About Student Debt

Find out about policies and procedures related to student debt, holds, late fees, refunds, and resolving disputes.

Fee assessment

• Student fee charges are assessed and due on the due date of the first billing statement in which the charge appears. The billing is considered delinquent if paid after that due date.
• If you fail to resolve your debt, you will be barred from future registration and official academic transcript requests.
• Exceptions include enrollments in Student Emergency Loans and the Triton Registration Fee Installment Payment Plan (TRIP), specified on the appropriate due statement.
• A Time Payment Agreement (TPA), subject to Student Business Services Office approval, will not remove the bars (holds), but may hold off the collections due process.

Holds

Holds restrict access to future goods and services, such as registration in classes, and are placed on student accounts after an account is deemed delinquent.

Late fees

UCSD maintains a late charge program for student accounts. The Student Business Services Office reserves the right to waive a late charge.

Statement late fees:

• Are assessed on past due accounts of $50 or more
• Amount to $25 per month for up to 3 months
• Are not assessed on outstanding voluntary donation charges such as CalPirg
• Are not assessed on outstanding billing statements if the late charge is the only detail outstanding
• Are not charged for late registration or similar reasons when a late charge has already been assessed (a late charge will be assessed on the second billing if the bill which had the late fee remains unpaid)
• Are not charged on a bill when the student delinquency was caused by a delinquency of the university

Student refunds

• A credit generated by financial aid will generate automatic refunds. Any overpayments will be held in your account until there is no activity in the account for 12 months. An automatic refund will then be initiated.
• Credits from overpaid Title IV financial aid payments are refunded to the Department of Education.
• Refunds of less than $20 are not automatically refunded. Submit your request to the Student Business Services Office. Account credits of less than $20 will remain in your student account 12 months before they are removed from the system. 

See Access the Credit Balance on Your Student Account.

Collection agencies

• Delinquent accounts may be turned over to a collection agency contracted by the university.
• Students are liable for the additional collection costs incurred to collect the debt.

Returned checks

You will be sent a notification letter for returned checks (i.e., NSF, account closed, stale dated). Your account will be charged for the returned check amount plus a $35 return check charge. See Cashier's Office FAQ for more details.

Disputes

If you question a charge, you should first dispute it with the department that originated the charge. If there is still a dispute, an administrative hearing may be held before an impartial campus official or committee.