Payments:
The Business Office takes payments on student accounts from either a person (yourself, parents, grandparents, ect.) or a 529 account. Payments can be made either by going through your Gold Link in the Paying for College tab, sending a check in through the mail, or in person with either cash, paper check, or a debit card. If an e-check or a paper check is returned to us for any reason, there will be a $50 ACH returned fee added onto your student account. This information can be found online when you go to make a payment.
Payment Plans:
A payment plan is a formal agreement between you and Missouri Western State University where you agree to pay off your remaining account balance in full over the course of 4 months (3 months if you are enrolled in the summer semester). During the Fall and Spring semesters there are 4 due dates (3 due dates during the summer), each being on the 20th of the month, unless the 20th falls on a weekend or holiday, in which case payment is due the next business day. These 4 payments will split up your balance evenly. These amounts are subject to change as the semester progresses if you add or drop (a) class(es), or incur extra fees. You can sign up for a payment plan if you do not wish to either pay off your balance in full or have enough financial aid to cover your balance. If neither of these are applicable to you, and you do not have a payment plan made before a specified date, then there is a possibility that you will be dropped from your courses.
A payment plan can be set up in your Gold Link through the Paying for College tab. Payment plans can be set up to be manual or automatic. A manual payment plan will require the student to go into their account and make the payment by the 20th of the month. There are no late fees for making late payments until after the last payment is due, but you incur registration holds when the account is not up to date. An automatic payment plan will automatically draw the agreed upon amount from a specified bank account. This will happen automatically on the 20th of the month while the payment plan is in effect.
Course Withdrawal Dates and Refunds:
There are 4 weeks out of the beginning of the semester where you are reimbursed for classes that you drop. These are more often than not the first 4 weeks of classes, but you should always check with our offices first if you are considering dropping any of your courses. Each week the amount you are eligible to receive back decreases by 25%; first week is 100%, second is 75%, third is 50%, fourth is 25%. After these 4 weeks, you will not be eligible for a refund if you decide to drop a class. You can always check the Registrar’s website here for more information.
Refunds:
A refund occurs when a student’s account is overpaid, most commonly from excess financial aid. Refunds will usually begin to disperse at the 3rd week of the semester. Refunds will be dispersed in one of two manners, physical checks or an electronic refund. To set up an electronic refund and get your funds faster, go to the Student Bill Inquiry and Payment Options subsection of the Paying for College tab. Once there, navigate to the electronic refunds button under the My Profile Setup section. Once there, follow the instructions on screen to set up your electronic refund account.
Federal Buckley Amendment Release Form:
The Federal Buckley Amendment Release is a form that allows the Business Office and other administrative office individuals to speak to someone other than the owner of the account about the state of the account. Without this form, we are bound by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). This act disallows any office on campus from talking to any third party who is not the student about accounts specifics, such as the student account status, balance, registration, grades, ect. The only way that we can speak to anyone other than the student who owns the account is if the Federal Buckley Amendment Release form is filled out and signed by the student and the person who is inquiring is named by the student on the form. You can contact the Business Office for more information about this form.
1098-T Tax Form
The 1089-T Tax Form is the federal tax form that details the payments that are included for a specified tax year (not all payments are applicable to the 1098-T). These are sent out by tax year and can be found in the Paying for College tab in your Gold Link. For more information on the form, please visit https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1098-t or https://www.missouriwestern.edu/businessoffice/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2024/02/1098T-Explained-02052024.pdf
Past Due/ Collections Process:
Once a semester is over and there is still a balance left to be paid that is now past due, this balance can very well be sent to a third party collections agency and accrue interest or fees. During the intermediary time when someone is not making payments, they will be sent a series of 3 letters giving them options on how they can proceed. If we do not receive payment in full or agree to a payment plan within the span of these 3 letters, the account will be sent to collections. At that point the account owner will have to contact us and then the collection’s agency to set up payment arrangements.
Past Due Payment Plans:
This is a type of payment plan that is exclusive to past due accounts that have not yet been sent to a third party collections agency. This needs to be set up over the phone, over email, or in person. It consists of a document that will need to be signed by the account owner. Automatic payments are not available when this method is used; it is up to the account owner to manually make payments on the agreed upon date each month. These payments can be made in person, through mail, or online.
Debt Offset:
Debt offset is the process by which the Missouri Department of Revenue will send Missouri Western all or a portion of your yearly state tax refund to help satisfy a past due account. This can happen when one is in collections or it can happen when an account is simply past due. If a portion of your tax refund is sent to us by the Missouri Department of Revenue, you have 30 days to appeal in writing to this office if you believe your tax return should not have been sent to us. If the state of Missouri reviews this information and determines that you should not have had your tax return sent to us, then you will be refunded that amount.
Financial Appeal:
If you feel that there were extenuating circumstances that would exempt you from the regular course withdrawal dates, you can complete a Financial Appeal form where you will have the chance to explain your exigent circumstances. This will then go under review by our Financial Appeal committee and it will be up to them to come to a decision on whether or not your circumstances warrant an exception from a total or partial payment. You can contact both the Business Office and the Registrar’s Office for more information about account appeals.
Commuter Meal Plans:
Meal plans are available for commuter students, students who do not live on campus, but are not available through the same manner that an on campus student would. In order to purchase one, you must either pay in full at the Business Office or have enough excess financial aid in order to cover the full amount. This cannot be added to your account like an on campus meal. You can view and submit for these plans on your Gold Link under the Paying for College tab within the Meal Plan Selection – Commuter subsection.