Case studies
Cal Poly Pomona helps students avoid one, large bill with Payment Plans
A tuition bill for higher education is not something students and their families look forward to paying. But options exist that can help ease the pain a bit by breaking down the financial burden into smaller payments over time.
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) collaborated with TouchNet to offer a solution.
“Our entire objective is to ease the burden to the student,” said Patty Higuchi, Director of Student Accounting and Cashiering Services, at Cal Poly Pomona. “It should be easy for the student and relatively stress free.”
While Cal Poly Pomona offers tuition below the national average, at $7,500 for in-state tuition and about $19,300 for out-of-state students for the 2023-2024 academic year, leaders still wanted to make payments as easy as possible.
That’s why the institution began offering Payment Plans from TouchNet for its students. The product allows students, or an authorized user, to break down their bill into small payments. If desired, they can even pay all of their bill before they set foot on campus for their first class. The institution reaches out to students as early as five months before the semester begins, informing them about the option to set up a payment plan. Students don’t pay interest, only monthly payments.
“It improves the students' experience because it makes the payment easier for them without having a giant payment all due on the payment date. So if you owed $5,000, you could break it up into five payments of $1,000 each. That’s good for the student experience, good for the parent experience.”
— Patty Higuchi
Director of Student Accounting and Cashiering Services at Cal Poly Pomona
Fitting the solution to meet student needs
Payment Plans from TouchNet allows institutions to provide different plan options. When exceptions come up, staff can tailor payment plans to individual students’ needs.
“We need that flexibility,” said Higchui. “We can set up a variety of payment plans.”
That includes setting up payments for students who have already graduated or left the institution and still have bills that the institution calls TAP (TouchNet Agreement Plan). Former students or authorized users can pay off past due balances without the fear of the institution sending them to a collections agency.
Payment Plans integrate with the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system at Cal Poly Pomona to recalculate payment plans as activity occurs on the student’s account. Reports also allow administrators to view payment trends and issue alerts and reminders to students.
Higuchi hopes by offering Payment Plans, they’ve helped make students' lives a bit easier and gives them the opportunity to focus on education, as opposed to the fear of a large looming bill.
“There shouldn’t be some gigantic balloon payment at the end. To me personally, that was my goal,” she said.
