Not the school.Not us.Safeguarded.
When you pay through MyCourseFee, your money doesn’t go to the school and it doesn’t go to us. It is held by our regulated payment partner, in an account set aside for customers, and paid out only as the course is delivered. Here’s what that means in plain English.
It isn’t paid to the school upfront
The school receives each month’s tuition as that month is delivered. Money for weeks that haven’t been taught yet stays where it is.
It isn’t held by MyCourseFee
We never hold your money. MyCourseFee runs the booking and tells our payment partner when each monthly payment is due. The money itself never sits in our bank account, so it isn’t affected by anything that happens to our company.
It is safeguarded by a regulated payment partner
Our partner is authorised by a financial regulator. By law, it must keep customer money separate from its own money, in accounts used only for that purpose, and it is supervised and audited on how it does this.
What “safeguarded” means
Safeguarding is a legal duty on regulated payment companies. It’s the rule that keeps customer money separate, identifiable and protected.
Kept apart
Customer money is held in a dedicated account, not mixed with the company’s own money and not used to run the business.
Always accounted for
The payment company must know at all times exactly how much it holds for each customer, and reconcile it regularly.
Ring-fenced if things go wrong
If a payment company itself ever failed, safeguarded money is set aside to be returned to customers ahead of the company’s other creditors.
Supervised
Regulators check how payment companies safeguard money, and require independent audits of those arrangements.
In the UK, safeguarding is required by the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 and the Payment Services Regulations 2017, supervised by the Financial Conduct Authority. In the Netherlands, payment institutions supervised by De Nederlandsche Bank typically hold customer funds in a separate foundation that exists only to hold those funds. [TO CONFIRM WITH PARTNER: which entity holds MyCourseFee funds and how it safeguards them]
What if…
Every business can run into trouble. Here’s what happens to the money in each case.
…the school stops trading?
Tuition not yet released was never paid to the school, so it’s still safeguarded. The payer chooses another school or a refund of the unused tuition. Accommodation keeps being paid.
…MyCourseFee stops trading?
The money was never ours, so it isn’t part of our company’s assets. It stays with the payment partner in the safeguarded account, held for the customers it belongs to. [TO CONFIRM WITH PARTNER: wind-down process]
…the payment partner fails?
This is what safeguarding is for. Customer money is held separately and ring-fenced, so it is returned to customers ahead of the partner’s other creditors, under the supervision of the regulator and an insolvency practitioner.
What it isn’t
We’d rather you know exactly what you’re getting.
- It isn’t a bank deposit. Safeguarded money isn’t covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which protects bank savings. Its protection comes from being held separately instead.
- It isn’t insurance. MyCourseFee doesn’t pay out compensation. It protects you by not paying money to anyone before it’s earned.
- It doesn’t cover money already released. Once a month’s tuition or accommodation has been delivered and paid, that payment is complete.