Paying College Tuition bills

[westjones]

I am just curious....we have twins who just started college this year and I thought one 'perk' from this expense would be racking up Disney Reward Points. But then I find out that their college charges a service fee if you pay by credit card. So we wrote out checks instead because the service fee was 2.5% (so there would be no 'rewards' benefit to that).

Is that typical for colleges to do that? The bookstore didn't do that, so we at least got to earn some reward points on that expense. But for the tuition we won't at all.

 

[Kitten]

My DD goes to the University of New England in Maine...no service fee of any kind for using a credit card so every single dime of that tuition went on our Disney Visa

 

[disykat]

It would cost us to use a credit card for DS's tuition so we give him a check to take in. However, we can use a credit card to pay for his housing and food plan so we do that. DS goes back in a few weeks so I just sat down with him and did those two things along with having the "state of his finances address" and him buying his books. We'll do it again at Christmas and Spring Break.

In regards to the "state of his finances address." We've been having those discussions with DS #1 for college fairly regularly so when I told DS#2 it was time to sit down for an end of the summer discussion on how much of his summer job earnings go will go into his college spending account, he got all excited about having his own "state fo the finances address" and told me he was preparing a speech. (He's in debate so it's right up his alley.) Both boys laughed - I hadn't realized we'd been quite so formal about it!

 

[CopperWife]

I went to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and graduated in 2002. When I was there, they would not accept credit cards to pay tuition. Things may have changed since then, but that was my experience.

 

[westjones]

It was SO disappointing to find out no reward points for tuition. It just seem wrong! But oh well...sounds like we are not the only ones.

And my girls are AWFUL for finances. One just lost her job and is trying for another (sales was down and they had too many people). And the other works in a clothing store and seems to only break even at that (comes home with new clothes every time she works).

We just want our girls to pay for their 'wants'. We are paying for books, tuition and fees. They are living at home and eat at home (if they want to eat on campus they have to pay). So they come home for lunch every day (we live 1.5 miles from campus).

My husband works at the college so we get a big discount on tuition and they both got scholarships this year so we really didn't have a lot to pay.

But I wish we could earn Disney points on what we do pay! Next year they won't have the scholarships (they were one time scholarships), so we will have to pay more. I guess at least we get points off of the books since we can charge those.

 

[Sadie22]

It depends on the institution. They are charged a fee by the credit card company, so they may or may not charge an extra fee to those who pay by credit card.

 

[jgreco]

Both of my kids private schools charge 3% to use a card. But don't advertise that they offer a 3% discount if you pay in full. So theoretically if you use a card to pay for the entire year upfront you will break even on the total school fees, but will earn reward points. Perhaps ask if they give a paid in full discount if you're up for that.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

Where my son goes they don't take Visa & if you use Master Card or another type card that they will take it is a big % fee too. So we wrote a check...I too was hoping for rewards points.

 

[BubMunkeyBles]

My college took credit cards. They just wanted to get paid.

 

[madge]

I am just curious....we have twins who just started college this year and I thought one 'perk' from this expense would be racking up Disney Reward Points. But then I find out that their college charges a service fee if you pay by credit card. So we wrote out checks instead because the service fee was 2.5% (so there would be no 'rewards' benefit to that).

Is that typical for colleges to do that? The bookstore didn't do that, so we at least got to earn some reward points on that expense. But for the tuition we won't at all.

DS school charged a fee. I was bummed. I had visions of SPG or Disney points, LOL!

 

[piperdown]

I am just curious....we have twins who just started college this year and I thought one 'perk' from this expense would be racking up Disney Reward Points. But then I find out that their college charges a service fee if you pay by credit card. So we wrote out checks instead because the service fee was 2.5% (so there would be no 'rewards' benefit to that).

Is that typical for colleges to do that? The bookstore didn't do that, so we at least got to earn some reward points on that expense. But for the tuition we won't at all.

I work at a state university and we charge a 2.75% convenience fee on credit cards and we don't accept VISA at all.

 

[clh2]

DD's school does not charge fees if a charge card is used - she is at a smaller (6000 students) private college.

 

[Allison]

Yes, it is typical. Many use a 3rd party servicer for tution payments and that servicer charges a convenience fee to cover the credit card processing costs. Also, many schools do not accept credit cards at all for tuition.

 

[momxx5]

The merchant (store or school, etc) is charged a percentage fee per transaction.
I am sure that the schools, especially, are passing this charge along to those paying by credit card.

Working in banking, and setting up merchants to accept credit cards, back many years ago...the fees would add up. I can only imagine today what the fees would be, especially considering part of the "fee" would be to cover stolen id transactions.

 

[nsmith]

DD school takes CC but not my favorite AMX Cash Back card. So I used my visa United car will rack up some ff miles but we usually fly southwest.

 

[kaismommie]

I'm a graduate student in Wilmington, NC and they charge a service fee here as well if a credit card is used

 

[MrsPete]

My daughter attends a medium-sized state university, and we are encouraged to pay her bill with a credit card. Her school is very pro-environment, and they will not send out physical bills /do not want you to send paper checks.

I called to be sure no credit card fee would be attached -- nope.

 

[westjones]

My daughter attends a medium-sized state university, and we are encouraged to pay her bill with a credit card. Her school is very pro-environment, and they will not send out physical bills /do not want you to send paper checks.

I called to be sure no credit card fee would be attached -- nope.

That is great! Ours do not send bills either...we have to print them ourselves and then address an envelope and mail it or take it in (but we didn't want to stand in lines....and yes, our kids COULD have done it, but we have twins and there have been SO many computer mix ups because of the 'twin' issue that we wanted to pay them ourselves...so we addressed two envelopes and mailed in both payments).

But it would be so nice to be able to just pay online electronically...in fact, they would have gotten our money sooner and a person would not have had to open the envelope and prepare the check for deposit.

But no.....I won't pay the extra fee for using a credit card.

 

[tar heel]

No physical bills is not unusual. Neither UNC Charlotte nor UNC-Chapel Hill send them, and there is a charge for using a credit card at the latter. I assume most people pay the way we did - online with an e-check. We were able to pay the much smaller orientation fee with a credit card.

My experience with kids 10 years apart, four universities all in the UNC system: 1-no credit cards accepted, 2-any credit card with no fee, 3-Visa only with no fee, 4-see above, and I think it may be Mastercard only (trying to remember from paying the deposit, which we also did with an e-check).

 

[imsayin]

DD's school charges a 3% fee for using credit cards. Yes, I was sad