The SF State Bursar’s Office hasn’t been accepting payment with Visa for several months due to a fixed service charge. However, many students may have missed the message.

“Now I can’t use my credit card,” said psychology major Peter Kim, 20. “I have to go back to my parent’s house to get a check. It’s too much of a hassle, I can’t even pay my tuition right now.”

The requirement to drop Visa went into effect in October 2005 due to a $20 fixed fee on all transactions, said Ellen Griffin, SF State director of public affairs.

“Visa USA requires charging a fixed processing fee for all transactions regardless of the amount,” Griffin said. “The university felt it was an unfair burden to ask the students to pay a $20 transaction fee for, say, a $20 credit card charge.”

Other students waiting in line at the Bursar’s Office were also unaware of the new policy.
Art major Becki Berumen, 20, had little time to comment as she ran back to the ATM to get cash. “It sucks,” she said.

Although the change doesn’t affect all students, some recognize the possible inconvenience.
“I have both major credit cards and receive financial aid, so it doesn’t really affect me ... but it doesn’t make sense,” said Zed Batshoun, a 26-year-old electrical engineering major.

Griffin said at one time the university used to absorb such fees.

“The last time we were doing that we were paying about $800,000 a year in transaction costs,” she said, estimating that at today’s rates that figure would be between $1.5 million to $2 million a year.

“The university decided it could no longer subsidize the cost of these transaction or convenience fees,” Griffin said. “In the case of Visa, their requirement of a fixed fee of $20 no-matter-what did not seem appropriate to the university. Especially since there are other credit card options that people can use.”

Griffin said some vendors - as well as the campus bookstore – are still able to accept Visa since they are separate entities.

“They are independent business units,” she said, “they can decide how to absorb those transaction costs and work it into their fee structure.”

Visa’s famous slogan: “It’s everywhere you want to be,” may be less true after Washington Mutual announced that they have also dropped Visa from their client list.

“In the first quarter of last year we changed the provider of our debit cards from Visa to MasterCard,” said Tim McGarry, Washington Mutual’s vice president of corporate public relations. Although McGarry indicated that the actual conversion of cards had just recently gotten underway.

Inquiries to Corporate Visa’s media relations department about the fees were directed to their Web site, which explains only how the payment process works and not the rationale behind the exorbitant transaction costs.

The Bursar’s Office still accepts checks and credit card payments with MasterCard, American Express and Discover with a transaction fee of 2.5 percent on the amount charged; and has set up an online electronic check payment system, which charges a fee of 50 cents.