Getting an offer could be an arduous work, after which it’s even more frustrating to be blocked by paying tuition fee.

 

Major overseas universities attach great importance to the arrival date of tuition fees, and different institutions have different requirements for the payment date. Once there is a delay in the arrival, it could result in penalties, being expelled form schools and other impacts.

 

At the beginning of the new year, 24fall applications have come to an end, and in addition to universities, many primary and secondary schools are also demanding their tuition fees as scheduled, which means that the deadline for tuition payment is around the corner.

 

However the tuition fee payment sounds easy, the operation is a headache.

 

• International wire transfers take 2-3 business days, charge high handling fees, with an extra wire fee of 100-150RMB
• Bank drafts are slow to arrive, with handling fee of 1% of the amount and cumbersome steps
• On-site payment faces cash carrying, exchange trouble, not to mention many schools do not accept this payment method
• Some schools require you to fill out a swift code, which makes it very important to be careful to avoid making mistakes

 

 

Luckily, the Internet era has given us more convenient, safer and more efficient ways to pay your tuition fees.

 

Today, we have chosen 3 of the most popular remittance products to pay tuition fees, which are Alipay, Panda Remit and Easytransfer..

 

At the same time, we will also conduct an in-depth evaluation from the following dimensions: product core elements, user experience, brand awareness, company profile and product safety.

 

 

Product core elements

 

Alipay：🌟🌟🌟🌟

Panda Remit 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Easy Transfer：🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

	Alipay	Panda Remit	Easy Transfer
Arrival time	1-3 workdays	2 minutes at the earliest	48 hours on average
fee	¥150/order	¥80/order	No disclosure（need to contact human agent）
Fee for full amount arrival	¥150/order	Free for limited time	¥150-200（vary from regions）
Remittance license	China：third party payment license Overseas：owning licenses of HK China, Singapore and other partners	China：licenses of cooperative banks Overseas：owning licenses of Singapore, HK China, Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA	China：licenses of cooperative payment institutions, licenses of partners
Safety certification	RSA encryption technology, authenticated by PCI DSS, etc.	RSA encryption technology, authenticated by PCI DSS, etc.	National Information System Security Level Protection -  Level 3 Certification

 

Regarding license, Alipay holds a payment license within China itself, and also holds relevant payment licenses in Hong Kong China and Singapore, and the rest of the remittance are through partners, owning relative advantage. Panda Remit uses domestic banks to carry out services, self-owned license to offer service overseas, relatively weaker at home, stronger abroad. Since the cost of cross-border tuition is still mostly through offshore channels, Panda Remit has a more competitive price. As a domestic veteran of the tuition fee payment agency, Easy Transfer has not yet completed the license work domestically or overseas, only borrows licenses to do work. So it doesn’t have price advantage compare to the other two.

 

From the cost point of view, Panda Remit has more advantages in the handling fee and full amount arrival fee, a remittance saving 80-200 yuan on average. Alipay, Easy Transfer charges are roughly equivalent. From the arrival speed point of view, Panda Remit can be as fast as 2 minutes to receive money while Alipay, Easy Transfer is limited by the capacity of the external partners, causing arrival speed a bit slower.

 

In term of security, the above three have all done the corresponding security certification and data encryption, thus relatively safe.

 

User experience

 

Alipay：3stars

Panda Remit：🌟🌟🌟4 stars

Easy Transfer：🌟🌟🌟4 stars

 

	Alipay	Panda Remit	Easy Transfer
Languages supported	Chinese only	17+ languages	Chinese, English
Customer service	Robot+human agent	7*24  1 for 1 human service agent	7*24  1 for 1 human service agent
Payment methods	Yu'E Bao / balance of account	Bank card	Bank card
Customer terminals	APP, Self-owned Mini-app	APP/H5	Mini-program/PC
How to add schools	Contact customer service to add	Customers can add themselves	Contact customer service to add
Refund channel	Can only refund to balance of account, need handling fee for cashing	Bank card	Bank card
Countries/regions supported for tuition fee payment	UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Korea	UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Korea, New Zealand, Europe, Hong Kong China, Singapore, Japan	UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong China, Singapore, Japan
Whether to support primary/secondary school fees	yes	yes	yes
Number of schools supported	7000+	37000+	2000+
Countries you can send from	China	30+ countries/regions worldwide	China
Currencies supported	RMB only	Support multiple currencies such as RMB, HKD, SGD, JPY, etc.	RMB only

 

Comparing the scope of service, Alipay and Easy Transfer mainly serve Chinese users, so they only support remittance from China to the world, while Panda Remit is a global remittance product that serves global users, so it supports remittance from the most countries/regions. If you have the need to pay fees in other countries, you can only choose Panda Remit, which also has the most available languages.

 

In terms of the number of schools supported, Panda Remit supports 37,000+ schools globally, ranking first, Alipay 7,000+, Easy Transfer 2,000+.

 

In terms of service, Easy Transfer, as an old tuition fee payment platform, has the best service. Basically after users registering for a few minutes, a human agent will come to help customers solve problems and complete the remittance. Although Panda Remit also has a fast follow-up service, it is not as efficient as Easy Transfer. Alipay service is relatively weak compared to the previous two, not timely enough.

 

Brand Awareness

 

Alipay：🌟🌟5 stars

Panda Remit：🌟🌟🌟🌟4 stars

Easy Transfer：🌟🌟🌟🌟4 stars

 

	Alipay	Panda Remit	Easy Transfer
Company profile	HQ: Hangzhou China	HQ：Singapore Subsidiary：Hangzhou China, HK China	HQ：Beijing China
Investors	Wholly owned by Ant Financial	Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Capital, etc.	Tencent, IDG Capital, etc.

 

In term of brand, Alipay is far ahead of the other two as China's largest payment institution, processing billions of dollars in transactions each year, safe and secure. Panda Remit and Easy Transfer are both leading companies in their respective fields and have been invested in by some large investment organizations, but their brands are still much weaker compared to Alipay.

 

All in all, these three products have their own advantages, all of them are the trusted partners on the way to study abroad. If you put most emphasis on safety, you can choose Alipay. If you choose the one that supports the most countries, the most schools, and the most favorable price, choose Panda Remit. If you like the best service, choose Easy Transfer.