$800 Confirmation Deposit for Housing? *URGENT*

<p>I just got the notice today that I only had one more day to pay the deposit. Problem is that my parents can in no way come up with $800 by tomorrow, or even probably in the next couple of months if we want to keep our house. I went to the website and there was nothing about a waiver like there was for the commitment deposit.</p>

<p>My EFC is $0, so I don't understand how USC expects us to pay this now, is there any way around it?</p>

<p>It says $400 goes towards fall housing and $400 towards spring housing, yet I don't have to pay anything on that between grants/scholarships/loans/work-study offered by FA, so even if I did make the payment, where would the money go? Straight back to me? If so I might be able to get someone to make the deposit and pay them back, but it's extremely unfair to force this on someone. </p>

<p>Also, what happens if I don't pay it? Do I just not have a place to live next year? I hope this doesn't ruin my college next year, because there's absolutely no way I can come up with a place to live or the money to pay for the deposit, considering I live in Kentucky, it's not like I can commute.</p>

<p>Any help would be greatly appreciated. I tried calling but they closed ~30 mins ago...</p>

<p>the deposit is credited into your count at the end of the contract. Also, i would try calling them tomorrow to explain the situation.</p>

<p>I know it’s credited, but that doesn’t mean that I can put $800 down right now, I simply don’t have the money, getting it back doesn’t mean I can pay it, not to mention that’s pretty late down the road when I do get it back.</p>

<p>You can use a credit card to pay for the deposit.</p>

<p>I would if I/my family had a credit card… my mom went bankrupt so its kinda difficult to get a credit card… I’m in the same position Lightja and it’s nervewracking because I dont wanna lose my spot/my roommate! Ima call tomorrow and if its negative then ima have to find somebody to lend me 800 bucks at a very, very short notice…</p>

<p>I think you need to call Housing and Fin. aid as soon as possible and try to get some help.</p>

<p>According to this thread “Just Received Housing!”, others may be having difficulty with this deposit too.
Sorry I can’t link the thread (it’s not working for me right now), but there’s some info on page 3 of that thread regarding the deposit.</p>

<p>Perhaps you could PM one of the other students to ask what they were told when/if they called USC.</p>

<p>As for tomorrow, USC won’t immediately cancel your housing…they know there are online glitches sometimes, so they’d probably email you before cancelling.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/928432-just-received-housing-3.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/928432-just-received-housing-3.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Yeah I already read through that thread and basically just found out that the deposit is $800 and goes towards fall and spring semesters in halves respectively, none of that information which I didn’t know, it doesn’t say anything about waiving the fee other than asking them about it, which doesn’t provide me with an objective answer, and I was going to anyways.</p>

<p>Yeah, I’m in the same boat right now. When I emailed the Housing office earlier this afternoon, they responded and said that I should talk to the financial aid office. Unfortunately, they close at 5. I sent them an email, and will be phoning in tomorrow.</p>

<p>I don’t think they would honestly expect you to have that kind of money on such short notice if your EFC is 0. If they do, then…that’s definitely not cool.</p>

<p>same problem!! I will also be calling tomorrow asap. If anyone gets more details, please post!</p>

<p>This morning I called the USC housing office, and they told me to call the office of financial aid, so I did that.</p>

<p>When I got in contact with one of the people, they said that they could just charge it to my student account and that it would be taken care of for now, and it wouldn’t come out of pocket, but out of the money given to me as financial aid, which would come back when I needed it, as it does for everyone else.</p>

<p>I don’t have confirmation that this has happened yet, but I intend on calling back in a few hours to see if my payment had been received from my account, because on the application on the portal, the current step is still payment and I can’t go to contract/meal plan yet because I don’t think the payment has registered yet.</p>

<p>I’ll keep you up to date and let you know as soon as I know whether or not it has been made yet.</p>

<p>I can verify the above statement.</p>

<p>USC told me that if the family contribution is low enough, they may charge it to the student account.</p>

<p>So, good luck to everyone!</p>

<p>Good news! So happy to hear that you both have some solutions to this problem.</p>

<p>it was charged to my account and I didn’t pay for it, so all is good, housing is completed!</p>