Credit Card Processing for Schools in New Jersey

Whether a school is run as a nonprofit entity or a for-profit business, it still has to accept and make payments to ensure that the operations of their enterprise run smoothly. A school has to collect payments from students (more specifically, their parents/guardians) on various accounts. Apart from possible tuition fees, parents pay for field trips, lunches, proms, registration, T-shirts, after-hours care, photographs, yearbooks, club-membership, sports equipment, as well as for participation in events.

In earlier times, cash payments were the norm. Today, the use of cash as a percentage of all payments has gone down across almost all sectors of the economy, and school payments are no exception. People prefer to use plastic or credit cards to make all kinds of payments and if the school wishes to maximize its revenue, they need to opt for this facility too.

Advantages for Schools

Consider some of the big advantages of credit card payments for schools in New Jersey and elsewhere:

• More efficient and swift
• Offers a flexible and convenient solution for parents
• Improves accountability and internal controls
• Less chances of bounced checks
• Less opportunities for offenses like embezzlement by staff
• Provides more visibility for the school’s website by routing people there to make payments
• Funds become immediately available to the school
• Can be integrated into other software so that reports can be generated
• Provides more security and accuracy
• Offers easier payment scheduling
• School doesn’t need to keep large amounts of cash on the premises which can lead to security issues
• No more chasing down past-due accounts

Schools can ensure that payments are made on time through online payment gateways. This improves their efficiency and overall functioning as they get the funds to pay their staff and for meeting running expenses.

Benefits for Parents/Guardians

Schools can set up a convenient and secure payment system that allows parents to make online credit card payments on a regular basis. This system makes it easier to make multiple payments. For instance, if a parent has more than one child in the school, playing different sports and engaging in different activities, credit card payments reduce the complications and make things simpler.

Students and parents find this method easier because:

• They can set up automated payment schedules and ensure that the payments are made on time.
• Parents can also split the payments between different family members: For instance if they’re divorced and share the cost of education. Parents can also share the costs with grandparents or the students, themselves.
• Parents don’t have to worry about accidentally sending their child off to school without their lunch money (or that their lunch money might be taken by a bully).
• Schools that take only cash for lunch from students can potentially face long delays in the lunch line.
• Payments can be made without having to visit a bank or ATM, even at the last minute.

For more information on credit card processing for schools in New Jersey, or to sign up for a merchant account, please call (888) 924-2743 or go to Charge.com.