December 5,2006
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BYU Discourages Charging Tuition
As one of the largest and best-known schools behind a national trend, Brigham Young University has enacted a policy that attempts to dissuade students from making tuition payments via credit card.
The change in policy at the Provo, UT campus comes in light of its staggering surcharges for allowing credit card payments - $900,000 in 2005. That bill was expected to rise this fiscal year, had the policy not been changed. Previously, credit cards were an unrestricted allowed form of tender for tuition payments. Now, students will be charged a 2.75% fee for paying with plastic. They also have the option of paying with no fee via paper check, electronic debit, or cash.
The American Council on Education estimates that 25% of college students finance their tuition via credit card. Anti-credit card measures such as those taken by BYU and its compatriots in plastic rejection are sure to drive that percentage down.