<p>Puzzled88, tsdad, or other parents of current students who have paid with credit cards: does USC charge any extra credit card fees, over and above the $65 payment plan application fee? Just trying to make sure that they do not tack on 2-3%, which will far exceed any benefit from miles, cashback, etc.</p>
<p>As far as good credit cards to use, those of us that will be paying significant amounts ought to look into Blue from American Express. Up to $6.5k things are rather unremarkable, 1.5% on “everyday” purchases and 0.5% for all other ones. However, once you cross that threshold things get interesting - 5% for groceries/food/gas/household and 1.5% for everything else. USC tuition being what it is, I don’t think I will have a lot of trouble crossing the 6.5k threshold :D</p>