Why is Penn State charging a fee for the use of my credit card?

Penn State made the decision to charge a 2% convenience fee to fairly distribute the costs of accepting online credit card payments to the users. These costs include the maintenance of secure payment servers, software, online user interface, integration costs and ongoing maintenance fees.  By charging this fee, these additional costs are being assessed to the users of this service, not to all Penn State students.  To avoid the fee, students and authorized payers can make payments by eCheck, check, or money order.