<p>The Bama plan is an interest-free tuition payment plan administered by Sallie Mae. Has anyone had any experience with this service? I am trying to fill out the application, but I need the actual tuition costs for Fall/Spring 2013-2014. I can’t find this information anywhere on the website. Any ideas when it will be released? The deadline to enroll for this plan is June 5th. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>I’ve never used it, but do you need to know the exact tuition in order to enroll?</p>
<p>If so, then I would call admissions or financial aid and ask them how to proceed.</p>
<p>2013-2014 tuition costs won’t be official until July 1, which is the case at a lot of state schools. I’m thinking that the reason the tuition amount needs to be listed is to coordinate how much money you will pay each month. There will be procedures in place should one owe additional money. I also seem to remember there being procedures in place for enrolling in the payment plan after June 5.</p>
<p>You might also consider the other payment plan where one pays half of the cost when confirming their semester’s schedule and the other half a month later.</p>
<p>Semester charges are not the same for every student due to course fees and different housing and meal plan options.</p>
<p>Keep in mind too that UA accepts credit cards for tuition payments without any fees whereas the payment companies generally do not. If you can work it out to charge the semester’s charges right after the statement closes, one can have almost 2 months to pay the bill. Some people will even open up credit cards with 0% interest promotions and pay that way. Carrying a balance on a short term loan, be it on a credit card or secured line of credit, may be less expensive, but may also affect your credit score.</p>
<p>I plan on putting everything on my credit card. Rack up those mileage points.</p>
<p>I used the plan last year and was able to estimate based on the prior year’s cost of attendance. I was happy with the payment plan and am doing it again this year. I did end up owing an additional $65, which was billed on my daughter’s account. In the event you under estimate when signing up for Bama payment plan, UA will notify you that there is balance that needs to be paid before your child can register for the next semester. Feel free to message me if you need help.</p>
<p>It makes sense that you can estimate the costs, since many schools don’t have the final prices by June 5.</p>
<p>Interesting idea to use a credit card for miles or cash back. </p>
<p>I’m a big Dave Ramsey fan. I don’t currently carry any cards for miles, points, or whatever; a modest little free credit union debit card has met my needs for years. </p>
<p>I’m tempted to play the game for a year and maybe get 1% back from PerkStreet or some other on-line bank. </p>
<p>Even a poet can figure out that 1% of $24,000ish is $240ish.</p>
<p>It’s certainly possible to get a credit card with rewards over 1%. Remember that UA only accepts Visa, MasterCard, and Discover. Diner’s Club, JCB, and China UnionPay may also work in some cases due to agreements with MasterCard and Discover, but it is not guaranteed.</p>
<p>I find blanket advisement to avoid credit cards very misleading, especially if one uses their credit card(s) like a debit card and avoids any interest charges. If there is no extra charge to use credit cards, one is actually paying an implicit fee to use debit cards, cash, and/or checks in the form of lost credit card rewards.</p>