Pay tuition with a credit card

When my wife enrolled at Excelsior - and pay for Information Literacy class - we paid by Discover, which just happened to have 5% cash back on education at that time. Paid it right off, thecash back was very helpful for our very limited grad student budget. I don't think an Islamic-compliant option that would have been better was available.
P. S. I got questions on Islamic finance on at least one of the ACCA exams. Don't really remember the details.

 

If it works for you - do it. One size certainly doesn't fit all. If you're buying something you can afford - and you're being offered a real discount - like this - take it. It only makes sense. And yeah - Islamic compliance in one's personal finances isn't for everybody - but certain aspects have worked WAY good for me.

 

..and my wives all like the idea, too. (I jest.)

 

Well, Stanislav's deal - a straight cash discount he didn't have to spend anything to "earn," is a vast improvement, too.

 

Well, for one, cash back credit cards are not that rare. Also, if you pay tuition anyway, there's no downside in getting points too. Discover deal was unusually good, though.

This forum was the greatest value of all. I learned about these degree programs here; my wife spent around $7k all in for a second Bachelor's (Accounting major was not the most test friendly), got a certificate from LSU as a nice unexpected side bonus, qualified for CPA, and got an instant, life-changing return on investment. I then steered 3 other people to TESC, Ashworth, and COSC. Yay DegreeInfo! Credit card bonuses can't begin to match that.

 

I use my credit cards to pay tuition at the University of the Cumberlands; they don't charge fees. At the end of the semester, I get reimbursed from my employer. So, technically, I get paid 2% for every dollar to go to school.

 

I think it's difficult to like credit cards if you've worked in the industry for 20-30 years, as I did. You see "what gets did and what gets hid." It's awful.

I use cash quite frequently - in stores etc. Usually small purchases. If I pay by card in stores, it's my debit card. I create my own "benefits." I make rolls of my change and deposit them in the Credit Union. I get about $1,000 a year recovered that way. Does your credit card give you back $1,000 a year? I've done this for about 15 years now. It works.

For a long time, I've only had one Credit Union account - a no-fee chequing. Everything I received went in - everything I spent came out. Late last July, my friend, who works at the C.U., suggested I open a savings account. I did so, with $60 in rolled coins. Ever since, I have deposited all coins in the savings account, plus the few dollars I used to spend on lottery tickets. (I quit about a year ago.) After only six months, the coins and ticket money add up to almost $1,100! And my big chequing account is still chugging along - about $3K ahead of where it was in July, even with the coins etc. going elsewhere.

You can pay yourself WAY better than a credit card company EVER will!

 

I love credit cards because I use them as charge cards--paying off the balance at the end of each month.

Consumer credit is a leech on society, however, with those companies being allowed to charge usury-like levels of interest--while coaxing cardholders into making tiny monthly payments, ensuring huge payouts of interest over time. Consumer credit is right up there with catastrophic medical bills as the most ruinous threat to financial well-being.

 

Absolutely. Although, with the health system here in Canada, we don't see nearly so much as the US in the way of catastrophic medical bills. They appear to be the second most frequent reason for filing for bankruptcy in the US. List of top 7 US reasons is here.
https://www.lendingclub.com/resource-center/personal-finance/reasons-people-file-for-bankruptcy-and-how-to-avoid-it

 

Times change. In 1964, the first year I worked in the credit business, IIRC there were about 484 consumer insolvencies in Canada. That number was 100,184 in 2022.

 

I pay my daughter's tuition with my Amex card; no interest, free points.