A 2.75 per­cent con­ve­nience fee will now be charged on any credit card pay­ment made toward a con­sol­i­dated stu­dent account.

Business Operations Systems Manager, Erin Diehm, said the fee was approved by President Eisler and took effect on July 1. Ferris has con­tracted with Touchnet PayPath, a third-party com­pany, to pro­vide pro­cess­ing ser­vices for the con­sol­i­dated stu­dent accounts. Diehm said Ferris could not con­tinue to absorb pro­cess­ing costs due to bud­get constraints,

“There are large costs to process credit card fees,” said Diehm, “The uni­ver­sity was look­ing at reduc­ing costs and this was one that other schools used as well.”

A con­sol­i­dated stu­dent account refers to a student’s tuition, room and board, park­ing and sim­i­lar expenses. The account is billed to the stu­dent in the form of an ebill. The con­ve­nience fee will appear as a sep­a­rate trans­ac­tion on the credit card state­ment and will not appear on the E-bill or stu­dent account.

The pro­cess­ing fee is non­re­fund­able, even if the pay­ment is can­celled, cred­ited, or refunded. The fee is assessed no mat­ter how large or small the pay­ment is. Diehm said the 2.75 per­cent rate was set by Touchnet PayPath.

The con­ve­nience fee will be 2.75 per­cent of the pay­ment amount. For exam­ple, a $1,000 pay­ment will have a fee of $27.50. The min­i­mum con­ve­nience fee allowed is $3. So if a pay­ment of $60 is made, the con­ve­nience fee will be $3, even though 2.75 per­cent of $60 is $1.65.

According to the FSU Business Office web page, Ferris will accept MasterCard, Discover and American Express credit cards for pay­ments on the con­sol­i­dated stu­dent accounts. Visa will no longer be accepted as a form of pay­ment because it uses a flat fee method and does not allow a pro-rata method, which is what the third-party com­pany uses. A pro-rata method bases the pro­cess­ing fee on a per­cent­age of the total pay­ment amount, rather than a sin­gle, flat fee.

The FSU Business Office web page states explains that stu­dents can avoid the con­ve­nience fee by mak­ing pay­ments online with an e-check, which is an elec­tronic debit directly to a check­ing or sav­ings account. The fee can also be avoided by pay­ing with a check at the Timme Center.

Other Michigan schools that charge a con­ve­nience fee for credit card pro­cess­ing include Saginaw Valley State, Grand Valley State, Wayne State, Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan.

For addi­tional infor­ma­tion regard­ing this topic, visit www​.fer​ris​.edu/​b​u​s​i​n​e​s​s​o​p​e​r​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​c​o​n​v​-​f​e​e​.​htm. n