Is it legal for a school to charge for a CC?

[imported_goku]

I was buying some stuff for the beginning of a school year and my school charged me a $10 'credit card' fee. I could have sworn this was illegal.

 

[Leros]

I paid an extra 1.5% or something to use my credit card for something at my college. I guess not. That being said, my school does not accept Visa.

 

[erub]

against terms of VISA merchant agreement

MC and AMEX allow for it

 

[miri]

http://finance.utdallas.edu/bursar/credit-cards.html

While credit card payments offer a convenient manner for students and parents to pay tuition and fees, the cost to the university for providing this convenience has grown to more than $600 thousand annually. Given the tightened budget situation, the university has decided to require those who want the convenience of paying with a credit card to cover a portion of the university's cost of providing the service. This change will benefit the university and all of its students by reducing the university's projected budget shortfall.


The university was unable to negotiate an acceptable method of assessing an appropriate convenience charge to tuition and fee payments. Unlike the other brands of cards, Visa will not allow the university to assess a convenience charge that varies with the amount of the tuition and fee bill.

 

[George P Burdell]

My school does this for tuition. And they don't accept VISA because of this.

 

[doze]

I bet it was carefully worded so your $10 CC fee was actually a donation to the university.

 

[jagec]

Just be glad they accept a CC at all. After all, if they didn't want to eat the cost and weren't allowed to add a surcharge, you'd be paying by check.

 

[Kyle]

UW (washington) charges $30 to use a visa to pay tuition.
most smaller stores (gas stations and the like) charge fees.
It may be against the terms, but I guess they just figure if everyone is doing it, why not...

 

[Shawn]

My school charges a "convenience fee" for paying online and you can only pay online by credit card.

 

[Baked]

No special fees, but you can't pay for tuition w/ CC, cash and check only. You can buy books with CC.

 

[erub]

Originally posted by: Kyle
UW (washington) charges $30 to use a visa to pay tuition.
most smaller stores (gas stations and the like) charge fees.
It may be against the terms, but I guess they just figure if everyone is doing it, why not...

Are you sure its VISA, not AMEX or MC? Also, its been a long time since I've been to a store, large or small that charged a fee, I definitely wouldn't say MOST. Actually the only thing I see sometimes is a minimum purchase, but even that is rare (maybe every 6 months I go someplace with it).

Texas A&M and Georgia Tech both charge a fee for using a CC, but neither allow Visa:

In an effort to reduce administrative overhead, Georgia Tech will no longer accept Visa credit cards as a payment method for tuition and fees. Arrangements have been made with a third party vendor to accept American Express, MasterCard and Discover when payment is made online through the Oscar system. There is a service fee of 2.75% assessed by the vendor for their service that will be in addition to the tuition, fee, room, and meal payment.

GT allowed free online payment by webcheck - put in the routing # and hit go..I think A&M charged 50c for the service, which is roughly the cost of getting a check, and mailing it..definiteely not the percentage that they charge for a CC

 

[Kyle]

Originally posted by: erub

Originally posted by: Kyle
UW (washington) charges $30 to use a visa to pay tuition.
most smaller stores (gas stations and the like) charge fees.
It may be against the terms, but I guess they just figure if everyone is doing it, why not...

Are you sure its VISA, not AMEX or MC? Also, its been a long time since I've been to a store, large or small that charged a fee, I definitely wouldn't say MOST. Actually the only thing I see sometimes is a minimum purchase, but even that is rare (maybe every 6 months I go someplace with it).

Texas A&M and Georgia Tech both charge a fee for using a CC, but neither allow Visa:

In an effort to reduce administrative overhead, Georgia Tech will no longer accept Visa credit cards as a payment method for tuition and fees. Arrangements have been made with a third party vendor to accept American Express, MasterCard and Discover when payment is made online through the Oscar system. There is a service fee of 2.75% assessed by the vendor for their service that will be in addition to the tuition, fee, room, and meal payment.

GT allowed free online payment by webcheck - put in the routing # and hit go..I think A&M charged 50c for the service, which is roughly the cost of getting a check, and mailing it..definiteely not the percentage that they charge for a CC

100% sure it's visa- thats how I pay my tuition.
and when I say most places, again, I mean smaller stores- for instance the shell shation next to me charges $.45 if I buy anything with credit (no matter what kind) under $5- actually with them it's credit or debit.
the convience store from my friends house charges different fees based on if the total is under a certain amount and if you use credit its one fee, debit is a bit less of a fee. The teriyaki restarant we go to a lot charges if you use a card under $5- the coffe shop i go to wont accept cards under $5 etc etc. Most smaller establishments I go to have some kind of fee/max purchase amount.

And again- this is in or around downtown seattle or the U district. Oh ya- try taking a card in to a smoke shop on the ave- there isnt one that wont charge/wont accept visa for small purchases.
I havent run in to this problem down in Oregon much at all.

 

[j00fek]

call the BBB

 

[Tom]

Legal ? Of course it could be legal.

Credit card contracts can be negotiated like any other contract.

 

[Umberger]

Originally posted by: George P Burdell
My school does this for tuition. And they don't accept VISA because of this.

Same here at VT

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: erub
against terms of VISA merchant agreement

MC and AMEX allow for it

Amex allows it only if the store charges the same fee for every other CC I believe, so in practice it is generally not allowed.

However stores can get around the rule by saying all prices reflect a 2% cash discount or something like that. I've e-mailed Visa and they said that's allowed. Kind of stupid if you ask me, defeats the purpose of having the rule in the first place.