Company Overview

Founded in 2018, Next Goal Agency is a premier education and immigration consultancy helping international students achieve their goals of studying, working, and living in Canada. With offices in Vancouver, Toronto, and Madrid, the agency provides end-to-end support including personalized assessments, school applications, visa assistance, and post-arrival guidance. To date, Next Goal Agency has supported more than 7,000 students worldwide.

As the business grew, the team needed a simpler and more cost-effective way to accept domestic payments from students and families.

Challenges Faced

• Domestic Payment Restrictions: High-value domestic transactions, such as tuition payments to Canadian colleges, were constrained by banking limits, forcing transactions to be split into multiple payments. This led to delays and difficulties in reconciliation.
• High Credit Card Processing Costs: Next Goal Agency was previously using Elavon but faced consistently high merchant fees that were impacting margins, particularly for higher-value tuition and service payments.
• Unnecessary Hardware for a Remote Team: Because the agency operates largely remotely, maintaining physical payment terminals created unnecessary overhead and operational friction.
• Manual and Inflexible Payment Collection: Collecting payments over the phone or from remote clients required workarounds, slowing down collections and increasing administrative effort.

Innovative Payment Solution

By implementing Chiizu’s virtual terminal and online payment capabilities, Next Goal Agency modernized how it accepts domestic credit card and ACH payments.

The Chiizu virtual terminal allows the team to securely process payments directly from a computer or tablet — no physical card reader required. Staff can quickly enter customer payment details for phone, online, or on-site transactions, enabling true payment flexibility for a remote-first operation.

In addition, Chiizu optimized the agency’s payment routing and pricing structure, significantly reducing merchant processing costs compared to their previous provider.