RECURRING CARD PAYMENTS (RCP)

The Recurring Card Payment system addresses the need for universities and colleges to securely store and process credit and debit card details on a recurring/ repeat basis for payments such as tuition fees, accommodation fees, subscriptions or donations.

THE RECURRING CARD PAYMENTS SYSTEM IS A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE TO OLD FASHIONED, NON SECURE, TIME CONSUMING, PAPER BASED PAYMENT PROCESSES.

The Recurring Card Payment system provides a facility for users to enter their payment details directly via the web and authorises them in real-time. It also manages the payment collection process and features a secure web-based administration tool to allow administrators to easily create and amend payment instructions, generate correspondence and view detailed reports while streamlining current payment processes.

SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE ADMINISTRATION AND CUT DOWN ON THE MAN HOURS SPENT MANUALLY KEYING IN CREDIT/ DEBIT CARD INSTALMENTS.

WPM Education's Recurring Card Payments system reduces and completely removes a number of manual tasks which equate to significant administration overheads such as:

1. The collection and entry of payment details
   The WPM Education RCP system passes the responsibility for the entry of payment details away from your finance staff and into the hands of the payee.


2. Ongoing amendment of payment details and amounts
   The WPM Education RCP system automatically updates payment details and amounts removing the need to update these manually for changes to debt payable or payment plan options.


3. Manual processing of payments including trying cards more than once
   The WPM Education RCP System removes the need to manually enter any card payment details and can store payment details using PCI DSS compliant encryption meaning a payee only ever needs to enter their details once.


4. Dealing with expired cards and the creation of any ensuing correspondence
   These tasks are not only time consuming and costly but there are sensitive security issues surrounding them.

CONFORMS TO PAYMENT CARD INDUSTRY DATA SECURITY STANDARD (PCI DSS)

As more and more stories of leaked and lost customer data hit the headlines and heightened importance being placed on the PCI Data Security Standard, it is now more of an issue than ever for institutions to hold hard copy and electronic card details in a secure manner.

The Recurring Card Payment System addresses the sensitive security issues associated with holding card details in hard copy or electronic format. The system stores card details in an encrypted form removing the risk from your institution as the system conforms to Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). It enables your payers to easily and simply set up payment instructions without requiring staff. Users gain an efficient and convenient way to make recurring payments online while exceeding customer expectations.

NO THIRD PARTY COSTS

At peak times in the student calendar there is often a requirement for additional card processing terminals, temporary staff and potentially the cost of specific software to process recurring card payments. There are no third party costs involved with using the Recurring Card Payment system, WPM Education requires no additional hardware or software as transactions can be processed through the same merchant account as 'real-time' card payments.

PRE-DEFINED PLAN TEMPLATES

Payers can set up plans based on pre-defined plan templates which can use both pre-defined dates and payment splitting or dynamic logic, for example; allowing a parent to set up a payment instruction for their son or daughter's accommodation fees which will be collected via three payments on 1^st November, 1^st February and 1^st April respectively with the full amount being split evenly between the three instalments.

PROCESS DIFFERENT PAYMENT TYPES

The system can be used to process different payment types, including fixed instalments such as tuition or accommodation fees, as well as recurring payments such as subscriptions (e.g. for a sports centre or magazine) or donations. This is in addition to setting up and processing one-off and ad hoc payments on a card which does not necessarily have to be related to a specific debt.

The system can also cater for the automated update of payment plan instalment amounts dependent on the user's current debt. This means that it can respond to changes in, for example, tuition and accommodation fee balances in cases where a partial payment is made by alternative methods, a tuition fee being reassessed or a student moves accommodation to a different rate band.

SUPPORTS VISA ACCOUNT UPDATER (VAU)

The Visa Account Updater (VAU) and Stop Service and the MasterCard Automatic Billing Updater Service should be used for recurring payments as this reduces potential additional charges levied in connection with Customer Not Present (CNP) transactions.

WPM Education Account Updater supports both the Visa Account Updater (VAU) and MasterCard Automatic Billing Updater services which enable the automatic updating of account information electronically from participating issuers.

Please note: Recurring payments are sometimes also referred to as continuous authority payments, recurring billing or similar terms. In essence they refer to the same principle of taking one or more payments at a future date from a payer's card once they have provided you with the authority to do so.

In general, it is advisable to process continuous authority / recurring billing transactions using a different merchant account to allow your payment service provider and acquirer to easily identify these as being different from normal e-commerce card transactions.