PayPal and Venmo Can Now Pay Tuition, but One School’s Fine Print Flags a Catch

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• PayPal and Venmo are now accepted for tuition at five universities through integrations with Illumia, Nelnet Campus Commerce, and TouchNet, with more schools joining through the rest of 2026.
• Michigan State’s billing page says a non-refundable service fee applies to PayPal and Venmo payments, the same as for credit cards, and advises students to use electronic checks to avoid it.
• The rollout follows PayPal’s June 2025 deal to process revenue-share payments to Big Ten and Big 12 athletes, which the company marketed at the time as running on fee-free infrastructure.

PayPal Expands Tuition Payment Options

PayPal and Venmo became accepted options for college tuition payments on Wednesday through new integrations with three campus billing platforms: Illumia, Nelnet Campus Commerce, and TouchNet. Bellarmine University, Butler University, Kansas State University, Michigan State University, and Texas Tech University are live now, and PayPal said more schools will enable the option through the rest of 2026.

Frank Keller, PayPal’s president of checkout solutions, said tuition is “one of the biggest payments a family will make” and should offer the same flexibility as everyday purchases. Students can fund payments from a bank account, credit card, or PayPal or Venmo balance.

Michigan State Flags a Tuition Payment Fee

Michigan State’s billing office, Its payment methods page says that when PayPal and Venmo arrive on its Student Information System this fall, both will carry the same non-refundable service fee charged on credit card payments.

The fee can apply even when the underlying funding source is a linked bank account, and the school advises students to use electronic checks to avoid the charge.

Texas Tech, another school on the launch list, already processes card payments through TouchNet’s PayPath system at a 3% fee, with a $3 minimum. That rate took effect in May 2025. PayPal is plugging into the existing processing system rather than introducing a new payment rail specifically for tuition.

The expansion follows a broader bet PayPal placed on campus finance last year. In June 2025, PayPal and Venmo signed agreements with the Big Ten and Big 12 conferences to handle revenue-sharing payments to student athletes under the House v. NCAA settlement. The arrangement was reported at the time to total roughly $697 million a year across 34 schools.

PayPal CEO Alex Chriss said the money would move through “fee-free institutional payments infrastructure” with “no intermediary” taking a cut.

Tuition payments use a different processing rail from athlete revenue-sharing payments, and PayPal has not said whether it will extend the same fee-free treatment to tuition. Until more schools publish updated payment policies, Michigan State’s disclosure provides the clearest public indication of how the new option may work for students: PayPal and Venmo can make tuition payments more convenient, but they do not necessarily eliminate payment-processing fees.

Stripe and Advent International have reportedly offered more than $53 billion to acquire PayPal at $60.50 per share. PayPal shares up 15%, putting the payments giant back in focus amid renewed takeover speculation.