<p>Two years ago when my kiddo was a rising college freshman, I muddled through to figure out how to set up the payment plan and how to convert savings into a check that could be sent on time to the college.</p>
<p>Somehow I managed to set up the Tuition Pay plan before I had the bill and due date from the college. Luckily that gave us a couple of extra months of breathing room. (We put room, board, and fees into the Tuition Pay, that was charged to a credit card).</p>
<p>For the lump sum payment that we also wanted to make (tuition), it took longer than anticipated to pull funds from kiddos custodial account, deposit into bank account and then send check to the college. Something I thought could be done within a few days took over a week.</p>
<p>This year, the school has done away with paper (mailed) bills and I must check online.</p>
<p>Does anyone have tips for parents new to this on ... How to get those college tuition bills paid?</p>
<p>Our 529 plan (Fidelity) will now send the money directly to the college for the student’s account (Fidelity BillPay). They started this about 2 years ago. Before that I had to send Fidelity a form each time I wanted to make a payment with the college name, address, and student ID filled out, and this was much slower. I don’t think BillPay works for custodial UGMA accounts, though.</p>
<p>Doesn’t the college email you when there is a new statement (bill)?</p>
<p>Our kiddo’s college only has on-line billing but does have payment plan. We do have it on auto billpay, so that it is paid as soon as it comes due every month in 10 payments. For D’s room & board, we give her a lump sum at the beginning of the year & she makes it last for the entire year. We had to get our kids to authorize us as guests to view the on-line billing but it works fine & is just as easy as paper billing.</p>
<p>We put the money into our kids’ accounts and they had to go into the billing office and pay once/month. We wanted them to get into the habit of paying bills. They actually paid for most of their schooling through summer jobs and scholarships so our contribution was minimal but they needed to budget and plan. It was good practice for them.</p>
<p>S1’s school takes credit cards with no fee. </p>
<p>S2’s school has a 3% surcharge for using a credit card, but e-check is free. </p>
<p>It worries me that some people are paying a 3% surcharge (plus credit card interest?) on their college bills. However, I have considered the possibility that S1’s tuition is inflated to cover the surcharge and it just “looks” free.</p>