MasterCard Launches Online Facility For Chinese Students

In an effort to make it easier for Chinese students to pay their college fees in the U.S., MasterCard Inc. (NYSE:MA) has launched an online payment site www.plastiq.com/mcuni.

This site has been developed in partnership with Plastiq and Planet Payment. While Plastiq converts Mastercard credit and debit card payments into checks or money orders via its technology, Planet Payment helps in currency conversion.

This first-of-its-kind payments service will help Chinese students and their parents, who face difficulty in paying fees to U.S. universities and colleges given the limited payment methods and currency exchange. Most of the U.S. educational institutions only accept payment via check or electronic bank transfer, making it difficult to manage fees from overseas.

MasterCard is particularly focusing on students from China. This is because the U.S. is a popular destination for higher studies among the Chinese, thus creating a huge market. According to the Institute of International Education’s ‘Open Doors’ Report (2014-2015). China was in the lead with 31% of total international students going to the U.S. followed by 14% Indians and 7% South Koreans.

MasterCard has also teamed up with Plastiq, since it offers an easy operation. The recipients do not require a separate Plastiq account since it processes and makes payments in forms already accepted. It thus eliminates the requirement of maintaining a separate account, making it easy and attractive to use.

On the other hand, Chinese students and their parents are attracted to this service given MasterCard’s strong brand name, security, safety and speed provided by its payment network, especially when a huge sum of money is involved in transaction.

Another money transfer company, Western Union Co. (NYSE:WU) has tie ups with ChinaPay and CITIC Bank in China to allow international students to pay for tuition and education fees in their own currencies.

MasterCard carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in this space are WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX) and Envestnet, Inc. (NYSE:ENV) . While WEX Inc. sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Envestnet carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).