Flywire–Student Billing and Payment

Back in the day—read a few months ago—student billing and payment was, in a word or two, an arduous experience for students and their families. How much is owed? How to pay? Where to pay? When to pay—for tuition, room and board, various fees, etc. This whole process required time-consuming toggling between different systems and numerous departments. And in the end, satisfaction was not guaranteed.

Back in the day—read a few months ago—student billing and payment was, in a word or two, an arduous experience for students and their families. How much is owed? How to pay? Where to pay? When to pay—for tuition, room and board, various fees, etc. This whole process required time-consuming toggling between different systems and numerous departments. And in the end, satisfaction was not guaranteed.

Enter Flywire—the simple, easy, efficient bill-paying system that took the arduousness out of the equation. “We were looking for a holistic way for students to look at their entire financial package when making a payment,” said Terence Phalen, director of the Project Management Office. “Flywire is real-time. This is important,” he said, “because when students have financial challenges, their decision as to how and when to make a payment must be supported with the most up-todate information—real-time processing provides that insight.

“When students have financial holds on their class registration, advisors can now see that payment real-time and release the hold immediately, allowing students to proceed with their registration without having to wait for the payment to post.”

Jimmy Sam, bursar, is pleased with the realtime functionality of the system, which, as Phalen indicated, records a payment within minutes. The advantages, he said, are many. “Students can easily see how much they owe,” said Sam. “They have options—full payment, partial payment. They can set up a monthly payment plan with no interest. Flywire is convenient and easy to use.”

UMass Lowell spearheaded the introduction of Flywire on their campus and, supported by the UMass President’s Office, they deployed the new platform to great success. The contract was written in a way that left the door open for both UMass Boston and UMass Dartmouth to join the initiative, which Boston has done and has experienced the same positive outcomes as its sister institution. “On June 1, while in the process of validating the production data,” said Phalen, “we were amazed to see the number of transactions coming through, all successful. It was exciting. By the end of day one, students had posted $821,000 in payments. As of August 31, 2020, students have performed 8,560 transactions totaling $19.5 million in payments. In addition, we have approximately 1,200 students who have taken advantage of the UMass Boston payment plans now available through Flywire.”