Students now can use their credit cards to pay their tuition over the Internet.

The Bursar’s Office has made the service possible through the Illinois E-Pay Services Program, according to a letter students will receive in the mail this week.

“We have always wanted to do this, and students and parents have been requesting this option,” said Kathe Munz Shinham, associate vice president for finance and facilities. “We are the third university in Illinois to take advantage of using credit cards to pay for tuition.”

Bursar Kinga J. Mauger said students can use their credit cards to pay for anything on their tuition account, including room and board.

“We accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover,” Mauger said. “Unfortunately, we can’t accept American Express because they don’t allow tuition payments.”

Fifty students already have used this option, Mauger said.

“We are not recommending that all students use this,” she said. “Most undergraduate bills are payed for by parents, so we are not really worried about students not being able to make their payments. We wouldn’t encourage them to make payments that would put them in debt.”

According to the letter, payments with credit cards only are accepted over the Internet, and there is a convenience fee charge for this service.

“For example, if the student were to make a $2,000 payment, the convenience fee would be $60,” Mauger said. “The convenience fee is determined by the amount of the payment and goes to the State Treasurer.”

Students can take advantage of this option by going to the Bursar Office’s homepage, www.finfacil.niu.edu/bursar/bursar.htm, and click on the E-Pay-Pay NIU by Credit Card link, Mauger said.

“They can then choose to pay either to the student account or the Perkins Loan account,” Mauger said. “Then, complete the payment screen and click the submit payment box. It will verify the payment and then confirm it and right away say if the payment can or can’t be made. It will then send a confirmation to the e-mail address given.”

Mauger said that this Web site also allows students to do other things, such as check an account balance, see class grades or see if there are any holds on an account.

“The Web site is very secure, and we feel very comfortable with it,” Mauger said.

The State Treasurer’s office took care of the security for the Web site, Mauger said.

“In the future, we hope to make this option available over a touchtone phone,” Mauger said.