FACTS AU Payment Plans Parent FAQ’s

FACTS AU Payment Plans Parent FAQ’s

FACTS works with schools across Australia to provide tuition management services that make education more affordable. Through our programs, parents can pay tuition and fees over time, using a variety of payment methods, making it easier to afford a quality education for their children.

Depending on your school’s payment options, you may have the option to use your credit/debit card, bank account (ACH), or American Express.

Note: some or all of these options may incur a surcharge or transaction fee. Please contact your school if you are unsure. When setting up your payment plan, this information should be disclosed at the time.

If you wish to pay via Bpay or Cheque, you will need to enquire with the school. FACTS do not have this information.

Should your school have the Prepay function available, you will have a separate box on your home page called Prepay. To make a prepayment, click Add Funds and follow the prompts.

Notes:

  1. Making a prepayment does not automatically go towards your next payment. If you would like to pay your next payment before it is due, click Make a Payment.
  2. If you would like to have your prepay moved to your next payment, please contact your school to facilitate the transfer.

On your home page, click “Make a Payment”. Click the relevant payments you wish to pay towards.

If you select “Other Amount”, your scheduled payments will appear in a list. Put in the amount you’re wanting to contribute to each payment.

Note: You are not able to make a lump sum payment and have the rest of your payments recalculate. If you wish to make a lump sum payment, you can do this using the instructions above, with contributions against multiple payments. To recalculate your payments, please contact the school to update your schedule.

To access your Tax Receipt Summary, on your home page, click “View Details” in the “Payment Plan & Billing” box. At the top of the page, click the “View Tax Receipt Summary” button. This page shows you the summary for the current financial year, but you can change it to Date Range and select the date you’re after. You can then print this page.

Note: If you need a more broken down summary, please contact your school.

When you save your financial details in FACTS Tuition Management, the details of your financial account are not saved. Only a token of the details is saved, which can only be used by FACTS and by the bank as a pre-authorisation for direct debits in FACTS. Once your details are saved, FACTS Support and the school are NOT able to see the details of the account.

Any information you share with us is completely confidential. We do not share any information with unauthorized third parties.

If you already have an account with FACTS, and you commence at a new school, you can log in using the same login details.

When you receive the invite for your new school, you will have the option to sign in, or to login with your current details. Select to login using your current details.
You can then switch between schools using the blue dropdown at the top of the screen.

Note: if you are logging in via SSO (your school’s platform), you will not be able to do this and will need to have two separate logins.

If you happen to forget your username or password, after you’ve clicked the “Sign in” button, towards the bottom of the sign in box, you will have a link to “Forgot Username / Password”. Enter in your email address. If the email address you input is associated with your account, you will receive an email with a code to use to reset your password.

First, double check the login details you are inputting; make sure your Caps Lock isn’t turned on, as passwords are case-sensitive.

Notes:

  1. If you are logging in via your school’s SSO, you will need to contact your school to reset your password or retrieve your username, as it will be there where you will need to log into your FACTS account.
  2. Sometimes the email with the code to login can take up to 15 minutes to arrive. Be sure to check your spam or junk folders, and check the folders in your email account.
  3. If you have a new email address, but have not updated this in FACTS, you will either need to check your old email, or contact FACTS Support to update your email address.

You can be locked out of your FACTS account after too many login attempts. You can either wait until it is unlocked or use the “Forgot username / password” link.

When we receive your agreement, we send you an email confirming the original terms of your agreement. This includes your payment amount, balance due, and date your payments begin. Payments will continue until the total balance is paid in full.

As per the Terms & Conditions of your payment plan (CHANGES TO AGREEMENTS, Section C), if you send an email through to [email protected], the support team will terminate your agreement. Upon termination, the support team will notify your school, who will likely be in touch with you to settle your balance.

Note: we strongly advise to contact your school before requesting to terminate your agreement.

If an enrollment fee is due, the amount of the fee is indicated when setting up your agreement. If applicable, the non-refundable FACTS Enrollment Fee will be automatically processed within 14 days of the agreement being posted to the FACTS system.

No, FACTS does not do any credit reporting.

A Unique Code is used for setting up payment plans.

Depending on your school’s model, you will receive an email invite to set up an agreement. In this email, you should have a Unique Code, but you should not need it, as you will be able to use the unique link embedded in the button in the email.

If you do not receive the email invite in these cases, you will not be able to set up an agreement.

If you are being asked for a District Code, you are using the US login, which will not work for Australian schools. Please make sure you are using the Australian login.

Currently there is no FACTS app available for FACTS Australia users.

For those on weekly or fortnightly payment plans, a missed payment will NOT be automatically reattempted. You will need to log in to make this payment or contact your school to discuss.

For those on monthly, termly, or annual payment plans, a missed payment will automatically reschedule to 15 days later (depending on bank processing days – not weekends or public holidays). The payment will reattempt 3 times before moving to an Unresolved status. At this point, you will either need to log in to make this payment or contact your school to discuss.

Provided you ticked to receive payment reminders, you should receive a payment reminder email a few days before your scheduled payment.

If you are not receiving the reminders and would like to, log into your account, go to My Profile and Communication Settings. Tick the box next to Email and save.

Log into your FACTS account, go to “My Profile” on the left side, and click “Edit” at the top of the “Contact Information” box.

Note: You can also change your authentication questions on this page, and set up Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) for your account.

On your home page, click the Actions dropdown, and then “Set up Automatic Payments”. This will send you to a page where you can select any saved financial accounts, or add a new financial account. You will then be asked to review your payments.

Notes:

  1. If there are past due payments, you will need to pay these to continue.
  2. You will not be able to change the frequency of your payment plan. Please contact your school to get you payment frequency altered.

There may be occasions where the owner of the account may need to change (e.g. one parent may pay the first semester, and another may pay the second semester). To do this, go to your home page, and click the Actions dropdown then click “Request a New Plan Owner”. If the other plan owner is already an Authorized Party, you can select them. If not, you will need to add them as an Authorized Party.

Once you click “Save”, this will send an invitation to the Authorized Party to take over the agreement. They will be required to enter their own financial details, but their plan will remain the same. To change this, they will need to contact the school.

It is at the school’s discretion whether they split your account; you will need to contact them to see if this is possible.

Alternatively, you can set up one party as an Authorized Party. There are 2 methods to do this:

  • On your home page, under the box with your name, click “Add an Authorized Party”
  • Go to “My Profile”, and click Edit on “Manage Payers”

Enter the information of the Authorized Party, including an authorisation question and answer. Once you click Save, an email invite will be sent to the Authorized Party to set up their account.

Notes:

  • Login details should not be shared.
  • Authorized Parties can’t set up payment plans, but they can make contributions towards your payment plan. Please see “How can I change the plan owner?” if your Authorized Party needs to take over payments.

An Authorized Party may be someone who wishes to make contributions towards your child’s school fees (e.g. a grandparent, or a friend).

To add an Authorized Party, there are 2 methods:

  • On your home page, under the box with your name, click “Add an Authorized Party”
  • Go to “My Profile”, and click Edit on “Manage Payers”

In both areas, enter the information of the Authorized Party, including an authorisation question and answer. Once you click Save, an email invite will be sent to the Authorized Party to set up their account.

Once an Authorized Party is set up, they can make payments through the “Make a Payment”.

Notes:

  • Login details should not be shared.
  • Authorized Parties can’t set up payment plans, but they can make contributions towards your payment plan.

If you miss a payment, a $33 (subject to change) fee will likely be assessed.

To avoid this returned payment fee, ensure your financial account details are correct, and that you have the funds available for the payment.

If you believe the balance on your account is incorrect, you will need to contact the school to enquire and request an adjustment.

If the payment went through on the wrong bank account, there are a few options, but the payment is not able to be cancelled after the attempt.

  1. Contact the school for a refund. It is at the discretion of the school whether they process a refund or not.
  2. In your current bank account, transfer the funds over to the incorrect account.
  3. If the account is no longer active, the payment is likely to bounce. In this case, the payment will show as past due in your FACTS account, and a returned payment fee will likely be assessed.

Some schools have the option to delay up to 3 payments up to 5 business days. If this is available, go to the “Schedule” tab (under Home > View Details). If you are able to change your payments yourself, you will have a link to “Change Payment Date” beneath the due date of the payment.

Note: If this is not available, you will need to contact your school to ask if it is possible to delay your payment. The school will be able to do so on their end if they authorise the change.

If you miss a payment, you will receive an email from FACTS to notify you, and you may have a returned payment fee assessed.

You can make the payment by clicking the “Make a Payment” button on your home page, and selecting to pay the past due balance.

Some accounts are not able to be used for direct debit, or may be restricted for use. Please check this before your next payment.

Please make sure to check your financial details are correct, and that you have funds ready for the payment to ensure your payments are not missed.

If you are paying via bank account, there is a bank clearing period of up to 5 days.

If the delay has passed without the payment showing in your bank account, or if you’re paying via credit card, check the following:

  • Check you had a payment scheduled
    • Go to your “Schedule” tab, and click “View Full Schedule” – this will show all upcoming and past scheduled payments.
  • Check the correct financial account has been added against the payment activity
    • Go to “Financial Accounts”, locate the details for the financial account and check that your current agreement is listed as a payment activity.

When you make a manual payment (i.e. by clicking “Make A Payment” on “Home”), you will automatically be taken to a “Thank You” page. You can print this page.

Alternatively, you can go to the “Payments Made” tab under “View Details” and click “View Confirmation” on the payment. For automatic payments, you can click “Payment”.

Your entire balance due will show on your home page in the “Payment Plan & Billing” box. For more details, you can go to “View Details” in the top right corner of the box, and navigate to the “Balances” tab.

Log into your FACTS account, go to “Home”. In the top right of your “Payment Plan & Billing” box, you will have a “View Details” link; click this. Navigate to the “Schedule” tab.

You can a expand the scheduled payments to view the details.

Log into your FACTS account, go to “Home”. In the top right of your “Payment Plan & Billing” box, click the “View Details” link. Navigate to the “Payments Made” tab.

You can adjust the period displayed, and expand the payments to view details.

Log into your FACTS account, go to “Home”. Against your current payment plan, you will have an “Actions” dropdown. Under this, you will have the option to “Change Financial Account”. Follow the prompts to update your credit card/bank account.

Note: If you have completed your payment plan, you will be unable to update your financial details (until a new charge is added or your plan is renewed).