These Colleges Are Now Accepting Venmo & PayPal For Tuition Payments

You can Venmo your roommate for rent, your friend for last night’s dinner, and your group chat for concert tickets. Now, you might be able to Venmo your college for tuition, too. 

Starting Aug. 19, students and families at participating colleges and universities can use Venmo and PayPal to pay tuition and fees through their schools’ existing payment portals. Participating schools include Bellarmine University, Butler University, Kansas State University, Michigan State University, and Texas Tech University, with more colleges expected to join throughout the year. 

These new payment options come through partnerships with three major education payment platforms used by thousands of colleges across the country — Illumia, Nelnet Campus Commerce, and TouchNet — so if your school uses one of these platforms, you could expect to be able to pay your own tuition and fees via Venmo or PayPal soon too. 

“For students and families, tuition is the single biggest financial decision they’ll navigate for higher education,” Jackie Strohbehn, President of Nelnet Campus Commerce, said in a press release about the partnership. “Every payment option we add, including PayPal and Venmo, is about meeting them at that moment with more flexibility and less friction, so affordability isn’t a barrier to staying enrolled.”

So, How Does It Work?

There’s no need to hunt down your school’s Venmo username or send your tuition payment to some random account with a little textbook emoji. You’ll still pay through your college’s usual tuition portal — PayPal and Venmo will simply show up as new payment options if your school participates. 

Students and families can use their preferred payment method through PayPal or Venmo, including bank accounts, credit cards, and available balances, depending on the options offered through their school’s portal. Payments come with the same security features customers rely on for everyday transactions, including encryption and fraud monitoring. 

So, if your school offers the option, the process should look pretty familiar to those already using Venmo or PayPal: Log into your usual tuition payment portal, select PayPal or Venmo at checkout, and complete the payment through your chosen platform.

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