Paying College Tuition bills

[westjones]

Originally Posted by IUTBAM

My DD goes to a state university here in CO and there is no additional charge for using a CC. I love the cashback rewards! :D

You are very Lucky!!!!! haha I am still so sad not to get those reward points.

[momxx5]

Tad off topic, cannot remember poster,

You should not have to pay for services not being used like the Health Center, etc. You should be able to decline any services offered.
I guess if it comes within a package with other services it may need to be included.

[westjones]

Originally Posted by momxx5

Tad off topic, cannot remember poster,

You should not have to pay for services not being used like the Health Center, etc. You should be able to decline any services offered.
I guess if it comes within a package with other services it may need to be included.

There was an all inclusive fee that is for the health center, recreation center, sporting events, psychological services, shuttle buses, many entertainment programs, computer labs, and so on. It is just a general fee that has all of those things included.

[keishashadow]

Originally Posted by momxx5

Tad off topic, cannot remember poster,

You should not have to pay for services not being used like the Health Center, etc. You should be able to decline any services offered.
I guess if it comes within a package with other services it may need to be included.

bingo! For commuters, often if you live X number of miles from campus and commute you can request that some fees be waived (the activity one comes to mind)

that said, the college my youngest attends in PA charges a 3% CC fee. I'm all about running expenses thru a CCthen paying it off but it's not fair if the school would absorb the cost and pass it along to everybody...whether they're using a CC or not.

[momxx5]

WestJones,

I was kinda thinking that was the way it worked.

You can look at it like an "umbrella". Its there and hope you never have to use it!!!

[marko]

I was also looking forward to some extra big rewards, but there would have been a 2.7% fee. I was so disappointed.

[dcfromva]

Originally Posted by 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.

We were able to get points from charging room and board on our CC for DS's first couple of years, but then they changed the policy and added in a service fee if you used a CC --so we went back to using checks. It was great while it lasted...

[pyrxtc]

you all know that you can get a check from Chase Visa for your Disney Visa to get points (most other companies will give you a check too) and send that in to pay whatever. I just got checks from Visa in the mail again yesterday and it was no fee to use them and sometimes they say 0% financing on whatever we paid for with those checks for 6 months or so.

We haven't used them yet but I'm sure we will someday.

[chisnpeke]

Originally Posted by pyrxtc

you all know that you can get a check from Chase Visa for your Disney Visa to get points (most other companies will give you a check too) and send that in to pay whatever. I just got checks from Visa in the mail again yesterday and it was no fee to use them and sometimes they say 0% financing on whatever we paid for with those checks for 6 months or so.

We haven't used them yet but I'm sure we will someday.

These give you points as well? I always thought that using the checks did not give any sort of reward.

[Arielle22]

DD just started at MCLA in MA. I paid her tuition and dorm with my AMEX. I checked first with the school and was surprised there was no fee.

My coworker thought they just wanted the money and the fee charged the school was similar to a pay in full discount.

I pointed out to DH that the amount we paid for one semester was more than what we paid for our first several cars combined.

When we went to the bookstore on campus the store didn't take AMEX so I used a Visa I get points with. I figure it is an outside company running the bookstore.

[DOREEN1779]

Originally Posted by pyrxtc

you all know that you can get a check from Chase Visa for your Disney Visa to get points (most other companies will give you a check too) and send that in to pay whatever. I just got checks from Visa in the mail again yesterday and it was no fee to use them and sometimes they say 0% financing on whatever we paid for with those checks for 6 months or so.

We haven't used them yet but I'm sure we will someday.

I was wondering about those checks!

[Qwackertoo]

I'm guessing this is a state by state issue. Just like some states allow gas stations to have a cash price and a credit card price, some states do not allow it.

I just paid for my DD's first semester of college residence fees with my Citi AA, trying to earn miles and spending my accumulated Disney Rewards on a Dec. trip, and had no problem.

I don't recall IF the recent Dodd-Frank bill addressed this "passing on of fee's" nationally or not. I'm thinking it did NOT. But is has been a few weeks since I've read the specifics.

Google to check your state to see IF there are laws against a cash vs. credit pricing.

[allison443]

Originally Posted by westjones

Wow...that's a bummer too! I guess at least we can charge for their books. I am assuming that is the case for most people also. Bookstores take credit cards?

Oh well.....there went my dreams of more Disney Rewards points. I am really hoping to have enough in March 2013 to be able to take them to Disney and let them invite a friend each and stay in a 2 bedroom with our DVC points and pay for all of the food with our Disney Rewards. Then we would just pay for gas for our van to drive there and all the friends would have to pay for is the tickets to get in.

If I had more reward points, I would consider offering to buy tickets, but I can see that I won't have enough based on what I am charging each month.

OP didn't you post on the other thread that your only paying something like $2200 for both your kids for the year?? (I remember beccause it was so low!) How many points would that even get you on Disney visa-I thought the reward was like 1%? That shouldn't really affect your vacation plans (Maybe the reward is more than I thought?)

[westjones]

Originally Posted by allison443

OP didn't you post on the other thread that your only paying something like $2200 for both your kids for the year?? (I remember beccause it was so low!) How many points would that even get you on Disney visa-I thought the reward was like 1%? That shouldn't really affect your vacation plans (Maybe the reward is more than I thought?)

It doesn't effect my vacation plans (other than how much of our food is paid for by reward points). I am just disappointed I won't get reward points when paying the college bills. And that amount was for this semester (we haven't gotten next spring semester's bill yet). And it will be very different even next semester because my DDs got these small scholarships (but very helpful when they are added up) and some were awarded in full the first semester and some were split, but they are one time things and next year they won't have them.

But for me...an extra charge of $2200 would mean $22 and I would sure like to have gotten than for our trip. And for future semesters it would have meant quite a bit more. We aren't one of those people that can charge a lot all the time, so when we have big bills like this we have to pay, I just like to get all the reward points I can get.

[westjones]

Oh and I just realized that I said we were going in March 2013, but I should have said 2014 or 2015. I have no points for this coming March (and I am going to be going through several months of medical treatments starting next month). So we would either go in 2014 and borrow points, or go in 2015 with banked points so that we would have enough for a 2 bedroom (we only have 150 points).

So that would give me a year or two of tuition that I would have gotten rewards points if I could have used my disney visa. But it wasn't meant to be.