Online Payments with PayFactory

PayFactory is an online payments processor that lets you accept card and ACH payments through Populi. This article describes the benefits PayFactory may provide for some Populi schools as well as some options unique to this payment gateway.

Does my school qualify for PayFactory?

In order to use Payfactory, your school...

• Must be accredited.
• Must be a Non-profit institution.
• Must not receive a high volume of payments from cards issued outside of the United States.

If you'd like to look into whether PayFactory is available for your school, please contact Populi Support.

What are the benefits of PayFactory?

If you qualify for PayFactory, you can sign up for the service in Financial > Settings > Online Payments. After signing up, it typically takes two to three business days before you are approved and can begin using it.

Processing electronic payments with PayFactory carries several benefits for qualifying Populi customers:

• A very low processing rate of only 2.4% (+ $0.30) for credit cards...
• ...or, for a slightly higher rate, the optional ability to pass all processing fees through to the payer in the form of a dynamic convenience fee. This means that the amount you charge will always exactly equal the amount deposited in your bank account (more below).
• Low-cost ACH (echeck) processing at 0.8% with a $5.00 fee maximum.
• A very short deposit lag time: payouts to your school's bank account take place the next business day
• Transaction and deposit reporting built right into Populi instead of in another provider's website
• Support for 3DS-enabled cards requiring 2-factor authentication or extra authentication steps.
• An easy online signup procedure that takes just a few minutes to complete.
• No additional monthly or hidden fees.

New option: Processing fees paid by customer

As mentioned above, PayFactory gives your school the option to pass all processing fees on to the payer. This option incurs a 3.0% processing rate for cards. A quick illustration:

1. You charge a student $5,000 in tuition and fees.
2. He makes an online payment of $5,150 ($5,000 + $150 in processing fees) with a credit card.
3. The $5,000 goes straight to your bank account. The $150 goes straight to PayFactory without ever touching your books.
4. When reconciling statements, you'll have no need to account for processing fees—those have already been dealt with at the time of the transaction.

If enabled, a convenience fee will be added to all card transactions, including tuition and fees payments, application fees, transcript requests, form fees, donations, and bookstore charges.

If you do not wish to use this option, then the card processing rate will be 2.4%. You can offset this some by using Populi's existing convenience fee setting. However, remember that this setting only affects payments for tuition and fees, not any other kinds of payments (say, application fees or Bookstore charges).

You can choose which option you'd like to use when setting up a payment gateway.

The fine print

As with all payment gateway processors, there are additional fees for various unusual situations.

• Disputed credit card charges that result in a chargeback have a $35.00 fee.
• Failed (returned or bounced) ACH charges have a $1.00 fee.
• The above fees will be debited from your account once a month separately from your deposits.
• International (non-USA bank issued) cards incur an additional 1.0% processing fee.
• And, of course, your relationship with PayFactory is governed by their Terms and Conditions. Anything stated there over-rules anything written here, so please read their documents carefully to understand the agreement you enter into with them.