<p>I received an email today from Vanderbilt stating that my July 2013 Invoice is available for viewing. When I go to the SM Billing Portal, there are two sections on the homepage. One says Bill Summary, and the Bill Amount is $1,940. However, the other section says Recent Activity, and the Current Balance is $30,144. I don't quite understand; am I supposed to pay both of these amounts of money? Both sections have a "pay now" button under them.</p>
<p>The recent activity just appears to be a list of debits and credits by date…financial aid hasn’t been credited yet. </p>
<p>The bill summary doesn’t look to be final yet. It does credit the anticipated financial aid, but it doesn’t credit the matriculation fee or outside scholarship. The bill amount is the amount you’ll pay once it’s final.</p>
<p>Bill summary is the amount you are being being billed. It’s the only thing that matters. </p>
<p>Your recent activity just summarizes charges and shows your account balance. I don’t believe the balance will be updated until you pay your current bill, which will then credit both your payment and your financial aid to the balance and reduce it to zero.</p>
<p>For most students, the “bill summary” should be accurate, or close to accurate. If there was some major change to your finances and you appealed your financial aid package, you should wait. Also if you’re waiting for loans or an outside scholarship to kick in, might as well wait.</p>
<p>Otherwise, you can pay now, or wait closer to the deadline to see if anything changes, doesn’t really matter. If you pay now and your FA changes, you will be either billed or credited for the difference, so it’s no big deal. It’s due 8/14.</p>
<p>So when it says “Tuition Bill”, it actually refers to all expenses for the fall semester, not just tuition?</p>
<p>^^
I’m hoping it’s the total bill, not just tuition. Otherwise it’s a lot more than I anticipated. Now I just have to figure out where to send the check.</p>
<p>Your bill shows everything you owe–housing, tuition, fees, commodore cash, etc. If you click on “account summary” in the “recent activity” box, you’ll see what they have charged you for.</p>
<p>Thank you for the answers. I was just worried because both sections had a “Pay Now” option, so I thought that I had to pay for both amounts.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure you’ll have to do an automatic draw from your bank…that’s what we’ve had to do in past. No credit cards or checks (except for the matriculation fee). I havnt looked at my girls yet because things changed in the past year right up to date of payment due!</p>
<p>I’m about 99.99% sure you can pay by credit card… We’ve done it for every bill.</p>
<p>From what I have read, if you pay by credit card there is a 2.65% fee. That can be a lot depending on how much you owe.</p>
<p>[Payment</a> Options | Payments | Student Accounts | Vanderbilt University](<a href=“http://www.vanderbilt.edu/stuaccts/payments/options-fall.php]Payment”>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/stuaccts/payments/options-fall.php)</p>
<p>^
Thanks for the info. I just got the netpay account setup. I’ll pay the bill in the next week.</p>
<p>You’re right, there is a credit card…I forgot the reason we didn’t do it was because of the fee!</p>