NY Credit Card Laws and Tuition Management

Sean Carmichael

New York introduced new Credit Card laws in 2024 - link here. According to the laws you can't add the credit card fees on as a separate charge and you're meant to show the ‘cash’ price and a card price. We've been queried about this as it doesn't seem to be how it works with Tuition Management. Does anyone have any input?

2024-04-10-dos-dcp-credit-card-surcharge-one-page-reference-guide.pdf

Crystal Bruce

@Sean Carmichael Hi! I'm checking with my team on this. Thanks!

Mark Davis 2

@Sean Carmichael - Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this important legal topic.
Recently there have been state laws enacted that focus on regulating certain types of surcharges added to card transactions. These laws largely apply to businesses that sell a good or service for one price if a purchaser pays in cash and at a higher price if a purchaser pays by card instead of cash. Blackbaud Tuition Management does not impose this type of card surcharge. Instead, BBTM offers an online solution to families that use our platform to make tuition payments, receive information and other value-added services enabled by our platform. Additionally, certain platform fees only apply to families choosing to use a specific services offered by BBTM. For more information on the BBTM Platform Fee, please read our KB article at: https://kb.blackbaud.com/knowledgebase/articles/Article/204387

Hope this helps!

Mark Davis
Head of Education Products

Jacquie Cuvelier

@Sean Carmichael I learned this morning (from a parent at our school) that CA also prohibits charging separate credit card fees effective June 2024. Since the Enrollment Management contracts aren't dynamic (i.e., can't calculate a “cash discount” as a % of tuition charged based on payment method selected), I don't understand how we can comply with this law and still pass along the expense of credit card fees our school incurs to families select that method.