For the 52,000 K-12 international students who attend U.S. private schools every year, tuition isn’t the only payment families have to make before they can begin their studies. That’s where Clifford Allen Associates (CAA) comes in.
Since 1992, the Hilton Head, South Carolina-based agency, founded by Clifford “Cliff” Allen, has been a partner to many of the oldest and most innovative private schools – 200 schools across 35 states – in the country.
The business ensures students can easily access insurance products, including Student Health Insurance Plans (SHIP).
TSS at a glance
Problem: Payment disconnected from e-commerce insurance buying process
CAA makes it easy for international students and families to shop online for student health insurance plans, mandated while they study in the U.S., enabling selections in as little as four clicks. But the point of payment caused friction for both the business and its customers, because:
- Payers were often surprised that credit card payments came with fees. Families most often paid with their local, non-USD credit card, and high fees for currency conversion as well as Foreign Exchange Markup were a common source of complaints. “Payers would call up and ask, “why are you charging me $200?,” Account Executive and Operations Director Johnna Friddell said of the fees. “It’s frustrating because you’re getting blamed for something you have no control over.”
- Separate platforms make it hard to see payment statuses, and matching processes had to be done manually. CAA had separate platforms to process domestic/USD cards and international cards – Worldpay and First Data (now Fiserv), respectively. When payments failed, it was very difficult to get any information on why and resolve the issue.
Solution: Embedded payment experience that is familiar and intuitive
Friddell knew many of their clients used Flywire to manage cross-border tuition payment processes. Enhancing that payment experience so that families already using the platform to pay tuition could also make health insurance payments would be a natural fit. Flywire is now embedded in the insurance purchase workflow, most often in a landing page white-labled for each school CAA partners with.
“Flywire is well-known in the education industry and already serves a lot of our market. Everyone was either already using Flywire or knew about Flywire. It is a perfect fit,” Friddell said. “Students and families like paying for their tuition and insurance on the same platform.”
Benefits: Card fees reduced, processing expenses cut in half, visibility to make data-driven decisions
CAA went live with Flywire in May of 2023, in three weeks, in “one of the smoothest technology implementations we’ve ever done,” Friddell said. Early ROI includes:
- Lower credit card fees for payers. Credit card FX fees have been reduced by 2%. Families can make payments in local currency and payment methods, with a low, transparent fee structure.
- Credit card processing expenses cut by 50%. Competitive processing rates with Flywire help CAA save on various credit card related-fees.
- Dashboard makes it easy to see payment statuses. CAA is saving two hours daily during peak answering payment status questions.
- Streamlined reconciliation. CAA no longer has to manually match statements to invoices and reconcile to the bank account – the process is automated.
- Country-specifics help data-based decision-making. Because they can see exactly what countries the payments are coming from, CAA can spot trends and make business decisions based on data.
“We get a much bigger picture of who we’re marketing to,” Friddell said. - Offloading chargeback and refund management. When CAA discovered it needed to lower its refund threshold limit, Flywire’s customer success team helped in a matter of hours, taking the hassle out of a historically frustrating process.
Future: Growth ahead
With a scalable and flexible payment solution, CAA can handle payments from anywhere in the world – in turn, opening the door to helping more international students access U.S. education.
“Incorporating Flywire will help us grow because it’s so recognized in the education industry, and that makes CAA stronger as well,” Friddell said.
Incorporating Flywire will help us grow because it’s so recognized in the education industry, and that makes us stronger as well.