When and How Financial Aid Pays
When Your Aid Will Pay Out
Being Eligible for a Refund
How to Pay Your CARS Bill
Frequently Asked Questions
Summer 2013 Financial Aid Payments and Refunds
When your financial aid awards are ready to pay out, they will be applied automatically to your Campus Accounts Receivable System (CARS) account. CARS directly bills students for all types of student charges, including registration fees, University housing, telephone, library fines, short-term loans, financial aid adjustments, Summer Sessions registration fees, and miscellaneous student debts.
Approximately one week before the beginning of each semester, your aid will be applied to your CARS account. This will only occur if you meet the following requirements:
- You are enrolled in classes.
- You do not have any registration blocks.
- Your financial aid file is complete. MyFinAid will let you know about any missing documents in the "Required Documents" section.
- For entering freshmen, the Admissions Office must have received your official high school transcript showing that you successfully graduated and earned your diploma.
If you have other aid that was not ready to pay out at the time of the first CARS transmission for the semester, it will pay out later. The Financial Aid and Scholarships Office sends financial aid payments to CARS three times per week.
After your financial aid is applied to whatever bills you have in CARS, if there is any aid remaining, this amount will be refunded to you. In other words, if what you owe in CARS is less than the amount of aid that has been applied to CARS, you will get money back. On the other hand, if what you owe is more than the aid that was applied, then you will owe money (have a CARS balance).
Remember that if you are billed for items after all your aid has disbursed, you will have to pay the new bills with your refund or some other source.
We strongly recommend that you sign up for Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) to receive your refund as quickly as possible.
All payments to your CARS account are made through e-Bill. Students do not receive paper bills. The e-Bill process is described on the Billing and Payment Services website.
You can grant access to a parent or other trusted adult to make payments on your behalf.
Once a month you will be sent an email notifying you to check your e-Bill if any activity has occurred in the account.
To learn about the Deferred Payment Plan, please see studentbilling.berkeley.edu/deferredPay.htm.
To learn more about Payment Options, please see studentbilling.berkeley.edu/carsPaymentOptions.htm.
If you have questions about your CARS statement, please contact Cal Student Central, 120 Sproul Hall, (510) 664-9181.
1. What is Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and how do I sign up?
2. Does all my money come at the same time?
3. Can I choose not to have the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office pay my bills in CARS?
4. What happens if I withdraw after receiving financial aid?
5. Why do I get billed for financial aid?
6. How do I find out if I need to make any payments to the University?
7. Why haven't I received a refund?
1. What is Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and how do I sign up?
EFT is a way to have CARS refunds deposited directly to your checking or savings account. If you don't sign up for EFT then your check(s) will be held at Cal Student Central, 120 Sproul Hall, for four weeks. If you don't pick it up by that time the check will be mailed to whatever local address you have reported to the Registrar. Sign up for EFT at eftstudent.berkeley.edu/
2. Does all my money come at the same time?
Your financial aid awards are for the academic year. Half is disbursed in fall and half in spring. When funds are first disbursed for the semester some of your aid may not pay out. For example, if you have accepted a loan but you have not completed a master promissory note, the loan will not be disbursed until you have completed the entire loan process.
3. Can I choose not to have the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office pay my bills in CARS?
Your financial aid must be used to pay registration fees, nonresident tuition, and residence hall bills, and any current family housing bills, before any funds can be disbursed to you. You can choose to have other CARS bills not paid automatically. This option appears in MyFinAid.
4. What happens if I withdraw after receiving financial aid?
If you withdraw after receiving your financial aid, you could be billed a significant portion of your aid depending on what type of aid you received and when you stopped attending class. Read our web page for more information on withdrawing and financial aid.
5. Why do I get billed for financial aid?
You get billed for financial aid when you become ineligible for an award. For example, if you received a grant that requires full-time enrollment, then the Registrar reports that you are enrolled less than full-time, that grant will be removed from your awards in MyFinAid and you will be billed for that amount. If you receive outside scholarships or other types of outside awards that you had not reported, you could be billed for some of your financial aid. If you are billed for a financial aid award, contact Cal Student Central.
6. How do I find out if I need to make any payments to the University?
Your CARS Quick Statement on Bear Facts is updated daily and will reflect recent payments and any current CARS balance due. Please note that it may take up to two days for a financial aid payment noted on the MyFinAid Award Payment Status screen to be reflected in your Quick Statement on Bear Facts.
7. Why haven't I received a refund?
Financial aid awards are applied directly to the CARS accounts of students enrolled in classes. Institutional Grants, University scholarships, scholarships from outside agencies, and Cal Grants are used to pay off any University debts in the following order: current-semester registration fees and tuition, Financial Aid and Scholarships Office adjustments, past due debts, current due receivables, and future due receivables. Monies left over after all charges are paid are refunded to the student.
Students receiving departmental awards may not have their award applied to their CARS balance. Check with Cal Student Central, 120 Sproul Hall, to find out how your award was disbursed and if you still have a balance.
Some students will have no financial aid refunds available to them because all of their aid has been used to pay University debts. This is most likely to occur for students living in University residence halls.
Federal financial aid, Cal Grants, UC Grants, and scholarships will pay to CARS only when all registration blocks are removed and you meet all enrollment requirements. In addition, federal regulations prohibit federal aid from being used to pay prior years' debts.
Students with financial aid or other partial fee offsets covering at least the first registration fee installment will not need to make a payment in order to complete registration.