By Katie Moreira

The forthcoming tuition increase at Central Connecticut State University is not the only thing that has students concerned regarding the cost of their education.

Along with a 2.5 percent increase in tuition, the Connecticut State University System board of trustees also approved a new credit card transaction fee of 2.5 percent, which will have students paying a little more out of pocket for the luxury of using their credit cards.

According to Betsy Fangiullo of the bursars office, any portion that a student puts on a credit card or any credit card payment will be charged the extra 2.5 percent.

“If you process the amount for $100 you would be charged 2.5 percent,” said Fangiullo.

“I think it’s horrible, we already spend too much for tuition as it goes,” said Zach Rosenzueig, a senior at CCSU, who has been paying every semester by credit card. “It’s a sneaky way of getting more money.”

The fee was approved to help pay the cost that CSUS schools are faced with due to fees they are charged with by the credit card processing companies. The new fee is not uncommon at other universities like UConn, who has been charging the fee of 2.5 percent for their credit card users for a few years now in an attempt to lower the number of students who use their credit cards to pay for tuition.

Rosenzueig is concerned that other students like him will be unaware of the fee when it comes time to pay their tuition next semester.

“I don’t know if they’re going to inform people through mail or how they will go about it,” said Rosenzueig.

Fangiullo does not know at this time how the school is going spread the information because she has not yet met with executive administrators. She assures that they will have an informational campaign.

“We definitely plan on advising everyone,” said Fangiullo.

Alli Valvo, a sophomore at CCSU, was another student unaware of the new fee.

“I personally don’t, my parents do,” Valvo said about paying by credit card. “It’s doesn’t make sense to try to charge someone for trying to pay you.”

Valvo does not think that her parents will use a different way of paying tuition but is concerned about how much extra the fee is going to cost them.

“It doesn’t really make sense, 2.5 percent of a few thousand dollars adds up,” Valvo said. “It’s not pocket change, and you could use that money to pay for books.”

Although the new fee was approved by the CSUS board of trustees on April 7 and has been added to the list of charges for fall 2011, Fangiullo said that the fee has not been put into action yet.

“We are still working on how it will be instituted,” said Fangiullo.

CCSU does offer payment plans as an alternative way to help students pay for the expenses of attending the university should they have financial troubles.

“We will work with students to get them to stay in school,” said Fangiullo.