BOSTON, Aug. 03, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Flywire and Volvo Car USA today announced an agreement to support international receivables for Volvo’s US sales organization including a new program at Volvo that makes it easier for international students attending schools in the US to lease and pay for vehicles. Volvo’s International Student Program provides students with a convenient way to lease a Volvo vehicle during their time in school. Flywire will enable international students to make those cross-border payments via their preferred method, in their preferred currency, while also streamlining payment tracking and reconciliation for Volvo Car Financial Services.
Volvo’s new program removes the obstacles that most international students face when trying to obtain a vehicle in the U.S., such as a lack of U.S. credit history and the burden of selling a car upon graduating. Students can make one easy, upfront payment and drive a brand new Volvo for the duration of their school term. All factory scheduled maintenance and auto insurance* are included. At the end of the term, the driver simply drops the car off at the Volvo dealer. More details are available at www.VolvoCarsforStudents.com.
International payments and receivables, like those involved in the Volvo International Student Program, create a number of complexities and challenges for companies and their customers, making it difficult for companies to appeal to new international market segments:
- Hidden fees and unpredictable FX rates cost companies and their customers millions of dollars every year.
- Slow, unpredictable processing times hurt cash flow and impede growth.
- A lack of transparency creates frequent manual errors increasing operational costs and hurting customer satisfaction.
- Businesses targeting international customers spend unnecessary time and cost setting up international payment infrastructure, distracting from their core business.
- Country-specific regulatory restrictions add additional complexity and costs.
Flywire processes billions of dollars each year in international payments, connecting the various entities around the world involved in cross-border transactions to minimize friction, payment cycle time, and exchange costs. The company serves a variety of market segments and models including automotive, travel, luxury goods, publishing, import/export, business/professional services, and technology.
“As economies become more global, cross-border transactions are much more common. Yet, international wire and bank transfers are still very complex and costly,” said Jeff Althaus, executive vice president at Flywire responsible for the company’s business segment. “The lack of transparency makes cross-border transactions unnecessarily difficult for any enterprise or institution, and their customers – impacting operating costs, cash flow, customer satisfaction, and business growth. We’re pleased to partner with Volvo to take these challenges out of the leasing payment experience and make it as smooth as possible for both their customers and their operations staff.”
“Our goal is to make life less complicated for our customers and Flywire helps us do that for international students,” said Rick Bryant, Vice President of Sales Operations for Volvo Car USA, “Volvo’s new international student program reduces the risk of international transactions for Volvo’s retailers while providing a luxury vehicle on convenient terms for visiting students.”
International students make up a large, growing, and affluent market in the US today. In 2016, a record 1.2 million international students attended American colleges and universities, an increase of 6.5 percent from the year before.
*Volvo blanket insurance policy not available in New Mexico, Georgia, Wisconsin or Texas
About Volvo Car USA
Volvo Car USA, LLC, (www.volvocars.com/us) is a subsidiary of Volvo Car Group of Gothenburg, Sweden. VCUSA provides marketing, sales, parts, service, technology and training support to Volvo automobile retailers in the United States. For more information, please refer to the VCUSA media website at: http://www.media.volvocars.com/us.
About Flywire
Flywire is a leading provider of international payment solutions, connecting businesses and institutions with their customers on six continents. Introduced six years ago as a way for international students to pay their tuition for studies abroad, Flywire is now used by over 1,300 organizations across 18 countries around the world. The company processes billions in payments per year from 220 countries and territories, via bank transfer, credit card and e-wallet solutions, in over 120 different local currencies. Convenient, fast and secure, Flywire’s scalable platform provides currency conversion at exchange rates that can offer significant savings when compared to home-market banks and credit card providers. The company also supports its clients with end-to-end customer support including multilingual servicing via phone, email, and chat, as well as 24/7 online payment tracking.
Flywire is headquartered in Boston, MA with international operations in London and Manchester, UK; Shanghai, China; Tokyo, Japan; Singapore; Sydney, Australia; and Valencia, Spain. For more information, visit www.Flywire.com.