<p>Both my kids' schools said there was a fee each time I used the card, and if I recall it was pretty hefty. Certainly more than the free airplane trip was worth.</p>
<p>Not at Harvard.</p>
<p>Panhandlegal:</p>
<p>I understood your point. But $40k or even $50k does not actually cover all the costs associated with educating students.
Personally, I'd rather not have the mileage points and save $1200--or avoid a $1200 increase in my tuition bill. Where colleges do not charge an extra fee, I'm pretty sure it's hidden in the general tuition costs.</p>
<p>Son's school (public U) will accept CC payment buy adds the 2% fee.
Will accept direct online payment from checking account with no fee.</p>
<p>Similar note: our small town recently posted on it's website that they will begin accepting credit cards for Property taxes online. Sounded like a convenient idea....till I saw that they would also assess a 2% 'convenience fee'.
Since our tax bill is over $8000 per year, I'm opting for the inconvenient stop at the town tax office 4 times/year instead.</p>
<p>The Ohio State University does not accept CC payments for tuition and fees but you can add money to the student ID/debit card using a CC.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>I think the extra fees are absorbed in tuition increases for all rather than tacked on to the bills of those who use credit cards.>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>TuitionPay charges a surcharge if you use a credit card. It is not assessed to everyone...only those who want to use a credit card. The surcharge is well in excess of the amount you would pay for a plane ticket. NOT worth using the credit card.</p>
<p>Both kids' schools do NOT allow payment via credit card for tuition. In DD's case, the school does allow credit card use for deposits, etc, but assesses a 3% surcharge if a credit card is used...only to those who use the credit card, not to all payers.</p>
<p>Son's school allows it w/o a charge. We use Discover and then we get a couple hundred back in bonus dollars (or whatever they are called). The check helps toward books.</p>
<p>No cc payment at Tufts. We would have loved the milage, but not for a fee.</p>
<p>DD's private college adds a $1.00 processing fee for credit cards (no typo - one single dollar); DS's public college adds $45 - we also heard 4%, so who knows. We'll be writing checks, just because.</p>
<p>When older D went to UGA, we paid with a credit card - with no fee. She graduated a few years ago, so I am not sure if they still allow it. S's school did not allow charges and younger D's school does not also.</p>
<p>S just graduated from Elon -paid all 4 years with Visa and no fee.
Older D at Lehigh - only allowed grad students to pay by credit card directly - offered a tuition payment service, with a fee, and did not take Visa - we wrote checks.
Younger D will attend USD - alas, now that we need frequent flyer miles, same situation as older daughter. I do not think there is a fee for adding campus cash to her ID with Visa, but we won't be adding enough to get us a free flight !</p>
<p>University of Washington allows credit cards, no fee. I'm going for those miles!</p>
<p>S's small private school takes credit card payments with no extra fee.
Enough points for his plane ticket.</p>
<p>They give a discount for those paying full yearly fees in August, or a smaller discount for those who pre-pay for the semester in August and December.</p>
<p>Everyone else pays in 10 installments--the same fee whether by check or credit card.</p>
<p>Are any of you paying tuition through a 529? I've had tuition paid from that account directly to the school so that accounting for the IRS (qualified educational expense) is simpler. If you are using a 529, are you just having the check made out to yourself and keeping it with the credit card statement?</p>
<p>No cc at Yale.</p>
<p>For Pitt, the first year cc payments were allowed, and I quickly got a mileage card. Then I think they had you go through a company which added a percentage for CC. Regardless, I've been quite happy to have a mileage card, despite the fee, as it is worth the free tickets. My D school has tuition pay, and again not worth a surcharge.</p>
<p>I never even thought about this until yesterday when I tried to pay tuition with a credit card -- My daughter's school does not accept them. Oops.</p>
<p>I was told by an acquaintance that they used those "balance transfer checks" that you get periodically from your credit card company to pay their child's tuition payments...and earned points/mileage that way. Not sure if this is true or not...Bank of America (my credit card co) does not award points for those transations. But you could check with yours. You may get lucky.</p>
<p>I thought that if an organization took Visa and MasterCard, they could not surcharge for the use pursuant to their Visa/Mastercard contract. I got a bill from an summer institution that added a five percent surcharge for Visa or Mastercard and called Visa which told me they couldn't do that.</p>
<p>Muffy--I believe that is true for Visa but not MasterCard; that is the reason private HS and Usd told us they won't take Visa in their credit card for fee plans-they cannot charge these fees. These plans accept MasterCard, Discover, AmEx.</p>
<p>JustAMom--Any credit card I've seen with those checks always treated them as 'cash advances' and were excluded from point/mile accumulation. I think the rewards are a benefit derived from the fees the merchant pays for credit card processing.</p>