The vendor is required to provide Billing Services for include for services:
- Billing services
• The bidder(s) shall be responsible for handling all written or electronic correspondence and telephone calls dealing with the assigned accounts, including bankruptcy deferments
• Provide electronic copies to agency of the entering repayment, collection referral and paid in full letters sent to debtors.
• Bidder shall produce monthly billing statements that itemize all program types the debtor has onto a single statement.
• Provide a quarterly billing option for a small number of accounts that are being phased out instead of monthly statements
• The billing statement shall indicate the deferment end date
• Bidder shall clearly state the payoff amount and corresponding date this amount was calculated through on each billing statement for all interest-bearing accounts.
- General account management
• Agency shall at all times remain owner of its accounts
• The bidder should accept all types of unpaid accounts referred for billing
• Bidder shall promptly deposit funds collected for the agency into a trust account at a bank, approved by agency, within 2 banking days, following escrow payment schedule provided by agency
- debtor payments
• bidder shall post all payments collected to the debtor’s account no later than one business day after date of receipt.
• bidder shall track “other costs” individually, such as legal fees and returned check charges.
• bidder shall transmit all NSF fees on amounts collected from returned checks to agency.
• Bidder shall negotiate grant programs (college bound scholarship, state need grant, and promise to college) minimum monthly payment amounts only with prior approval from the agency
• Agency director of student financial assistance or their designee shall approve all reduced payment amounts for the conditional loan and loan programs on an individual basis.
• Bidder shall only process the final automated clearing house (ACH) payment to reflect the accurate balance as of the account on the date of payoff.
• The bidder shall provide information to the agency in order that the agency may process all refunds
- bidder system capabilities
• Bidder shall establish, maintain, and monitor adequate internal controls to ensure the accuracy, privacy and integrity of all account data, and protect agency funds throughout the contract period.
• Provide a real-time electronic system allowing the agency access to perform adjustments, add memos and allow editing by original author, straightforward print options, and review of account history including a payment interface between the provider and the agency for auto posting
• Bidder shall ensure that the software system it uses allows look-up by complete social security number or last four digits of social security number and by full or partial name.
• Bidder shall accept various methods of payment including but not limited to, checks, money orders, major credit cards, debit and offer ach withdrawals
• Bidder shall have the capacity to accurately calculate, track and bill multiple rates of interest; simple interest; and multiple types of interest (e.g. fixed or variable), including the ability to change individual account rates and automatically make interest changes for an entire program type based on current interest rate.
• Bidder shall calculate and bill interest consistent with the applicable state and federal laws as directed by the agency.
• Bidder shall ensure that the software system it uses allows for the complete history of each account transaction, billing and communications activity in chronological order.
• Bidder must provide a toll-free phone number for access by agency staff and debtors
• Bidder shall ensure that the software system it uses is available for agency access between the hours of 7:00 am and 7:00 p.m. (PT), excluding weekends and state holidays
• Provide the ability for agency to automate the electronic transfer of new accounts to the bidder’s system using a secure file transfer protocol.
• Provide the ability for agency to automate the electronic download of payments made to accounts to the agency system using a secure file transfer protocol, such as sftp (SSH file transfer protocol.
• Provide the ability to amend any nonpayment transaction and have the loans, conditional loans, or grants returned to the original status before the change was made, tracking the changes in the historical transaction record
• Provide and maintain a user-friendly website for debtors that provides access to services including but not limited to online payment, customer support, agency prepared forms, link to agency repayment web page, and contact information
• Bidder’s website shall provide the ability to display current payoff balance by grant, conditional loan, and loan
• Provide the ability to view and produce a copy of all billing statements.
- Contract Period/Term: 1 year