Some students at the University of Saskatchewan are upset the administration will no longer let them use Visa credit cards for tuition and other school fees.

The school announced the policy against Visa cards on Monday. It will go into effect for the September semester.

The U of S still accepts MasterCard, but students can expect a one per cent transaction fee to use it.

Some students lamented the loss of being able to use their Visa cards, saying it's more convenient to pay school fees online than standing in a crowded lineup.

"There's always such long lines to pay," student Hasseb Rizvi said.

Ali Eldermani agreed.

"It's very convenient for students, and to take that away and make the payment situation harder … doesn't feel right to me," Eldermani said.

Students also said the use of credit cards buys them time to come up with tuition.

Most, if not all, cardholder agreements come with a built-in grace period before payment becomes due.

Costly fees for university

Richard Florizone, the U of S's vice-president of finance, defended the move against credit cards, saying the school paid nearly $1 million in fees to Visa and MasterCard last year.

In addition to billing customers for using their credit cards, card companies typically charge merchants a per-transaction percentage fee.

"These fees were growing, and the use of credit cards was growing," Richard Florizone said.

"And it was costing us a significant amount of money that could be used for other purposes."

The Saskatoon-based university is not the first to bar students from using some of their credit cards for tuition.

Some of Canada's largest post-secondary schools, including McGill University in Montreal and the University of Toronto, will not accept credit card payments.

However, the practice continues at some smaller schools, including the University of Regina where Visa, MasterCard or American Express can be used.