VISA Accepted for Most Utah State Purchases Except Tuition

Visa is still everywhere you want to be on the Utah State University campus, except for paying tuition.

 

Visa credit cards are accepted at Utah State’s bookstore, food service outlets, ticket office, copy centers and even the Aggie Ice Cream store. But you can’t use Visa to pay for tuition. Why? Cost.

 

“We stopped accepting Visa cards for tuition payment for a relatively simple reason,” said Utah State President Kermit Hall in a recent radio interview. “It was costing us about $380,000 a year.”

 

Hall added that, in the face of rising operating costs and proposed tuition increases, the university is continuously seeking ways to economize.

 

“We determined that, to absorb the cost of allowing students to pay tuition with a Visa card, we would have to charge a $40 fee per transaction,” said Clint Moffitt, university controller and assistant vice president of finance. “Our judgment was that this was an unacceptable cost to pass along to students, especially when we could offer other convenient and more affordable ways for making tuition payments.”

 

The university introduced an E-check (electronic check) Web payment option this year, which works much like a debit card and incurs no additional fees.

 

“You can go online at www.usu.edu/register/quad and pay your tuition directly from a checking account using our secure server,” said Moffitt. “This is our preferred method of payment, though you can also pay using MasterCard or Discover credit cards.”

 

Credit card payments incur a 2 percent transaction fee and are only accepted for online and telephone payments. E-checks are accepted only for online payments. Only checks and cash are accepted when making payments in person at the Cashier’s Office.

 

Moffitt said the university offers payment plans to assist students who can’t pay for all tuition up front.

 

The SPOT (Spreading Payment Over Time) program allows students to make five monthly payments per semester on their tuition. The first payment for fall semester is due June 1; the first payment for spring semester is due Nov. 1. The SPOT program is available for fall and spring semesters only. Further information is posted on the Web at http://controller.usu.edu/tuition/spotinfo.htm.

 

The university also offers a deferred payment option, known as the Deferred Fee Note program, which allows students to postpone a portion of their tuition payment until later in the semester. The cost of a deferred fee note is $50. Further information about the deferred payment option is posted at the Controller's Web site.