Harvard Switches to Electronic Billing

Beginning in the fall semester, Harvard students late with their tuition payments will no longer be able to claim their termbill “got lost in the mail.”

In September, the Student Receivables Office (SRO) will issue termbills exclusively over the internet to decrease costs and increase flexibility in payment, said SRO student billing supervisor Mary Jo Keaney.

Each month, students will receive an e-mail notification reminding them to check their payment status, Keaney said. Students will be able to view their balance and pay tuition costs at a website powered by infiNET Solutions, which provides similar services for 40 other universities, according to infiNET Solutions marketing manager Alyssa Kattner.

Although students received their first termbill e-mail notifications late last week, they will continue to receive paper invoices through the end of the summer in a transition from paper to internet billing, Keaney said.

Keaney said the SRO was asked to examine the feasibility of online billing last September. She said the SRO identified several advantages of making the switch.

For the University, moving away from paper billing will save $65,000 annually in printing and shipping costs, Keaney said.

But Keaney said the SRO found benefits for students and their families, too.

Unlike the paper bills, the electronic tuition statements will be accessible to anyone with Internet access across the globe and can be paid at any time of day, Keaney said.

“One student paid after watching fireworks on July 4,” Keaney said.

The SRO and Office of Admissions and Financial Aid will collaborate to identify students without internet access so that they can be sent termbills in the mail, Keaney said.

Another departure from the traditional billing system is that only students are initially designated to view and pay the internet statements by accessing the Faculty of Arts and Sciences portal. Students must create individual identities and passwords for parents and others who are in a position to pay tuition fees.

The internet billing software was designed to comply with the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which makes students the sole owners of their termbill information unless they opt to allow others to view it as well, Kattner said.

The infiNET Solutions software is also compliant with the federal American Disabilities Act, Kattner said. She said the software is automatically activated by web browsers commonly utilized by people with impaired vision to verbally present the website information.

Keaney said the SRO and Student Disabilities Office would ensure that visually impaired students would be able to pay their tuition fees, even if that means sending paper bills to their parents.

The infiNET Solutions software can also create larger click buttons on the website to accommodate people with motor control disabilities, Kattner said.

Keaney said the SRO was partially influenced to switch to internet billing because of its increased prevalence.

She said MIT, Northwestern and Johns Hopkins all recommended the infiNET Solutions software.

MIT began to bill exclusively online using infiNET Solutions software in February, said MIT student financial services spokesperson Cynthia Stanton. She said the online payment system has been well received.

Keaney said students will not be able to pay their tuitions via credit card—as was the case with paper bills.

“Credit card debt is nothing the University is interested in having students incur to pay for their educations,” Keaney said.

She added that Harvard does not want to pay a 3 percent transaction fee to credit card companies.

Students and other authorized payers can have tuition fees deducted from their bank accounts using the internet payment option, Keaney said.

Kattner said families that opt to pay their bills online can be assured that their information is secure. The banking and routing numbers to checking accounts are stored in a secure vault in Chicago, she said.

Kattner added that the infiNET Solutions software has never been hacked.

Families that prefer not to pay over the internet can print out copies of tuition invoices from the internet and mail payments to the SRO, Keaney said.

Students who dislike the internet billing option altogether and want to continue to receive invoices by mail can fill out a waiver form in the SRO office at the Holyoke Center, Keaney said.

—Staff writer Alan J. Tabak can be reached at tabak@fas.harvard.edu.