Grad and ADP Student News, July 29, 2016

Table of Contents

Payment Handling Changes in Portland

Payment for Fall Semester and Holds

Aid Disbursement and Excess Funds Checks

Financial Aid Permission Form

Insurance Waivers

Brief Alerts

Visit our Payment Information web page to find out how to submit your payment online from the comfort of your own computer. You can also create guest permissions for others who may be involved in paying your bill.

--------------

Please remember that your GFU Email is your official email for all university communication, notifications, and updates. You need to be sure you check your mailbox frequently. If your mail is forwarded, please make sure those rules are not disrupted or reset without your knowledge!

--------------

Why does Student Accounts need my Social Security or Tax ID #? George Fox is required to annually send out tax statements that you can use to claim educational tax benefits. Whether you choose to use those benefits or not, we are required to gather the information for reporting the data to the IRS and to you. It's the law and it's not optional. See W-9s Request for Student's ID Number in Quick Links box.

Quick Links

Student Accounts FAQ's

How to Make a Payment Online

How to make an International Payment

Grad and ADP Payment Agreement

Student Accounts Online Forms

W-9s Request for Student's ID Number

Here are some Student Financial Services updates specifically for our Graduate and ADP (Adult Degree Program) Students!

Introducing Gabrielle Giscombe!

We would like to welcome and introduce Gabrielle Giscombe who will be handling some of Hannah Stevenson's tasks on the Portland Campus while Hannah is on maternity leave.

Gabrielle comes to GFU with an MBA from Willamette University and is interested in Higher Education as a possible career choice.

Currently she is training in Newberg, but don't let that stop you from emailing and calling her with your questions. Her email is ggiscombe@georgefox.edu. Her extension is 2298 or 503-554-2298.

Portland Campus - Payment Handling Changes

Effective August 1st, to expedite the payment process for students paying in Portland, we are going to change how we handle checks submitted in person at that location. If paying by check, your payment will now be processed as an electronic (ACH) payment via the myGFU CashNet payment site.

Doing this will shorten the time it takes to process your payment, and it allows for a receipt to be emailed to you for your records. Our business processes will also be streamlined which allows more staff time to devote to our students.

What you will see that is different on the banking side is that your bank statement will show an ACH payment, not a check, and the payment will hit your bank faster.

If you prefer, we have pre-addressed payment envelopes available that you can pick up to send your payment to Newberg.

Payment Due Dates and Holds

Payment for Fall semester is due the Sunday before each academic session begins. For many programs that will be August 28th. If you are paying through financial aid, that means your financial aid requirements need to be fully completed prior to this date for your loans to be ready to disburse by the due date.

If your payment is delayed your account will be placed on hold and you will be prevented from making schedule changes. To avoid this situation, please take care of registration and payment early.

If you have a hold that prevents you from adding classes and you have taken care of your financial aid requirements, please email studentaccounts@georgefox.edu or stop by our office on either campus so we can help you get the hold lifted.

To view holds in myGFU, navigate to your Student Center and look in the upper right hand corner, just above your "To Do" list. If you have a hold, you can make payment online via myGFU and your hold should be lifted within a few hours. If it's not lifted, it's possible you may also have financial aid requirements that are incomplete or were recently completed. To be cleared with financial aid pending, contact your Student Account Specialist.

Aid Disbursement and Excess Funds Checks

Financial Aid will begin to disburse on August 19th. The following week Student Accounts will begin to process excess funds checks. If aid has not disbursed by the 22nd, it will not be possible for our office to issue an excess fund check before the semester begins. Please help us help you!

3 reasons your financial aid disbursement could be delayed:

ALL STUDENTS: Your enrollment confirmation "form" must be completed. It will become available in myGFU on or near the 8th of August. When it's time, you will receive an email asking you to complete it. (See "University Forms" in myGFU student center).
You must be registered for at least half-time credits. For grad students that is 4 credits. Half-time for ADP is 6 credits. Wait-listed courses do not count toward aid eligibility.
You may have financial aid documents to complete. Please visit your "To Do" list in your myGFU student center, and revisit frequently until aid has disbursed.
If you have a balance due in a prior semester, your excess funds check will be delayed. To expedite your refund check, please pay your prior balance due, even if it is quite small.
An old address or bad address can delay your refund check. Please review your address in myGFU and be sure it is current. You can have more than one active address, but please be aware that we mail checks to the "MAIL" address first, then "HOME" if there isn't a mailing address.

Typically, if aid overpays the account, excess funds checks are mailed about a week after the credit balance is created, unless numbers 4 or 5 above slow us down further. Regretfully, refund checks are not available for pick-up and we do not currently have an automatic deposit option.

Financial Aid Permission Form

The Title IV Financial Aid Permission Form is new this year and it is important that you understand what it is.

In brief, Federal Aid rules changed so that Student Accounts can no longer allow your federal aid to pay for course fees. We have always been restricted from applying these payments to non-allowable costs, but now the definition has changed to include course fees. Visit our FAQ at this link for more information.

Health Insurance Waivers

If you have been charged for health insurance and already have coverage, you must waive insurance by fully completing the required form in myGFU. Once you complete the form, your charges will generally be updated within 24 hours.

If 24 hours has passed and you are still being charged, it is possible you did not complete the form fully. If you left any of the fields blank, your form will not be processed. A common mistake is to not furnish the address for your insurance policy. To correct a previously submitted form you must go again to the University Forms area but this time you need to select the completed form at the bottom. (It doesn't look like a hyperlink but it is one!) Then simply re-open the form you submitted previously and add the needed information. 24 hours later your charges should be updated.

For additional help or information about insurance, email Molly Hickok at mhickok@georgefox.edu.

All of us in Student Accounts and Financial Aid wish you well. Let us know if we can assist you. We are here to help!

Sincerely,

Your George Fox University Student Financial Service Teams