Paying college tuition & earning rewards
Aug 3, 2011, 11:50 am
#16
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Ontario, California
Programs: PC Plat, SPG Gold, HH Diamond, Hyatt plat,...
Posts: 370
On a side note my school did credit card payments for one year. Then they quickly change it to a processing company which charges about a 3% fee. So even if you could charge it at a school, they can easily change the policy to incur fees.
(BTW while it is dead now once the school pissed me off so I paid them in dollar coins. I kept them wrapped up and it was just a public school so not too much money)
(BTW while it is dead now once the school pissed me off so I paid them in dollar coins. I kept them wrapped up and it was just a public school so not too much money)
Aug 3, 2011, 1:46 pm
#18
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Somewhere over the rainbow
Programs: Airline Free Agent, Bonvoy Platinum, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 3,811
Payments would be around $30K a semester if it is $60K a year. $30K is within reason when it comes to FT'ers. I'm sure there is a way to break down the payments into different increments. As long as you have the money to pay off the balance ASAP, it could work..
Aug 3, 2011, 1:49 pm
#19
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 1,634
Summer school?
I don't know why, but where I went to school, regular tuition could not be charged, but tuition for summer classes could be. So I would take summer classes (because I needed to, not just for the points!) and at least get several thousand points over the summer. If they were willing to eat the cost for summer students, I don't know why they wouldn't for regular students, except for the obvious that there are many more regular students.
Anyway, my point is, there may be specific types of classes, semesters, registration periods, etc., for which you can use a CC.
I think also that you might be able to earn points via Capital One Rewards checking?
Anyway, my point is, there may be specific types of classes, semesters, registration periods, etc., for which you can use a CC.
I think also that you might be able to earn points via Capital One Rewards checking?
Aug 3, 2011, 2:42 pm
#21
Join Date: Oct 2010
Programs: SPG Plat, MR Plat, DM Silver, RR, AA, US, BA
Posts: 226
Afford.com
My daughter is starting college this fall at the Univeristy of Kansas. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!
KU does not accept credit cards for payment of tuition directly, but they work with a third party vendor, AFFORD.COM to allow you to pay tuition on CC.
AFFORD does charge a 2.9 % Fee for CC. They take Amex, Discover and MC, but not VISA. They also allow you to pay in 4 monthly installments.
Im paying the tuition this way to meet minimum spend on the the five cards I applied for last week!
KU does not accept credit cards for payment of tuition directly, but they work with a third party vendor, AFFORD.COM to allow you to pay tuition on CC.
AFFORD does charge a 2.9 % Fee for CC. They take Amex, Discover and MC, but not VISA. They also allow you to pay in 4 monthly installments.
Im paying the tuition this way to meet minimum spend on the the five cards I applied for last week!
Aug 3, 2011, 9:48 pm
#23
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: BOS .. but soon SFO
Programs: UA PLAT, TK GLD, Hilton Diamond, IC PLAT, SPG GLD, Marriott GLD
Posts: 1,528
way back when my UA CC used to offer 0.5 miles / $1 on balance transfers... this was when money was flowing (no job, in college, with $35k line of credit & plenty of 0% APR offers)
I would just balance transfer a check into my bank account and immediately pay it off when the financial aid check came in.
Best bang for my buck. The school offered to charge the card at 3% .. it would have been double the miles, but not worth my $$ (since I was broke)
I would just balance transfer a check into my bank account and immediately pay it off when the financial aid check came in.
Best bang for my buck. The school offered to charge the card at 3% .. it would have been double the miles, but not worth my $$ (since I was broke)
Aug 3, 2011, 9:59 pm
#24
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 2,813
Unless the school accepts credit cards without fees, there is no real option. More and more schools are either not taking cards, or charge a fee (somewhat understandably, as they do not want to pay roughly 2-3% in processing fees [only the most extreme FTer would choose a school based on whether they took cards without a fee
]).
Any credit card processing fee is designed to cover the costs of accepting credit cards. The rewards that banks give us is only worth a fraction of the money that they earn by processing the charge. Therefore, unless you put an unusually high value on the miles you receive, it is not worth paying the processing fee just to get miles.
]). Any credit card processing fee is designed to cover the costs of accepting credit cards. The rewards that banks give us is only worth a fraction of the money that they earn by processing the charge. Therefore, unless you put an unusually high value on the miles you receive, it is not worth paying the processing fee just to get miles.
Aug 3, 2011, 10:24 pm
#25
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 188
Yep. Nearly ALL schools require CC processing fee which is pretty high and that negates the value of miles.
To people who say bring $1 coins to bursars office:
I have actually tried doing this once to pay $6k in dollar coins. I brought in all the coins that were wrapped in Mint's rolls and my bursars office simply refused to take them. They said that they do not have coin counting machine and have no way of counting them. (they did suggest that I take coins to the bank and exchange them for "real money" and then bring that "real money" to them) duh!
To people who say bring $1 coins to bursars office:
I have actually tried doing this once to pay $6k in dollar coins. I brought in all the coins that were wrapped in Mint's rolls and my bursars office simply refused to take them. They said that they do not have coin counting machine and have no way of counting them. (they did suggest that I take coins to the bank and exchange them for "real money" and then bring that "real money" to them) duh!
Aug 4, 2011, 12:45 am
#27
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Places
Programs: All of Them
Posts: 242
you have to be joking! 
Yep. Nearly ALL schools require CC processing fee which is pretty high and that negates the value of miles.
To people who say bring $1 coins to bursars office:
I have actually tried doing this once to pay $6k in dollar coins. I brought in all the coins that were wrapped in Mint's rolls and my bursars office simply refused to take them. They said that they do not have coin counting machine and have no way of counting them. (they did suggest that I take coins to the bank and exchange them for "real money" and then bring that "real money" to them) duh!
To people who say bring $1 coins to bursars office:
I have actually tried doing this once to pay $6k in dollar coins. I brought in all the coins that were wrapped in Mint's rolls and my bursars office simply refused to take them. They said that they do not have coin counting machine and have no way of counting them. (they did suggest that I take coins to the bank and exchange them for "real money" and then bring that "real money" to them) duh!
Aug 4, 2011, 1:03 pm
#28
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: NYC
Programs: SPG, AA, BA, CO, UA, US, B6, DL, Amex MR, HH
Posts: 1,009
Same here. What's also great is that they let you pay the tuition before the loans come in, so you can just pay back the CC with the loan money. They only take Visa and MC, but it's great for meeting thresholds and/or 2% cash back.
Aug 4, 2011, 2:11 pm
#29
Join Date: Dec 2004
Programs: UA-1K, MM, Hilton-Diamond, Marriott-Titanium
Posts: 4,432
Well my son's school took cc's without a service charge for his Freshman and Sophmore years with no problem. Just paid fall semester for Jr year and this is the last payment with cc without a svc charge. I was wondering when they were going to catch on but at least I got enough miles to go to New Zealand in J while the getting was good.
Aug 4, 2011, 4:32 pm
#30
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 23
without checking out which credit cards my school took, i applied for the AMEX SPG card thinking i could hit the spending limit pretty quick on tuition. surprise! my college didn't take AMEX. at least i'll be able to rack up the miles on my Southwest card, but now i don't think i'll be able to him my $4,500 in 3 months goal for my bonus points.