Director of Financial Services A.J. Fischer appears at many college events. (Photo by Vanessa Ray)
Credit card transactions on MCCC’s campus will now cost 2 percent more.
The new fee has been added to help offset the annual cost to the college to process these transactions, according to A.J. Fischer, the director of financial services.
The college has been spending nearly $60,000 a year on credit card fees, he said.
“The 2 percent convenience fee doesn’t cover the total fee from the credit card company, but it helps mitigate the cost,” Fischer said.
“Different credit card companies have different fees, and the 2 percent credit card convenience fee does not even cover the least expensive fee of processing a credit card transaction set by the credit card companies.”
MCCC wants to continue to offer multiple payment methods, Fischer said.
“In an effort to continue to accept credit card payments, the credit card fee is passed onto the credit card user,” he said. “It is important that we keep other ways to make payments without fees to the college or the students; that includes cash, checks, and money orders.”
The fee has been termed the “Credit Card Convenience Fee,” and will be applied to all transactions that happen on campus involving credit cards.
“It affects everyone who makes a payment to Monroe County Community College with his or her credit or debit card,” Fischer said.
Unlike some places that require a minimum transaction to be able to make a purchase, MCCC currently doesn’t have one.
“I can’t imagine us looking at setting a minimum transaction amount right now,” Fischer said.
The past five years have seen the processing of these fees fluctuate only slightly and stay between the $50,000 and $60,000 mark.
The cost over the past five years totaled $294,668, Fischer said.
Covering these costs for processing credit card transactions has been no small feat, he added.
“It’s truly been amazing that we have been able to cover that cost for as long as we could,” Fischer said.
