PayPal and Venmo Add Tuition Payments at U.S. Colleges

PayPal and Venmo are expanding into college tuition payments, giving students and families another way to pay education bills through payment systems already used by thousands of U.S. colleges and universities.

PayPal, which owns Venmo, announced partnerships with education payment platforms Illumia, Nelnet Campus Commerce and TouchNet. The integrations will allow participating institutions to offer PayPal and Venmo as payment options for tuition.

Venmo and PayPal move into tuition payments.

The change brings two widely used digital payment services into a part of higher education that has traditionally relied on dedicated university payment portals. Instead of limiting PayPal and Venmo to smaller everyday transactions, participating schools can now make the services available for much larger tuition payments.

The three education payment platforms collectively work with thousands of colleges and universities. That gives the new integrations the potential to reach students and families through payment infrastructure their schools already use, rather than requiring institutions to build a separate system.

Nelnet Campus Commerce President Jackie Strohbehn said the company sees additional payment options as a way to give families more flexibility when handling education costs.

“Every payment option we add, including PayPal and Venmo, is about meeting them at that moment with more flexibility and less friction, so affordability isn’t a barrier to staying enrolled.”

TouchNet President Jeremy Loch similarly described the integration as a way for institutions to broaden the payment choices available to students and families while creating a more streamlined payment experience.

The addition reflects a significant expansion in how Venmo can be used. The service is commonly associated with person-to-person transactions such as splitting rent, transportation or other shared expenses, but tuition payments can involve substantially larger sums.

For colleges using Illumia, Nelnet Campus Commerce, or TouchNet, these partnerships add PayPal and Venmo to the payment options institutions can make available to tuition payers. The announcement does not mean every college or university automatically accepts the services, since availability depends on the institution and its payment platform.