TAMPA, Fla. — As parents look for different ways to help pay for their child's college education, Florida Prepaid announced lowered plan prices with some customers also getting refunds.
Not unlike other parents, Christine Cheng started thinking about college and how to pay for it right when her son was born.
“I wanted to give him the opportunity to be able to go to college for four years, have the opportunity to not have that mountain of debt when he graduates,” said Cheng.
She chose Florida Prepaid and has a plan for one of her kids.
“I liked the idea of locking in college rates and paying slowly as we go so that at the end, he could just go and not have to worry about that amount of money,” said Cheng.
Imagine her surprise when a few days ago, she got an email from Florida Prepaid.
“I opened it, dug in, and we do have a nice little refund coming back,” said Cheng.
It comes as Florida Prepaid said it’s lowering prepaid plan monthly prices by up to 25 percent for this year’s open enrollment.
What’s behind it? Florida Prepaid said price cuts are mostly because of consecutive years of lower-than-anticipated tuition and fee increases for Florida colleges and state universities.
On top of that, current customers with plans purchased since 2008 who haven’t started using benefits will also have a lower plan price.
“280,000 families are going to see reductions in their monthly payments that they’ve agreed to pay, and then about 96,000 of those are going to see not just reductions in price, but potentially have paid off their plan early and are getting a refund,” said Shannon C. Smith, a Florida Prepaid spokesperson.
The average refunds are $2,600.
For families thinking about Florida Prepaid, here’s what Smith said to keep in mind.
“If your child attends school out of state, we would take the value of your plan and apply it to the tuition elsewhere. If your child doesn’t use the plan, you can get a full refund of everything you’ve put in,” said Smith. “If your child gets a scholarship, you can use it in conjunction with a scholarship, and if you have extra in your prepaid plan, again, you can get that money back.”
Open enrollment is from February 1 to April 30.
