Students - Student Account Refunds

Overview

Students become eligible to receive a refund from their student accounts when there is an open credit (i.e. negative balance).

Important Notes:

All refunds are issued directly to the student, regardless of who made the payment.
Cash and check overpayments remain in your account until there is no activity in the account for 12 months, at which point our office will initiate an automatic refund.
Refunds of less than $20 processed by request- please submit a ticket to request.
Account credits of less than $20 remain in your account for 12 months and then cleared.

Refund Methods

Students can receive a refund in the following ways:

Direct Deposit transfer to bank account
- please see our Direct Deposit article to learn more about Direct Deposit and to learn how to enroll
Paper check to current mailing address
Paper check to permanent mailing address
Paper check to stipend address (if applicable)

Direct deposit is the default refund method. If a student is enrolled in direct deposit, refunds will be sent to their direct deposit account on file. If a student is not enrolled in direct deposit, the next default refund method would be a paper check mailed to the current mailing address on file. If there is no active current mailing address, the refund would instead be sent to the permanent mailing address on file.

IMPORTANT: please be sure to keep all mailing addresses current and up-to-date so that any paper refund checks are mailed to the correct location.

Types of Refunds

Cash or Check Overpayment

Overpayment credits apply to open charges on one’s account. If you made an overpayment and have no open charges on your student account, you can request a refund.

To initiate a refund, the student may submit a ticket via the portal, including your name and PID. If payment was made via e-check or personal check, University policy requires a 21-day clearing period before disbursing funds.

Financial Aid

Aid refunds disburse automatically at the start of the quarter after all fees are paid. If your financial aid arrives mid-quarter, a refund disburses within 5-7 days. If a financial aid credit has been in your account for more than 5 days, please submit a ticket to ask about the status.

Credit Card

Overpayments of any dollar amount will remain on your account for up to 90 days. The overpayment will either apply to any future charges assessed before it reaches 90 days old or will be automatically refunded to the card from which the payment originated after it reaches 90 days old.

Housing

The housing department typically initiates refunds of housing credits. If there are specific inquiries regarding a housing refund, please contact Housing Administrative Services at (858) 534-4010, or email housinginfo@ucsd.edu

Stipend

A stipend will first appear as a credit on your student account and automatically refund within 1-2 business days.

Please note: The funds will not pay for any charges on your student account and the stipend will disburse in the full amount.

If the stipend credit does NOT appear on your student account, it may be possible that you are set up for payment through payroll and not your student account. Please contact your hiring department for more information.

Graduate Students:

If your stipends are processed through payroll and NOT your student account, please see the link below for information on enrolling in direct deposit for payroll.

https://blink.ucsd.edu/finance/payroll/processes/enroll.html

If you still have questions or need additional assistance, please submit a ticket.