Student Accounts

The Financial Services Team is responsible for receiving and processing tuition and fee payments, refunds, and Department of Education loan disbursements on student's accounts.

Key Points

• Contacting the Financial Services Team is the best way to handle any questions about billing and payments - financialservices@meridianuniversity.edu.
• Accessing the Student Services Portal is the best way to view your student account balance.
• Students are responsible for adhering to Meridian’s payment and refund policies and knowing when payments are due.
• We send communication to students via @meridianuniversity.edu email addresses. Students are responsible for ensuring they are able to access these emails as well as their personal email address provided to the University at the time of enrollment.
• Always read emails from @meridianuniversity.edu addresses - ensure that these emails do not go to your spam folder.

Financial Aid Disbursements

Financial aid is disbursed from the U.S. Department of Education directly to Meridian in equal disbursements after the start of each quarter once registration, Satisfactory Academic Progress, and attendance are confirmed.

Students can expect aid to be disbursed within 3-6 weeks from the start of the quarter and are notified of this via email. Credit balance refunds (where Meridian sends the student excess aid received by the University via direct deposit) occurs within 14 days of the date of disbursement, per Department of Education regulations.

Meridian applies financial aid towards charges for tuition and fees for the current quarter. Students are responsible for payment of all outstanding charges not covered by financial aid by the applicable due date(s).

Once students have completed all required documents for financial aid and the award has been processed by Meridian, expected financial aid will be noted on the student’s account until funds have been received from the U.S. Department of Education and processed by Meridian each quarter. Any tuition and fees not covered by Financial Aid are expected to be paid before the start of each quarter.

Payments

Payment Terms

Tuition is due quarterly or monthly, based on the payment plan selected by the student. Students who are not financially clear (have an overdue balance) may not be able to access courses in the course platform or attend onsite courses.

Payment Plans and Due Dates

Students can select a payment plan and must stay with that plan for the entire academic year. Partial payments are not accepted; however, students may make advance payments.

• Quarterly - All tuition and fees are due by the first day of each quarter. (September 1, December 1, March 1, and June 1)
• Monthly - All tuition and fees are due by the first of each month. (Includes additional $30/month finance charge.)

Note that students whose direct costs (owed to Meridian) are entirely covered by a financial aid award still need to select a payment plan, in case they do end up with a balance not covered by financial aid.

Late Payments

A late fee of $25 is assessed on all late payments 7 days past the due date (as described above for each payment plan).

Collections Policy

Unfulfilled balances may incur delinquent fees, academic holds, and additional constraints. Remaining unpaid balances are subject to collection measures and associated fees.

• A one-time $25 Late fee will be applied to balances 7 days past their due date.
• Balances exceeding $100 in overdue charges may prompt collection actions.
• Any outstanding fees will incur a one-time $100 collection processing fee. This fee reflects the resources expended in tracking, notifying students of their balances, and processing accounts for collection agencies. (The service charge pertains to the processing costs incurred for transferring accounts to collection agencies.)
• Tuition and other charges left unpaid for 90-days will be forwarded to a collection agency. Subsequently, the Financial Services Team will no longer handle the debt, and all inquiries should be directed to the relevant collection agency.

Notice: Student payments will initially be allocated to delinquent fees and collection costs, followed by the oldest outstanding charges.

What to Pay

Consult the Student Services Portal to determine the amount you need to pay as well as when payment is due. Note that Meridian does not provide paper billing statements or payment receipts for tuition or fees unless specifically requested. Students are responsible for tracking what they owe and paying on time.

How to Pay

To make a payment by credit card, access the Student Services Portal. Meridian accepts payments by Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express. Note that for payments by credit card, the system will add a 3-4% plus .30 credit card processing fee depending on your country of origin.

ACH bank account payments can also be made via the Student Services Portal. Note that for bank account payments, the system will add a 0.8% payment processing fee.

All checks or money orders are to be made payable to Meridian University. Specify what your payment is for on the memo section of the check.

If the check is from a third party sponsoring your attendance, please ensure that the check memo includes your name or the payment will be rejected by Meridian.

Please note that we cannot accept postdated checks nor will checks be held for funds availability. All checks are deposited upon receipt.

Insufficient Funds

When a check submitted for any fee is returned by the student’s bank for insufficient funds, a returned check fee of $35 is assessed to the student’s account. Any student having more than two returned checks during an academic year will be required to pay all future fees using money orders or cashier’s checks.

Where to Pay

All tuition payments should be mailed to:

Meridian Financial Services
548 Market St PMB 92003
San Francisco, California 94104-5401

Payments should not be sent by Fed Ex to this address

Change of Address

It is each student’s responsibility to make sure that Meridian University and the U.S. Department of Education have the most current and correct address, phone number, and email information. If this information changes, the respective representatives must be notified.

Credit Balances

This section is about financial aid credit balances. View the Leave of Absence, Withdrawals and Refund Policy for information on refunds of tuition and fees.

For students whose financial aid award exceeds the direct costs owed to Meridian, the amount of the quarterly financial aid disbursement from the U.S. Department of Education will be higher than the tuition and fees owed for the same period. These students are entitled to a refund which will be sent directly from Meridian in the form of a direct deposit to the U.S. bank account on file with Meridian - within approximately 14 days from the date the funds are applied to the student’s account.

If you would like Meridian to retain credit balances on your account and apply them against future balances owed, submit the Authorization to Hold Credit Balance form.

Students who do not have a U.S. bank account must contact the Student Accounts Office to coordinate other credit balance refund options.

More Information

The Financial Services Team can be reached by email at financialservices@meridianuniversityor by phone at (707) 765-1836.

The Tax Relief Act of 1997 provides an opportunity for students to receive tax savings. These benefits, called the American Opportunity Tax Credit and Lifetime Learning Tax Credit, allow taxpayers to reduce their federal income tax based upon qualified tuition and fees paid, if the taxpayer meets all Tax Relief Act of 1997 requirements.