UnionPay International and Flywire jointly launch zero-commission online tuition payment service

Over 2,000 educational institutions outside mainland China accept UnionPay cards for online tuition payment

2018-01-09

UnionPay International announced today that it has cooperated with the world’s largest online tuition payment platform, Flywire (formerly known as peerTransfer), to jointly offer zero-commission tuition payment service from today to March, 8th, 2018. During the period, UnionPay cards would be the most preferential one among the various payment methods available at Flywire. At present, over 2,000 educational institutions outside mainland China accept UnionPay cards for online tuition payment.

According to the Annual Report on the Development of Chinese Students Studying Abroad (2017) jointly issued by Center for China and Globalization, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China has the largest number of students studying abroad, and Chinese students are studying abroad at a younger age. Over 40% of the international students at the US middle schools come from China, and more than half of the international students at the middle schools in Canada and Australia are Chinese. Students and their families have a greater demand for safe tuition payment service. To meet this demand, UnionPay International is improving its online tuition payment service to solve the customers’ biggest pain point.

Now, students and their families are able to pay tuition fees online with UnionPay cards in two ways: First, is through online payment platforms, including Flywire (covering over 1400 educational institutions) and Western Union (covering more than 900 educational institutions) as well as 6 payment platforms of Bank of Taiwan, Taiwan Cooperative Bank, Chinatrust Bank, Yuanta Bank, First Bank and Chang Hwa Bank (covering about 90% of universities and colleges in Taiwan). Second, is through the official site of some schools, including the over 700 institutions under TMS and TouchNet, as well as Curtin University in Australia and the University of Auckland in New Zealand. It is easy and quick to pay tuition with UnionPay cards online. The funds are credited into the account within two to three working days and are deducted from the cardholders’ accounts in RMB. UnionPay Online Payment adopts multiple security measures and comprehensively ensures the payment security.

Nowadays, more and more students’ families are paying tuition fees on Flywire. In 2017, UnionPay transaction volume on Flywire increased by about 60% year-on-year. Since the amount of tuition fee is quite large, the students’ families are sensitive to the commission fees. Therefore, UnionPay International cooperates with Flywire now to offer zero-commission tuition payment service during this tuition payment peak, providing substantial benefits for the students and their families. UnionPay International will offer more tuition payment benefits for cardholders in the future.

In addition, students can pay for tuition at the POS terminals on campus with UnionPay cards. For instance, about 80 schools in Singapore including Nanyang Technological University are equipped with POS terminals accepting UnionPay cards for tuition and accommodation payment. In Europe, over 100 colleges and universities, private middle schools, primary schools and training institutions in the UK, France, Italy and Spain, including the top three business colleges of IE, ESADE and IESE, accept UnionPay cards for offline tuition payment.

To date, over 23 million merchants and 1.6 million ATMs outside mainland China accept UnionPay cards. UnionPay payment service system has covered all aspects of the overseas students’ life, including online and offline tuition payment, cash withdrawal, daily consumption, travel payment and local card application. UnionPay International is focusing on optimizing its acceptance network around the renowned colleges and universities in major destinations in particular. Now, students are able to make purchase with UnionPay cards at the merchants on campus, withdraw cash at ATMs, and make easy payments at the bookstores, restaurants, supermarkets, drug stores and cinemas near the campus.