<p>My son’s school accepts credit cards but the fee is much larger than the value of the reward points that we would receive if we were to pay by credit card. Those of you who use the card to pay tuition should realize that reward points rarely exceed 1% of a purchase. If the fee exceeds 1% it doesn’t make sense to use the card just to get the points.</p>
<p>Chit chat at a school event: talking with someone who uses AmEx’s ‘Bluebird’ card program in conjunction with ‘Vanilla Reload’ cards at places like CVS to pay tuition to get credit card points. </p>
<p>Google those terms and you will see lots of discussion, link below. I have only done cursory research so I can’t vouch for this method of accruing airline points…but I thought the idea merits discussion here. As a rabid Southwest Airlines Rapids Reward subscriber/addict (with two kids in Southwest cities), I like this idea.</p>
<p><a href=“bluebird vanilla reload - Google Search”>bluebird vanilla reload - Google Search;
<p>[Best</a> Credit Cards to Buy Vanilla Reload Cards | TravelSort](<a href=“http://travelsort.com/blog/best-credit-cards-to-buy-vanilla-reload-cards]Best”>Best Credit Cards to Buy Vanilla Reload Cards)</p>
<p>My kids’ colleges:</p>
<p>Elon University allows MC, Discover and American Express but charges 2.75%. They don’t take VISA. </p>
<p>Lafayette College has never accepted credit cards.</p>
<p>Both of my kids’ schools use a third-party company for any credit card payments and the fees outweigh the benefits. :(</p>
<p>Elon just started charging the fee a few years ago. The transaction fees the university was paying to the credit card companies was over 1.1 MILLION dollars annually according to the President. So they had a choice - either raise tuition or fees overall to make up the difference, or start having the people using credit cards pay the fees.</p>
<p>[Elon</a> University - Office of the President](<a href=“Elon University / Office of the President”>Elon University / Office of the President)</p>
<p>Historically Visa has not allowed this type of charge, so schools that do this don’t accept Visa rather than pay the transaction fees themselves.</p>
<p>Just start paying with five to ten separate checks, then they will be happy to take credit cards. Charges per check business fees can be as high as credit card charges.</p>
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<p>Not true. My platinum AmEx has 1% minimum payment due with 13% APR on balance. I pay it off monthly but certainly not because I have to.</p>
<p>We paid all our kids’ USoCal’s tuition on CCards. Got back points or cash, whatever our card was awarding. There was a $40-50 fee/semester if you wanted to pay by installment, otherwise no fees associated with using a CCard instead of cash. I believe they accepted most CCards; think I mostly used Visa and generally got back 1-2% cash. You could charge USC housing and meal plan expenses as well. </p>
<p>My nieces could NOT charge at their Us–UCDavis, NDame, UofOR.</p>
<p>We always use our Visa card (mileage!) for both kids tuition and have been lucky enough to pay no fees whatsoever. I really hope that policy doesn’t change because I didn’t realize how rare it is.</p>
<p>Our school also charged a hefty fee for paying with a credit card. I’d have done it otherwise, great way to rack up some major miles. But the fee made it not worth while.</p>
<p>Perhaps this will become something that families look for when paring down the college lists? ;).</p>
<p>Ours was 2.75% also (just went and checked). They also don’t take Visa. Does Visa charge a higher fee or something?</p>
<p>Visa doesn’t allow the charge of a usage fee for their credit cards, so schools that do charge the “convenience fee” don’t take Visa. Although who knows how pending credit card legislation may change things. While it’s inconvenient, when it costs a business over $1M to take credit cards, I can see the problem. It’s great for those people who pay if off every month and benefit from the rewards, but a burden on the school. For those families needing to pay in installments, many colleges do offer monthly payment plans, and usually the fees on those plans are far lower than on credit card payments.</p>
<p>People must be getting good aid or have cards with really high limits.</p>
<p>We have a significant credit limit, but pay it in full every month, so never incur finance or late fees. We did get a big raise when our kids got their degrees, enabling us to stop paying tuition. It was helpful to have the option of a monthly payment plan that broke tuition down into 10 payments–still a lot of money but easier when it was spread out than a huge lump sum.</p>
<p>which credit card better for the new student?
This first time applying credit card?
@any suggestion, please?</p>
<p>We have a Marriott Rewards credit card that gives 1 “elite night” for each $3000 spent, as well as points, so it might make sense to use it to pay for tuition, even with a fee, if it would help get to the next status level. But our daughter’s college doesn’t take credit cards.</p>
<p>I just checked. Marriot rewards annual fee was first year 0, after that 85$. 
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<p>My D’s school accepts credit cards without a fee. I’ll take those cash-back points, thank you very much. :)</p>
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But you get one free night a year, even before points–easily worth 85$.</p>