<p>is it with "ebill" "cars" or "eft"? i'm so confused. We haven't signed up for eft and won't be able to since i'm not 18--can't have my own account--until after the deadline.</p>
<p>Actually you can get a student checking account at Chase. I got this for my daughter last year before she left for college so I know it can be done. She put me on her account so I can make deposits and stuff in case of an emergency. Oh, and there are no fees… Check it out.</p>
<p>I opened my own bank account a few months after turning 17. My parent’s names aren’t on the account whatsoever. I was able to use that account to sign up for EFT.</p>
<p>what i heard is they deduct the tuition and room/board from your total financial aid package and then give the remaining amount of your financial aid refunded to your bank account registered under EFT. If I’m wrong please correct me.</p>
<p>CARS is the basic financial system of Cal - it is where your account is maintained, all charges are applied and all payments or credits are recognized.</p>
<p>The CARS system issues a bill once a month - the ebill.</p>
<p>EFT is a way to deal with a credit balance in CARS - if you have EFT set up then it will send any credit to that external account. Without EFT, they will mail a check. Either way, it has nothing to do with paying for tuition and board, only with accepting refunds. </p>
<p>Since Finaid is paid to CARS, the excess is the money you need for books and other living expenses. It is what you get through EFT or check.</p>
<p>Finaid will make a payment to CARS on your behalf. Once that happens, you figure out the amount left, if any, and pay that. </p>
<p>It gets a bit confusing because the ebill is not a live current picture of what you owe. it is a once a month frozen copy of effectively a paper bill. If on the 25th of July, the CARS system generates ebills, it will show all charges and credits and payments as of that date. If, two days later, financial aid dumps money in your account, the ebill does not show that. You will only see that on ebill when the August ebill is produced. </p>
<p>Fortunately, bearfacts lets you look at your current balance and current amount due (Quick statement), and you can look at the payment history to see how much was paid in and on what date. Thus, you can see the finaid or parents payments and figure out how much has to be paid from the quick statement. </p>
<p>Ignoring the complication of having payments and finaid after the ebill is generated, it is simpler. The ebill shows you the balance as of the day of the ebill generation. It lists the minimum amount to pay, also allows you to select payments of tuition over time instead of in one chunk per semester. </p>
<p>Your parents can set up an account to make payments - it is separate from your bearfacts, they only see the money part. On that, they can arrange to send money from bank accounts or work out other ways to make the payments. CARS will send them the ebills each month. This site tells them how [Student</a> Billing Services, University of California, Berkeley](<a href=“http://studentbilling.berkeley.edu/]Student”>http://studentbilling.berkeley.edu/)</p>
<p>^Awesome, thanks…guess it’s simpler for me since i’m OOS=the financial aid gods despise me</p>