News

U Georgia Launches Secure Vault Payment Service

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 04/29/09

The University of Georgia will be launching Secure Vault Payments (SVP) as a new tuition payment option. SVP is a service developed by NACHA, the non-profit electronics payments association that oversees the Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network, one of the largest electronic payment networks in the world.

U Georgia is one of several universities that will be offering SVP to help remove paper checks from their systems, while also allowing them to receive bank-authorized ACH credit payments. The university is receiving the service through Synovus, a Columbus, GA bank.

"Secure Vault Payments is a great solution for us," said Lisa McCleary, bursar for the university. "SVP is a smarter electronic payment option that lowers our risk, allows us to receive money faster, and helps us keep costly and wasteful paper out of our system."

According to NACHA, SVP offers real-time authorization from consumers' banks. With SVP transactions funds are received within 24 hours via an ACH credit payment.

Consumers are directed to their personal online banking site where they enter their password credentials to authorize the payment and complete the transaction. Secure Vault Payments performs data protection and authentication with the consumers' financial institutions. SVP also eliminates the burden of collecting, storing, and protecting bank information. The college or university never sees the consumers' private financial information. Secure Vault Payments also allows consumers to pay electronically from their bank account, removing paper from the system.