
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 28, 1994                   TAG: 9412290055
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Medium

NOW THERE'S A SPECIAL CREDIT CARD FOR TUITION

The new card fits into the college's effort to have students enroll for courses and pay for them by using a touch-tone telephone.

When Tidewater Community College students register in January, they'll have the option of deferring tuition payments through the use of a new credit card.

The college and Heritage Bank & Trust of Norfolk have launched the ``KeyCard,'' a MasterCard credit card with no annual fee and a below-average interest rate of 14.88 percent on balances carried beyond a 25-day grace period.

Students who use the card to pay tuition will be billed in three equal installments, in February, March and April. If they pay each installment within the card's 25-day grace period, they will not pay interest on the tuition they owe.

In addition to offering students this flexibility, the card program will provide the college with a percentage of the interest income that Heritage Bank earns on the card-users' balances.

Although many banks have credit cards connected with colleges and share some interest profits with the schools, Heritage Bank President Robert J. Keogh said the new card was the only college-affiliated card that he knew of with a tuition-deferral feature.

Keogh said the impetus for the card came from college President Larry L. Whitworth, who sought ways to help students stretch out their tuition payments. Their informal discussions began more than a year ago.

The new card fits into the college's effort to have students enroll for courses and pay for them by using a touch-tone telephone, said college spokesman Bill Candler.

Deferring tuition payments through the program may create some additional work for the college's accounting department, but that will be offset by greater use of payment by telephone and fewer student visits to the college business office, Candler said.

Solicitations for the new card were mailed to students this month. Keogh said Heritage has received about a thousand applications so far.

During a given semester, between 17,000 and 18,000 students enroll at the college, which has facilities in Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach and Norfolk.

by CNB