UNL to offer year-round student payment plan

Families seeking more options on handling tuition, housing and fees payments at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will have a new plan available to spread out payments. Through an agreement with FACTS Tuition Management Co., for the first time student payments may now be automatically handled monthly through bank accounts or credit cards.

The monthly payment program through FACTS is not a loan program, and students and families have no additional debt, no interest or finance charges, and no credit check. The only cost to budget payments is a non-refundable enrollment fee of $20 per semester. FACTS is among the least expensive ways for college students to budget payments. Sign-up information is available on the UNL Web site (www.unl.edu), the UNL Office of Admissions, the Student Accounts Office, and through other student service offices on campus.

"A payment plan option has been requested by students and parents as a way to avoid large lump-sum payments that are required at the beginning of each semester," according to Christine Jackson, UNL vice chancellor for business and finance. By law, the university cannot extend credit or allow bills to go past a set due-date. What the FACTS plan does is allow students to divide their upcoming semester bill into smaller, easier-to-make payments.

FACTS Management Co. employs more than 180 people in its Lincoln headquarters and another 20 in regional offices across the country. The company began by serving a single school in Grand Island, and now serves more than 3,500 colleges, universities, private and faith-based elementary and secondary schools nationwide as part of the Nelnet group.

The FACTS program uses automatic prescheduled payments from bank accounts or credit cards. This will make it possible for students and families to make monthly payments instead of much larger payments-in-full each semester. The payments are processed on a predetermined schedule so payers know in advance when each payment will be made and the amount. This helps UNL families and students more easily budget the monthly payments for their tuition and related expenses.

Tuition and fees are due in September for the fall semester and in February for the spring semester. Students signing up now for FACTS for the 2005 fall semester will have only two months to pay ahead on their fall bill, but will have the remainder of 2005 to pay ahead on their spring 2006 bill.

"This obviously is not going to resolve every student's needs in providing funding for college, but for some, this monthly plan could be a tool to spread payments out and solve some cash-flow or budgeting issues," said Robert Clark, director of student accounts at UNL. "If families can start paying in advance through FACTS, and that helps them budget, then this is a good option that we should provide."

For more information about the FACTS Tuition Payment Plan, go to http://stuaccts.unl.edu, or contact the FACTS Management Co. at (800) 624-7092 or visit www.factsmgt.com.

CONTACTS: Robert Clark, Student Accounts, (402) 472-2887 (rclark1@unl.edu); or
Randy Bretz, FACTS Management, (800) 376-3228