About New College Group
New College Group (NCG) is a language school group with adult centres in Manchester and Liverpool, a year-round centre in Cheshire, and junior campuses in Salford and Portsmouth. Operating for 15 years, NCG welcomes 1800+ of international students annually, with around 60% from the Middle East. NCG has worked with TransferMate for close to a decade.
The Challenge
New College Group faced a number of challenges with international payments – high bank fees, complex reconciliations, and rising fraud risks. Frequent short payments, slow transfers, and limited bank support also strained staff time and disrupted the student experience.
Many students and agents, especially in the Middle East, prefer international bank transfers. However, traditional bank transfers were costly, messy to reconcile, and vulnerable to fraud.
Per-payment fees of £30–£40 compounded into significant annual losses for NCG.
“In a year, it could cost us about £25,000 in bank fees,” says Jake Jones, Head of Admissions at New College Group. “Even though it’s ‘just’ £30 or £40 each time, it adds up fast – and students won’t cover it because they’re charged on their side too.”
Unstructured transfers also created daily reconciliation headaches. Payers’ names rarely matched the students, and shortfalls from intermediary bank fees made amounts unpredictable.
“I’d say 15 in 100 bank transfers are unclear at first glance,” Jake explains. “Every day admissions and accounts sit down to work out who a payment belongs to – digging through emails, remittances, even WhatsApp. It’s slow and frustrating.”
Card payments weren’t a solution either; percentage fees prompted some payers to underpay, leaving NCG to chase differences that could reach hundreds of pounds.
“People think, ‘I’ve paid so much – what’s £30 to you?’ They don’t see that across 1,000 transactions it’s real money. Chasing those small fees is also incredibly time-consuming.”
Operationally, delays and mismatches hurt first impressions with students and agents.
“We’ve had thousands of pounds sitting in limbo. The student arrives and we’re saying ‘you haven’t paid,’ but it’s actually stuck somewhere in the banking chain. That’s a bad start to a student journey.”
Security risks were rising too, from fake remittance receipts used to secure bookings to email-account takeovers that swapped invoice bank details.
“There have been several cases where we’ve been targeted, or agents working with us, with scams. It can potentially cost tens of thousands of pounds. And it seems to be getting more frequent recently.”
Finally, when transfers stalled, getting help from traditional banks was slow and inconclusive.
“You can spend hours trying to reach someone at the bank, and even then, you often hear, ‘It’s not our responsibility unless it hits our account.’ You’re stuck in the middle.”
The Solution
NCG now lists TransferMate as the preferred method in offer letters and invoices, linking to an NCG-branded TransferMate portal. For those who insist on bank transfers, NCG shares TransferMate Global Account details so payments still travel on secure rails – and reconcile cleanly.
“Seeing ‘NCG with TransferMate’ at the top reassures families. For students who just want to pay to a bank account, we give the Global Account details and it still lands correctly. That flexibility helped adoption.”
Transparent pricing in local currencies removes “mystery deductions,” so students know the exact cost and NCG receives the expected amount.
“With TransferMate, students see what they’ll pay in their local currency and there are no hidden fees coming out mid-route. It’s predictable for them and for us.”
Seamless reconciliation replaced manual sleuthing. Payments carry standardised IDs and references into NCG’s Global Account; finance then sweeps funds to operating accounts with a PIN.
“It’s very easy: money lands in the Global Account with clear references, we sweep it over, and we can see who paid what immediately.”
NCG also uses TransferMate’s education dashboard for escrow-backed refunds tied to visa outcomes – building trust and speeding returns to source when needed.
“Escrow is a great selling point – families know if a visa is refused, funds go back to the originating account. It reduces stress and back-and-forth.”
Critically, TransferMate integrates with NCG’s Fidelo CRM and with Adviser powered by TransferMate. When an agent books via Edvisor and pays through TransferMate, the payment auto-posts to Fidelo and auto-allocates to the booking.
“That flow is perfect: Edvisor to TransferMate to Fidelo. We just get a notification that it’s allocated – no manual intervention from admissions or accounts. Plus, we all have access to the same live information. That saves unnecessary communication amongst the teams.”
And when questions arise, TransferMate support answers promptly.
“It’s the best customer service of any provider we use. If a student says they paid and something looks off, I email and get a same-day response – often faster.”
The Results
By making TransferMate its preferred payment partner, New College Group has cut costs, simplified reconciliation, improved security, and created a faster, more transparent payment experience for students, agents, and staff alike.
1. Hard savings and fewer write-offs by moving away from fee-heavy rails.
“Shifting payments onto TransferMate has cut leakage. We’re not absorbing random bank fees or card underpayments like before.”
2. Reconciliation transformed: from “15 in 100 payments unclear” to near-zero noise.
“With bank transfers, we’re investigating every morning. With TransferMate, issues are rare – maybe 1 in 100 – because the references and integrations just work.”
3. Better first impressions for students and agents, thanks to predictable amounts, faster confirmation, and a secure, branded experience.
“We’ve stopped those day-one arguments. Payments show up as expected, and everyone begins on the right foot.”
4. Operational time back to admissions and finance through automation and escrow.
“Adviser payments that auto-allocate into Fidelo have eliminated a chunk of manual work. Refunds via escrow are smoother and more trusted.”
5. Security uplift across the board: verified rails, funds-to-source refunds, fewer off-system transfers, and less exposure to fake remittances or invoice tampering.
“Agents and parents trust the process. Paying through TransferMate means they aren’t worrying about hacked emails or changed bank details.”
6. Support that actually resolves issues – fast.
“If something needs attention, I’m not sitting on hold for three hours. I email and get a real answer quickly. That’s huge.”
The Final Word
“We’ve made TransferMate our trusted, preferred payment option. Students get clear fees in their local currency, our team gets clean reconciliation, and support is exceptional. With the Edvisor and Fidelo integrations, payments auto-allocate – it’s simpler, safer, and more secure for everyone. I recommend it to other schools, especially if you’re wrestling with bank fees, matching issues, or fraud risk.”
– Jake Jones, Head of Admissions at New College Group
If you'd like to know more about how TransferMate Education can simplify payments for your international students, contact the the team today.
