Merchant accounts for every campus department

A dedicated merchant account gives colleges and universities their own merchant ID, pricing built on actual card-network costs, and underwriting that understands your payment patterns. Roots sets up merchant IDs by department under one relationship, so central finance sees every stream. Roots matches you with the right acquiring bank and stays your point of contact after approval.
Talk to a school payments specialistAll colleges & universities solutions
Free 30-minute consultation. Review your setup, compare options and leave with clear next steps.

Payment solutions for colleges & universities

How each solution supports colleges & universities

See what each option adds to the way your business takes and tracks payments.

Service Fees

For colleges & universities: Present service-fee rules clearly when collecting tuition, course enrollments and school activities, with the fee and payment recorded separately. Card networks let eligible government, higher-education tuition and utility merchants charge a disclosed service fee, which is different from a retail surcharge or convenience fee. Tuition under MCC 8220 qualifies for Visa's service fee program, so the college can charge a disclosed fee on card payments and keep ACH free. Roots configures the service fee correctly for your merchant category and checks your state's rules.
  • Confirm your merchant category (including MCC 9311, 9399, 8220, 8249 or 4900) qualifies
  • Check state and local limits on fees
  • Configure fee display and receipts
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ACH Payments

For colleges & universities: Offer bank-account payments for tuition, course enrollments and school activities, with authorization and invoice matching built into the workflow. ACH lets colleges and universities collect tuition, housing, application fees and campus sales directly from a payer's bank account, usually at a lower cost than cards on larger payments. Students and families pay large balances by ACH, which lowers acceptance costs across the bursar's office. Roots sets up ACH with authorization language and fraud controls that meet Nacha's rules.
  • Write compliant authorization language for students and families
  • Set up account verification and return monitoring
  • Help you meet Nacha's 2026 fraud-monitoring requirements
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Transfer initiated

$1,495.00 · ref ACH-7731

Recurring Billing

For colleges & universities: Schedule and manage payments for tuition installments and recurring course fees, including renewals and customer account balances. Recurring billing lets colleges and universities put tuition, housing, application fees and campus sales on an automatic schedule, charged to a saved card or bank account. Monthly payment plans spread each term's balance, on card or ACH autopay. Roots builds the plans, retry rules and notifications, and connects them to your records.
  • Design payment plans (including 10-month or 12-month) for students and families
  • Set retry, dunning and late-fee rules
  • Sync recurring payments to your accounting or management system
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Multi-Currency Payments

For colleges & universities: Collect tuition, course enrollments and school activities in the currencies your customers use and reconcile them against the original order or invoice. International payers are more likely to complete checkout when they see prices in their own currency, and colleges and universities can still settle in U.S. Dollars. International students pay in their home currency and the college settles in dollars. Roots sets up multi-currency pricing and settlement on your account.
  • Identify which currencies your payers use
  • Configure pricing and settlement
  • Explain FX costs clearly
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Payouts

For colleges & universities: Distribute amounts owed to tutors and educational contractors, with payment references matched to student references, tuition balances and enrollment records. Payouts let colleges and universities send money out, whether refunds, disbursements or payments to partners, from one platform instead of paper checks. Credit-balance refunds and stipends go to students by ACH or push-to-card, provided through our licensed banking and money-transmission partners. Roots Payments is not a bank or money transmitter.
  • Design the payout flow and recipient onboarding
  • Connect payouts to your system of record by API or file upload
  • Support recipients and your finance team
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Merchant Account

For colleges & universities: Arrange a processing account for tuition, course enrollments and school activities, with checkout methods matched to how customers pay. A dedicated merchant account gives colleges and universities their own merchant ID, pricing built on actual card-network costs, and underwriting that understands your payment patterns. Roots sets up merchant IDs by department under one relationship, so central finance sees every stream. Roots matches you with the right acquiring bank and stays your point of contact after approval.
  • Review your current statements and model interchange-plus costs
  • Prepare the application and underwriting package
  • Configure terminals, gateway and reporting

Square Point of Sale

For colleges & universities: Bring tuition, course enrollments and school activities into a point-of-sale workflow, with reporting organized around student references, tuition balances and enrollment records. Square Point of Sale is free to download and turns a phone or tablet into a point of sale, so colleges and universities can take tuition, housing, application fees and campus sales in person. Where the institution is eligible, campus retail, cafés and event box offices can run on Square POS. Roots Payments, an independent Square Reseller, helps you choose a plan, configure items and staff access, and train your team.
  • Recommend the right Square plan and devices for how colleges and universities actually take payments
  • Build the item library for tuition, housing, application fees and campus sales, with taxes, discounts and categories set up correctly
  • Configure team permissions, receipts and reporting, then train staff and volunteers
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Square for Retail

For colleges & universities: Connect school merchandise, course materials and student supplies to a retail catalog, stock tracking and customer purchase history. Square for Retail is Square's POS built to manage inventory, sales and customer data, which suits colleges and universities that stock and sell physical goods. Square for Retail handles apparel and supply inventory for eligible campus stores. Roots imports your catalog, sets up vendors and purchase orders, and configures house accounts so staff can start selling on day one.
  • Clean up and import your SKU catalog, variants and barcodes
  • Set up vendors, reorder points and purchase-order workflows
  • Configure house accounts and invoicing for repeat students and families
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Custom Payment Integration

For colleges & universities: Connect the payment flow for tuition, course enrollments and school activities with your software and the operational records behind student references, tuition balances and enrollment records. Payments are only half the job. Colleges & Universities also need each payment posted to the right account, invoice or record automatically. Roots posts payments and refunds to your student information and ERP systems. Roots scopes, builds and supports the integration.
  • Map how payments should post in your system
  • Build, test and host the integration
  • Support and maintain it as systems change
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Merchant Account questions

Questions school administrators ask about payments.
It enables your business to accept card payments through a processing partner. Roots helps compare the options, prepare the application and configure your checkout.
Yes. A free review covers processing charges, payment channels and equipment so you can decide which changes make sense.
Bring your processing statements, payment channels and checkout equipment. Roots uses these details to plan the workflow for colleges & universities and prepare a clear setup scope.
Request a quote for your business and the setup you need. We review the scope and costs with you before you proceed. Consultations and payment reviews are free.

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Talk to a school payments specialistAll colleges & universities solutions