MS for tuition?
 

Hello, I have a quick question, regarding manufactured spend, and if Its worth it in my specific situation.

I have a United Explorer card from Chase (in my name), which, as you probably know, has a $25K spend waiver for premier qualifications - and I will in all probability hit 50K miles for the first time this year. The Prem Silver PQD ($2500 last year) I could always get; $6000 is a bit much.
But! I also happen to be a college student, and my University takes Visa as a form of payment. Now, by breaking it up slightly, I can pay my tuition bill through this card, and not only get UA miles, but also quickly hit that spend waiver at the beginning of the year. However, my question is this. I've read and heard elsewhere that the CC companies, that is Chase, are highly suspicious of people spending more than (or 50% of) their declared incomes on their CCs. Indeed, my income, as a student, isn't great. However, my parents are willing to foot the tuition bill, in whatever format, in exchange for a not discussed post graduation boon.
Should I do this, or some other route for MS?

If they don't charge a fee, that sounds like a great avenue

Universities normally if not all add a pretty hefty surcharge for usage of credit card to pay tuition. Have you verified the service charge the university is asking for to see if its even worth it? If its something like 3% of the total cost it is not worth it.

3% is pretty common in many universities, but I graduated from a state school that didn't impose anything upon CC payment.

My school sort of imposes a fee; a $50 processing fee. On a 25k tuition bill, I'm going to call that reasonable.
I'm more concerned about how Chase will view this given that 25K exceeds my income.

Is it a $50 fee EACH charge, or for the year? That may be a deciding factor.

As long as your parents pay it off, I wouldn't see a thing wrong with it.

I would notify Chase before making the purchase the first time if it's several thousand, just so it doesn't get declined.

I'm sure it's not unheard of for a student to have a hefty savings account to be able to pay for college w/o any income. IMO it's a far more reasonable (explainable) charge than someone spending $100k at American Express Gifts in a year and only bringing home $60k income and I'm confident that happens here all the time.

I've paid tuition with a new cc to meet minimum spend before without any issues. My college doesn't charge any fees for paying with cc. I pay my full bill before financial aid comes in, and then the school cuts me a check when my aid comes in.

Slamming your Chase CC with $25,000 in a single month might engender a phone call from Chase to ensure it was you. So break it up over a few months.

why? as long as he/she is not doing any other MS on the same card no manual review will raise any flags as this spend is explained easily. it will be another story if you have other MS thrown in there..

True, though probably not needed to avoid problems, OP seems to want to break up the charges anyway.

The breaking it up is mostly necessary because my limit *isn't* nearly as high as 25K; I have to wait until I can pay off the card in between a couple of times. and it is $50 per transaction. Though that brings it up to $150, thats still only a .6% charge, which I think is still very reasonable.

Explain your legitimate need for a $25K charge and they may allow you to prepay the card since they're certainly making money of the CC fees.

I do something along these lines for student loans, could work for tuition too perhaps...

simon mall gift cards -> serve -> bill pay to student loan/tuition

I pay my tuition fees with my credit card all the time. My school doesn't charge a fee (yay!) and I used a Chase card. I just called and let them know and they were fine. I of course paid it off right away with my loan because I can't afford a large credit card bill. I actually went over my credit limit once and they didn't care. I think they were fine with it because I had a good history with them.

You could also substitute Serve with Redbird.:cool: