Students will soon be able to view, print and pay their college bills online when the Office of Student Financial Services introduces D-Pay, a new electronic billing and payment system, in the next few weeks. The program will be available for Spring term bills and, once implemented, families will no longer receive paper bills from the College.
All tuition bills will be posted on D-Pay a few weeks before they are due rather than mailed a few weeks before they are due, Ronald Hiser, director of Student Financial Services, said. Students will be able to access the system through Banner Student.
To prepare students for the first round of electronic billing, Student Financial Services will send students an email message that will walk them through the set up of a bill pay account. Students will then be able to invite others, such as parents or guardians, to access the system, view their account and submit payment for the bill. Students and parents will still be able to submit separate checks to the office.
D-Pay allows students to see an electronic copy of their bill, their payment history and any financial holds on their account. They will also be able to submit payment via electronic check or account transfer, print out a copy of their bill and mail in payment or bring Student Financial Services a check.
Students will receive reminder e-mails when a bill is posted and due, Hiser said.
According to Hiser, D-Pay will streamline payment processes for students and the College in a number of ways.
"There will be much less wait time when a student needs to check their account and make a payment. It helps our office and it's good for the environment," Hiser said. "It's also challenging for us and international students when bills are sent overseas, as they don't know -- and we don't know -- how long the bills are taking to get there and whether or not they are even received."
Dartmouth purchased the program from financial services provider Sallie Mae, which administers the electronic billing service to a number of other institutions. Parents of students who attend more than one of these institutions will have a single account that will allow them to access all of their children's bills, if they have been enabled to use the system.
"[The system is used by] hundreds of schools throughout the country, including 12 of the 14 schools we consider Dartmouth's peers," Hiser said.
The Office of Student Financial Services allowed five students to test the program last week in order to solicit feedback on the system's accessibility and usefulness.
"I thought it seemed really accessible and convenient for both students and parents," Brian Howe '10, one of the students to sampmle D-Pay, said.
Ji Hye Ha '11, who also tested the program, agreed.
"It's very efficient," Ha said. "It will reduce the amount of time students spend going to the office or to banks."
The only concern expressed by the five students who tested the program was that technical difficulties might create chaos around billing time. Student Financial Services has worked very hard to test the system for glitches, Hiser said.
"We've waited a good few years to get this system, as most of our peer schools use it already, and they have had good results," said Hiser.
