<p>I was looking at the payment options portion of my school's website, and it mentioned a monthly payment plan. I have a friend at another school that does this, and she kind of cleared things up for me, but I was wondering if anybody else could.</p>
<p>How exactly does this work?</p>
<p>We pay with a monthly payment plan. It's pretty simple. There is an initial fee to set up the account, if I recall it was $65 last year. Then you tell them how much money you want to have split up over 10 or 12 months (we chose the 10 month option), and you pay each month's installment to the payment plan company instead of directly to the college. There is no interest or other charges other than the initial set-up fee. (Unless you're late with a payment or something, that will incur a late fee.) Your college will tell you if they offer such an option, and is so, whether they manage it in-house or use a payment company. If they go through a payment company, they will give you the specifics as to which one and how to open a payment plan account.</p>
<p>In our case, our son paid the portion he was expected to contribute from summer earnings directly to the college. The amount we paid through the monthly payment option was the amount expected from us.</p>
<p>I just sent the last payment a few days ago! Yay! Of course, we'll start paying on 2009-10 in just a couple months... but right now I'm just going to enjoy the sense of having paid off the first year. :)</p>
<p>So, does that include everything? Like, is it only tuition, or does it include room and board, meals, etc?</p>
<p>The payment plan will usually cover tuition, room and board and regular, known fees. (It would not normally cover books and may not cover something like lab fees.)</p>
<p>'rentof2 wrote about an initial setup fee. The payment plans I am familiar with have an annual administration fee, so make sure you understand the details of your plan.</p>
<p>Yes, as Greta said, we pay for tuition, fees, room&board, etc. through the monthly payment plan. Basically everything that is on the bill received from the college.</p>
<p>Books, travel expenses, special incidental fees associated with particular classes, we pay (or our son pays) out-of-pocket.</p>
<p>Your college will send you information on payment options, but if you'd like to know a bit more in advance I'm sure you could call them and they'd give you a quick outline of how they do it.</p>
<p>I use the monthly option for D"s school, which is administered through Salliemae. I pay $90/year for the privilege, but it's the only way I can do it - the charges come out of my current income. I have to guesstimate the costs for the year, because the payments actually begin in May (although I can begin anytime by July 15, as long as I pay for May, June, and July by 7/15). If my guess was wrong, I can adjust the amounts with Salliemae - although I don't know how it works, because I actually got it dead-on this year.</p>
<p>We use TuitionPay which is the monthly plan our college uses. Actually, you can put as much money as you want on that account every month BUT it's not available to you or your child if you do...it goes directly to the Bursar's office and is used for payment of college expenses that might appear on your child's bill. If there is an overage, you can request a refund at the end of the term or year (depends on the college) or you can carry it over until the following year. Our kids could use their school "cards" to pay for books and such. This cost could be paid out of their bursar's account. Also, health center fees (like cost for flu shot), library and parking fines, etc...all appear on the bill.</p>
<p>Okay, thanks. That clears up a lot. Looks like everything is mostly the same between the different schools, so I'm sure mine won't be TOO different.</p>