accept credit cards for tuition and fees beginning in fall term (in person
or by mail) and will have a third party processor accept them online for us
with a convenience fee. We are going to send a letter to students and
parents informing them of this change. Has any other school gone through
this process and would you be willing to share how you communicated this to
students/parents?
Any help is truly appreciated.
Judy

--
Judith K Salyer
Assistant Director, Student Business Services Eastern Michigan University
734-487-1476
Transforming leadership: it all comes down to an engagement in which leaders
and followers "raise one another to higher levels of motivation and
morality."