Bursar' s Office drops credit cards

Last semester, the Bursar's Office changed its credit card payment process. Instead of charging Tech students a $25 " convenience charge " for online credit card transactions, as of this semester, Tech will no longer accept credit cards as a payment method.

However, a third party vendor will accept American Express and MasterCard when paying online at Oscar.

After the implementation of this policy, there was a significant increase in the number of students making their payments via WebCheck from 5,500 to 6,500. The number of credit card payments (using the third party vendor) fell from 3,300 last semester to 686 this semester. There has also been an increase in mail-in payments this semester.

" With tuition becoming an increasing part of our total finance as state appropriations have been reduced over the last several months, the goal is to provide a safe, convenient and low-cost alternative, and WebCheck is that alternative, " said Joel Hercick, associate vice president of financial services.

When asked what made the Office of the Bursar drop the use of credit cards altogether and not stick to the $25 " convenience fee " for online credit card transactions, Hercick said, " Although we were pleased with the convenience fee in the fall, an increased migration of students to WebCheck, as well as a significant drop in credit card payments and fees, there were steps we needed to take to counter the changes Georgia Tech faced. "

" We got a midyear budget cut from our state corporations amounting to around $6 million, and thus we needed to look for ways to cut down our expenses, " Hercick said.

Hercick also said that the Bursar's Office received feedback from the credit card companies themselves, stating that if Tech planned to charge a " convenience fee " for credit card payments over the web, then it would also have to assess the same fee for WebCheck.

" But, " Hercick said, " we did not want to charge $25 for this cost-effective means for us to receive the payments. "

The Bursar's Office recognized that it needed to provide the means by which some of the students could still make their payments using a credit card online, but with an additional fee.

Bursar Carol Payne was successful in locating a company that would provide a means by which students could still pay using American Express or MasterCard.

" The merchant fees for the credit card payments since its launch in 1998 had amounted to a million dollars, and so we wanted to eliminate 100 percent of it, " Payne said.

" So, we tried to take a small step in trying to eliminate some of the cost using the flat convenience fee, as Visa had stated that any charge for credit card payments online had to be a flat fee, " she said.

The ultimate goal is to eliminate any fees and the Office of the Bursar was taking small steps to get all the students prepared for the implemented change this semester.

Even though they charged the convenience fee last semester, the measure had only covered 25 percent of the fees.

" This was another reason why we had to move to an avenue that would enable us to make a percentage based charge for credit card payments. Georgia Tech cannot accept any credit cards [because] we would then have to assess the same charges on WebCheck, " Payne said.

Payne said that they are encountering problems with people's notion of WebCheck. One misconception, she said, was the use of the debit card as a means to pay using WebCheck. " There is still confusion of what is a WebCheck. It is really a payment over the web by check, the real paper form. The number asked for is the routing number but some people type in the debit card number, " Payne said.

Some students were upset by the change. But others found WebCheck a better alternative than credit cards. " Payments made via WebCheck are much more convenient than using credit cards and I feel the satisfaction that it is saving Georgia Tech money, " said William Mays III, first-year Nuclear and Radiological Engineering major. " I felt that the announcement about the change in credit card payment process was much more effective this year as compared to last semester when they introduced WebCheck. "