This fall, a new payment plan is available for students paying tuition and fees at Portland State. Instead of paying one large sum at the beginning of each term, the PSU Payment Plan allows students to pay tuition in three separate installments over the course of a 10-week period.
“Prior to this, PSU did not offer a structured plan,” said Amanda Nguyen, the director of Student Financial Services at PSU.
“[The plan allows] PSU to be more proactive in outreach to students experiencing financial difficulties,” Nguyen said. “Ultimately, it can save them money and offers more flexibility.”
Flexibility is a crucial benefit to the new plan, said Scott Gallagher, the PSU director of communications.
“The purpose of it is to provide more flexibility to help [students] pay for college. Sometimes it’s hard to get all that money together up front and it’s a little bit easier to do it a little bit over time,” Gallagher said.
Apart from more time to pay tuition, benefits of the PSU Payment Plan include the lack of monthly interest or billing fees and the ability to set up automatic payments. There are repercussions for late installments, such as late payment fees, registration holds and possible upcoming term registration cancellation.
“Our goal, as always, is to try and provide more ways for students to be able to afford school and make it easier for them. This is, we hope, one way,” Gallagher said. “It may not be for everybody, but for those who are paying as they go, it can be a great boon.”
Student Financial Services will be hosting an informational session about the PSU Payment Plan on Oct. 1. Registration for the plan is open until Oct. 6.
Additional information regarding the plan can be found on the Finance and Accounting Service Team website.
This is misleading advertising – our first payment showed a $95.59 service charge!!
Is that a “lack of monthly interest or billing fees?!? I don’t think so!