<p>I was at a seminar on financial aid and heard something about paying tuition with a credit card so you can use it for airline miles which sure would help defer the travel costs! Does anyone know how this works? do you get a specific airline card or would any credit card work that has a rewards program attached?</p>
<p>Just beware - the extra fees you usually have to pay for using the credit card can be anywhere 3-5%. Balance that against the cost of a typical ticket from your area and how many miles it takes to get a ticket, usually 25,000. Also they are often hard to book during holidays although Capital One claims they can be done, I have not tried them. . .</p>
<p>Our child 's college charges a fee to use a credit card, which is far greater than any benefit of using a credit card.</p>
<p>Also, want to second what singersmom said, it is almost impossible to use free tickets at peak times.</p>
<p>If the school charges extra to use a credit card, then it probably isn’t a good idea. However, if it doesn’t – the Capital One program is actually terrific (I’ve never had a problem with restrictions), and you can even use your miles retroactively to “pay” for a trip that you’ve already taken (as long as it was charged on your Capital One card.) :)</p>
<p>Thanks. Hadn’t thought about the possibility of them passing on the costs. Well, will call tomorrow to see. Thanks.</p>
<p>Our kids’ colleges would NOT allow payment with a credit card at all.</p>
<p>My son’s state university did allow us to charge tuition and room & board costs on credit card for no fee. It was a great deal 
BTW: Capital One has no blackouts on their travel. You typically book your travel and the fare/miles is 100 miles for every $1.00 of fare.</p>
<p>My daughter’s school just recently allowed us to charge her tuition. There was a 2.5% fee. It didn’t make sense to pay 2.5% to get 1% or 1.5% back in cash/miles.</p>
<p>We were able to charge our daughters college but the surcharges were too much to do it with our older sons. And, yes we paid if off monthly. I’m hoping we can do it with my youngest, but I doubt it because they use the same second party billing company (Tuition Management Systems) that our other son’s college had.</p>
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<p>At this rate you’d probably be better off just getting something like the Chase Freedom card where you get 1% back on all purchases. Then you can fly any airline, any time you want, or use the money on something other than airlines if you want!</p>
<p>(Assuming you earn 1 mile per $1 spent, which is what I’m pretty sure all of the cards out there do.)</p>
<p>Agree that it’s only worth it without a fee.
Also beware that some credit cards cap the number of miles that can be earned in a year. I charged like crazy during a remodel, and was so annoyed to discover on the following month’s bill that we hit the mileage-earning limit.</p>
<p>Another parent chiming in to say that D’s school allows credit card payment with NO fees, and so far, I’ve had no problem using the frequent flier miles!</p>
<p>I would recommend getting a fidelity credit card because they have a credit card that gives you 2% cash back on all purchases. The other neat thing is fidelity automatically deposits it into your account monthly (which is so much better than calling to get your money)! :)</p>
<p>Charles Schwab also offers 2% cash back. No foreign transaction fees and free international ATM withdrawals.</p>
<p>British Airways has 50,000 bonus mile offer right now if you spend $2500 in 90 days. British Airways & American do have very limited availability of seats but if you plan far ahead and pay off your credit card in full every month it’s a great deal.</p>
<p>S’s school charges 2.5% and D’s a bit over that to make tuition payments via a credit card. I’d love to do so for the miles, but it’s not worth it. Just rounding for ease of discussion, at a $50k bill, that’s $500x2.5=$1250 for a free air ticket. Not worth it.</p>
<p>FYI: No more schwab 2% cards
[Charles</a> Schwab Stops Offering 2 Percent Credit Cards - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/charles-schwab-stops-offering-2-percent-credit-cards/]Charles”>Charles Schwab Stops Offering 2 Percent Credit Cards - The New York Times)</p>
<p>I pay my credit cards off in full every month, so I couldn’t care less what rate is on a credit card - I’m not paying it. It’s still not worth putting tuition on for miles if there is an incremental fee associated with it. Generally speaking, 25,000 miles / points = 1 free ticket = $400. So a $50,000 tuition bill = 2 25,000 tickets = $800 worth. So paying $1,250 in extra tuition to get $800 worth of plane tickets doesn’t make sense.</p>
<p>“Extreme Couponing” TV show, husband & wife throwing all those bottles of mustard in the cart because of the coupons & the husband says he doesn’t like mustard. </p>
<p>Some schools just don’t take credit cards payments either, not their policy.</p>
<p>MSmom&dad- I should have researched this before I posted -Schwab was a great deal that we still benefit from. Britsh Airways is still open.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl- I’m not recommending credit cards if there is a fee. We put every purchase on a credit card that there is no fee. Our family of 4 flew to South America on airline miles. We have enough miles to fly to Europe next summer and our AGI is 81 K so we’re not big spenders. I am lucky to have the time and interest to pursue this. It’s not for everyone but works for us and maybe others.</p>
<p>We got a Jet Blue one AmEx - there is no fee to use it, but Boston U said that full time students can’t use it to pay tuition. However, we are going to charge everytihng else on it, because we want her to have miles when she is ready to fly back and forth. </p>
<p>Wish we could do tuition!</p>