10 Most Affordable Online Finance Degree Bachelor Programs

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• The Uni­ver­si­ty of Hous­ton-Down­town is the #1 school for an afford­able online bach­e­lor’s degree in finance.
• Grad­u­ates with an online finance degree can pur­sue careers in bank­ing, invest­ment, finan­cial plan­ning, and oth­er finance-relat­ed fields.
• The pro­grams cater to work­ing pro­fes­sion­als, offer­ing online learn­ing options that allow stu­dents to bal­ance their stud­ies with work and fam­i­ly commitments.

A bachelor’s degree in finance is a cru­cial pri­ma­ry step in begin­ning a career in bank­ing, insur­ance, and invest­ment. For stu­dents inter­est­ed in the high salaries and lim­it­less poten­tial of a finance career, there is a wide field of the best online finance degree options avail­able — world-renowned busi­ness schools, elite col­leges, influ­en­tial pub­lic uni­ver­si­ties, and all sorts of high­ly-con­nect­ed pro­grams that can all but guar­an­tee a six-fig­ure finance job right out of the gate. The sky is the lim­it, and mon­ey is no object.

But if you’re a work­ing pro­fes­sion­al look­ing into a career change, or a soon-to-be high school grad, mon­ey is, in fact, an object. It may well be a very big object, so find­ing an afford­able online bachelor’s degree in finance is a top pri­or­i­ty. If you’re going to com­plete your bachelor’s degree with­out an over­whelm­ing amount of debt, find­ing an afford­able pro­gram with a sol­id return on invest­ment is key. Bachelor’s Degree Cen­ter has the best online finance degree pro­grams that won’t break the bank.

Methodology: Ranking the Best Cheap Online Finance Degree Programs

To find the 10 Most Afford­able Online Finance Degree Bach­e­lor Pro­grams for 2019, Bachelor’s Degree Cen­ter researched the region­al­ly-accred­it­ed col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties offer­ing ful­ly online bachelor’s and bachelor’s com­ple­tion pro­grams in finance.

From there, the rank­ing is quite sim­ple: the low­est tuition rate, accord­ing to cur­rent IPEDs sta­tis­tics, gets high­est hon­ors. The top 10 cheap online finance degree pro­grams are all accom­plished, accred­it­ed, and admired, but there’s a fac­tor that keeps stu­dents apply­ing — they’re affordable.

1. University of Houston-Downtown

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Hous­ton-Down­town online BBA in Finance is offered through their Mar­i­lyn Davies Col­lege of Busi­ness. This bachelor’s degree in finance pre­pares grad­u­ates for career paths involv­ing lead­er­ship in bank­ing, finan­cial man­age­ment and invest­ment man­age­ment. Finance degree grad­u­ates are poised to take advan­tage of evolv­ing busi­ness indus­try, bad­ly in need of tech­no­log­i­cal and finan­cial solu­tions. Finance degree career indus­tries include the fields of real estate, cred­it analy­sis, per­son­al finan­cial advi­sors, insur­ance, bank­ing, and secu­ri­ty, among others.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Hous­ton-Down­town is locat­ed in the diverse gulf city of Hous­ton. Like their host city, UHD is cul­tur­al­ly diverse and wel­comes stu­dents of vary­ing back­grounds. Since 1974, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Hous­ton-Down­town has offered under­grad­u­ate degrees in more than 40 fields of study. Tuition rates are con­sid­ered some of the low­est around, which makes UHD a cheap online finance degree for stu­dents on a shoe­string budget.

Degree: BBA in Finance
Cost: $$$$$

Inter­est­ed? Learn more about the finance pro­gram here!

2. Thomas Edison State University

Thomas Edi­son State University’s online BS in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion (BSBA) requires stu­dents to com­plete 120 cred­it hours to earn a bachelor’s degree in the field of finance. Addi­tion­al­ly, Thomas Edi­son State Uni­ver­si­ty finance degree can­di­dates must com­plete a Strate­gic Man­age­ment Cap­stone project to grad­u­ate. The finance degree offered by TESU is avail­able through tra­di­tion­al course­work or, online stud­ies. The Accred­i­ta­tion Coun­cil for Busi­ness Schools and Pro­grams (ACBSP) has accred­it­ed both the under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate busi­ness degrees offered by Thomas Edi­son State University.

Thomas Edi­son State Uni­ver­si­ty is a pub­lic uni­ver­si­ty estab­lished in 1972 to meet the edu­ca­tion­al needs of busy work­ing pro­fes­sion­als. There are five schools that are a part of TESU – one of which is TESU’s School of Busi­ness and Man­age­ment. Like its name­sake, TESU believes in self-direct­ed, self-moti­vat­ed learn­ing, offer­ing numer­ous ful­ly online pro­grams in a self-paced for­mat. Tuition for the under­grad­u­ate finance degree is much low­er for in-state res­i­dents, so for stu­dents in New Jer­sey, it’s one of the best cheap online finance degree pro­grams available.

Degree: BS in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion-Finance con­cen­tra­tion
Cost: $$$$$

Inter­est­ed? Learn more about the finance pro­gram here!

3. Texas A&M University-Commerce

The Texas A&M Uni­ver­si­ty-Com­merce online Bach­e­lor of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion in Finance pro­gram offers a cheap online finance degree for stu­dents in rur­al Texas. Course­work focus­es on the rel­e­vant top­ics of Finan­cial Plan­ning, Cor­po­rate Finance, Bank­ing and the many facets of Finan­cial Analy­sis. Stu­dents can opt for online or tra­di­tion­al class­es, from one of the most afford­able schools in the state of Texas. Grad­u­ates of TAMUC’s under­grad­u­ate finance degree find they are pre­pared for long-term pro­fes­sion­al suc­cess as a Char­tered Finan­cial Ana­lyst or a des­ig­nat­ed Cer­ti­fied Finan­cial Planner.

Texas A&M Uni­ver­si­ty-Com­merce was found­ed in 1889, which makes it Texas’ 4th old­est state school. The school is expe­ri­enc­ing renewed growth with old­er, more eth­ni­cal­ly diverse, and inter­na­tion­al stu­dents. The school offers some intro­duc­to­ry, free online finance cours­es; how­ev­er, these can­not be applied to a finance diplo­ma. TAMUC has, over that last quar­ter-cen­tu­ry, evolved to a pre­em­i­nent region­al busi­ness school. Forbes and the Wall Street Jour­nal have rec­og­nized TAMUC as a ‘best buy’ with one of the best cheap online finance degree pro­grams in the nation.

Degree: BBA in Finance
Cost: $$$$$

4. New England College of Business

The New Eng­land Col­lege of Busi­ness online BS in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion-Bank­ing Finance con­cen­tra­tion pre­pares grad­u­ates to under­stand the the­o­ry (and appli­ca­tion) of Bank­ing Prin­ci­ples, Finan­cial Ser­vices, Invest­ment Ser­vices, and Con­sumer Cred­it. The tuition costs are so afford­able it may seem to some that they are tak­ing free online finance cours­es. A BSBA opens oppor­tu­ni­ties in the polit­i­cal, social, and eco­nom­ic facets of the cor­po­rate world as one of the best online finance degree pro­grams available.

The New Eng­land Col­lege of Busi­ness was found­ed in 1909 as the Amer­i­can Bank­ing Insti­tute. The Mass­a­chu­setts Depart­ment of High­er Edu­ca­tion licens­es NECOB, while the NEASC – the New Eng­land Asso­ci­a­tion of Schools and Col­leges accred­its the uni­ver­si­ty. Tuition for the Bachelor’s of Busi­ness in Bank­ing and Finance is the same for both in-state and out-of-state stu­dents. How­ev­er, tuition also depends upon the num­ber of cred­its a stu­dent takes in any giv­en twelve-month period.

Degree: BSBA in Bank­ing Finance
Cost: $$$$$

Inter­est­ed? Learn more about the finance pro­gram here!

5. Columbia Southern University

Colum­bia South­ern University’s online BS in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion-Finance is designed for those work­ing pro­fes­sion­als who require a flex­i­ble sched­ule to earn their degree. CSU’s cheap online finance degree requires the com­ple­tion of 120 cred­it hours; how­ev­er, the school allows stu­dents to trans­fer cred­its that meet CSU’s fun­da­men­tal qual­i­fi­ca­tions. BSBA grad­u­ates enter the work­force as skilled finance and man­age­ment lead­ers. They often find reward­ing careers in the fields as invest­ment fund man­agers, finan­cial ana­lysts or loss pre­ven­tion leaders.

Colum­bia South­ern Uni­ver­si­ty was estab­lished in 1993 and remains a for-prof­it, pri­vate uni­ver­si­ty ded­i­cat­ed to pro­vid­ing the finest online edu­ca­tion pro­grams on the mar­ket. The Dis­tance Edu­ca­tion Accred­i­ta­tion Com­mis­sion (DEAC), a Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion rec­og­nized accred­it­ing body, pro­vides accred­i­ta­tion for CSU. Tuition for the Colum­bia South­ern University’s Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion is the same for all stu­dents, and on aver­age, less than half the cost of tra­di­tion­al under­grad­u­ate programs.

Degree: BSBA in Finance
Cost: $$$$$

Inter­est­ed? Learn more about the finance pro­gram here!

5. UNC Pembroke

UNC Pembroke’s online BS in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion Finance con­cen­tra­tion pro­vides stu­dents with the skills they need for a career in bank­ing and invest­ment. Stu­dents have the option of dou­bling up their major, if they meet cer­tain require­ments, adding spe­cial­iza­tions in Entre­pre­neur­ship, Man­age­ment, Inter­na­tion­al Busi­ness, or oth­ers to the Finance con­cen­tra­tion. UNC’s BSBA pre­pares grad­u­ates to move towards a grad­u­ate pro­gram, or, with the skills nec­es­sary to suc­cess­ful­ly nav­i­gate the com­plex world of business.

UNC Pem­broke was estab­lished by leg­is­la­tion in 1887 as a nor­mal school to pre­pare school­teach­ers. It opened with just fif­teen stu­dents and one teacher. UNC Pem­broke was then includ­ed as one of the 16 cam­pus­es with­in the Uni­ver­si­ty of North Car­oli­na sys­tem and con­tin­ues today as the only pub­lic His­tor­i­cal­ly Amer­i­can Indi­an Serv­ing lib­er­al arts col­lege in the South. U.S. News & World Report con­sid­ers UNC Pem­broke among the most afford­able schools in the nation. Tuition costs vary and are based upon whether the stu­dent lives in-state or out-of-state.

Degree: BSBA in Finance
Cost: $$$$$

7. Columbia College (Missouri)

Colum­bia College’s online bach­e­lor’s degree in finance offers either a Bach­e­lor of Arts (BA) or Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence (BS) in Finance. Both finance degrees are offered online in eight dif­fer­ent loca­tions in Mis­souri and Illi­nois. Stu­dents study­ing for a BS or BA must com­plete 120 semes­ter hours. The required cours­es include gen­er­al class­es required for all bach­e­lor degrees, plus those class­es with­in a student’s spe­cial­ty of choice. Grad­u­ates of the finance degree pro­gram have the option of apply­ing the learned tech­niques and knowl­edge to a vari­ety of careers, across many fields and industries.

Colum­bia Col­lege was estab­lished in 1851 by the Mis­souri leg­is­la­ture. The school is a pri­vate, not-for-prof­it arts and sci­ences insti­tute of high­er learn­ing, and was the first col­lege for women west of the Mis­sis­sip­pi Riv­er. Colum­bia College’s online stu­dent enroll­ment exceeds 29,000 stu­dents, and tuition is the same for both in-state and out-of-state stu­dents, mak­ing it one of the top cheap online finance degree pro­grams in the Midwest.

Degree: BA or BS in Finance
Cost: $$$$$

8. University of Houston-Victoria

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Hous­ton-Vic­to­ria online Bach­e­lor of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion-Finance con­cen­tra­tion pre­pares stu­dents for the whole gamut of finance careers. Stu­dents learn the foun­da­tions of risk man­age­ment, insur­ance, real estate, and oth­er finance con­cepts. The BBA Finance degree is avail­able exclu­sive­ly online, but stu­dents have the option of tak­ing required cours­es at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Houston’s Vic­to­ria or Katy cam­pus. Poten­tial careers include a Finan­cial Plan­ner, a Pri­vate Banker, a Mort­gage Banker, a Research Ana­lyst or a Real Estate Appraiser.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Hous­ton-Vic­to­ria was found­ed in 1973 in the tiny sub­urb of Vic­to­ria, when towns­peo­ple lob­bied the uni­ver­si­ty for an exten­sion cam­pus to pro­vide con­ve­nient cours­es in the area. Out­reach, acces­si­bil­i­ty, and con­ve­nience remain cen­tral to UHV’s mis­sion, as well as afford­abil­i­ty. Tuition costs depend upon the student’s res­i­den­cy; as either an in-state or an out-of-state stu­dent. UHV offers a pletho­ra of finan­cial aid options. In any giv­en year, they dis­burse more than $32 mil­lion in loans, grants, and schol­ar­ships. It’s one of the best pos­si­ble choic­es for a cheap online finance degree in Texas.

Degree: BBA in Finance
Cost: $$$$$

9. Dickinson State University

Dick­in­son State University’s online Bach­e­lor of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion in Finance is the best online finance degree, in terms of val­ue, in the Dako­tas. DSU’s bachelor’s degree in finance is avail­able online or on the Bis­mar­ck cam­pus. Grad­u­ates are pre­pared to enter the work­force with plan­ning, con­trol­ling and orga­niz­ing skills fine-tuned for the finan­cial indus­try. Finance spe­cial­ties include bud­get­ing, risk vs. return analy­sis, finan­cial state­ments man­age­ment and val­u­at­ing com­plex finan­cial concepts.

Dick­in­son State Uni­ver­si­ty start­ed in 1908 when 104 stu­dents first met in a local high school class­room. The cost of tuition for those stu­dents was $0. While tuition is no longer free today, Dick­in­son State Uni­ver­si­ty is tasked with the respon­si­bil­i­ty of par­tic­i­pat­ing the eco­nom­ic, cul­tur­al intel­lec­tu­al and social envi­ron­ment of the state. DSU achieves their mis­sion by con­sis­tent­ly pro­vid­ing qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion at an afford­able price, includ­ing a cheap online finance degree.

Degree: BBA in Finance
Cost: $$$$$

Inter­est­ed? Learn more about the finance pro­gram here!

10. State University of New York-Canton

SUNY Canton’s online Bach­e­lor of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion in Finance com­pre­hen­sive­ly pre­pares grad­u­ates with a sol­id back­ground in finan­cial the­o­ry. Course­work for the bachelor’s degree in finance can be com­plet­ed entire­ly online, though SUNY finance majors are required to fin­ish an intern­ship in the finan­cial ser­vices sec­tor of their choice before grad­u­at­ing. Online finance degree can­di­dates attend vir­tu­al class­es with oth­er stu­dents from Moscow. SUNY Can­ton has a 100% job place­ment for those grad­u­ates will­ing to relocate.

The State Uni­ver­si­ty of New York at Can­ton was estab­lished in 1906 as the first two-year, post­sec­ondary school in the state of New York. Today, SUNY Can­ton is a ful­ly res­i­den­tial col­lege offer­ing a range of cer­tifi­cates, associate’s, and bachelor’s degrees. The school is locat­ed near the Cana­di­an cities of Mon­tre­al and Ottawa and proud­ly serves the peo­ple of the Adiron­dack Moun­tains and the Great Lakes. With a rep­u­ta­tion for out­reach and afford­abil­i­ty (includ­ing its cheap online finance degree), SUNY Can­ton is first choice for many high school grad­u­ates and work­ing adults in the St. Lawrence Riv­er region.

Degree: BBA in Finance
Cost: $$$$$

Inter­est­ed? Learn more about the finance pro­gram here!

What is the Cheapest Accredited Online College?

Col­lege tuition is a noto­ri­ous­ly tricky thing to nail down, what with dif­fer­ent rates for in-state and out-of-state stu­dents, var­i­ous upfront and hid­den fees, dis­counts (such as for vet­er­ans), and oth­er expens­es and deduc­tions (not to men­tion bach­e­lor’s schol­ar­ships, work-study, grants…). It’s pret­ty much impos­si­ble to know how much you will pay for your cheap online finance degree until the bill comes.

But there are some basic rules of thumb to go on when you’re won­der­ing what is the cheap­est accred­it­ed online college.

• Small­er region­al pub­lic uni­ver­si­ties are almost always cheap­er — some­times much cheap­er — than their big flag­ship cousins.
• Small­er reli­gious col­leges often attract stu­dents with much low­er rates than elite lib­er­al arts col­leges, and their qual­i­ty is often just as high (even if they don’t have the same net­work­ing power).
• For-prof­it online uni­ver­si­ties have a ten­den­cy to adver­tise low tuition and hide expen­sive fees, but a for-prof­it insti­tu­tion with region­al accred­i­ta­tion and AACSB or ACBSP accred­i­ta­tion for their busi­ness pro­grams will more like­ly be on the up-and-up (there’s more reg­u­la­tion, after all).

To get a cheap online finance degree, start with the proven smart val­ues. (And look into schol­ar­ships for online pro­grams.)

Are Cheap Online Colleges Reputable?

A col­lege edu­ca­tion no longer has to be expen­sive. Thanks to the Inter­net, stu­dents are now able to uti­lize tech­nol­o­gy to pur­sue their degrees and advance their edu­ca­tions. One of the most sig­nif­i­cant ques­tions dur­ing these pur­suits, how­ev­er, is if cheap online col­leges are rep­utable. While this is a valid ques­tion, it’s one prospec­tive stu­dent don’t have to con­cern them­selves with if they select a school with accred­i­ta­tion and high ranking.

When edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions, col­leges, and uni­ver­si­ties have their accred­i­ta­tion through agen­cies like the High­er Learn­ing Com­mis­sion (HLC), for exam­ple, they’re more rep­utable. These schools approach accred­it­ing agen­cies vol­un­tar­i­ly for eval­u­a­tions. These process­es are crit­i­cal because they help deter­mine if insti­tu­tions are pro­vid­ing qual­i­ty of education.

How Much Does a Finance Degree Cost?

Sev­er­al fac­tors come into play regard­ing the over­all costs for obtain­ing a finance degree. One of the most sig­nif­i­cant fac­tors is state res­i­den­cy. The main rea­son is that a large num­ber of col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties pro­vide dis­count rates to prospec­tive stu­dents resid­ing in the same state as the main cam­pus of the school. How­ev­er, if stu­dents choose to opt for online edu­ca­tion, the tuition is the same flat rate for all who attend.

With those fac­tors in mind, how much does a finance degree cost? Prospec­tive stu­dents can expect to pay tuitions of at least between $200 and $600 per cred­it for obtain­ing their finance degree online. What this equals for those pur­su­ing their bach­e­lor’s degree gen­er­al­ly range between $24,000 and $75,000.

Does a Cheap Online Finance Degree ROI?

Because it does­n’t have to cost a sig­nif­i­cant amount to earn a cheap online finance degree through an accred­it­ed uni­ver­si­ty or col­lege, there’s a high return on invest­ment (ROI) for stu­dents. Here’s the career out­look for finance majors accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics:

• Finan­cial Man­agers: their pro­ject­ed salary is $139,790 annu­al­ly with a job out­look of 16% (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
• Per­son­al Finan­cial Advi­sors: their pro­ject­ed salaries are $95,390 per year with job out­looks of 13%.
• Man­age­ment Ana­lysts: the pro­ject­ed salary for these indi­vid­u­als is $95,290 with a job out­look of 10%.
• Finan­cial Ana­lysts: those work­ing in this field have a pro­ject­ed annu­al income of $96,220 with a job out­look of 8%.

Addi­tion­al career oppor­tu­ni­ties with an online finance degree include the following:

• Bud­get Ana­lyst: these indi­vid­u­als eval­u­ate and mon­i­tor orga­ni­za­tion­al finances. It’s their respon­si­bil­i­ty to com­pile their find­ings into a bud­get report.
• Com­pli­ance Offi­cers: their spe­cial­ty is deal­ing with a myr­i­ad of reg­u­la­tions and laws per­tain­ing to finan­cial transactions.
• Per­son­al Finan­cial Advi­sors: it’s their respon­si­bil­i­ty to work direct­ly with indi­vid­u­als regard­ing the opti­miza­tion of their assets, invest­ments, and per­son­al finances.
• Secu­ri­ties and Com­modi­ties Sales Agents: these peo­ple are mid­dle­men who work toward con­nect­ing buy­ers with sell­ers who deal with finan­cial markets.

Can I Earn a Finance Degree Online for Free?

While cheap online finance degrees are read­i­ly avail­able, it’s also pos­si­ble to find free online finance cours­es. How­ev­er, you won’t be earn­ing cred­its for tak­ing them. For instance, MIT offers a num­ber of free cours­es, includ­ing Ana­lyt­ics of Finance, Behav­ioral Eco­nom­ics and Finance, Finan­cial Man­age­ment, The Law of Cor­po­rate Finance and Finan­cial Mar­kets, and Real Estate Finance and Finan­cial Markets.

Tak­ing free online finance cours­es will help bring you clos­er to achiev­ing your edu­ca­tion­al goals, earn­ing your degree, and advanc­ing your career objec­tives. While these class­es don’t earn you cred­its toward these goals, you will earn the nec­es­sary expe­ri­ence from them to help bring you clos­er to career advancement.

Oth­er uni­ver­si­ties offer­ing free finance cours­es include. Utah State Uni­ver­si­ty, UC Irvine, Yale Uni­ver­si­ty, Rut­gers, Michi­gan State Uni­ver­si­ty, Carnegie Mel­lon Uni­ver­si­ty, and Pur­due University.

Relat­ed Rank­ings:
Fastest Online Finance Degree Bach­e­lor’s Pro­grams
Best Bach­e­lor’s in Finance Degree Programs