<p>Last semester after waiting like 5 days into the releasing my excess loan money, I called my local Bursar's office and they pushed the refund through that same day, but I had called so late that it didn't get to my checking account till the day school started. </p>
<p>Fast forward to this semester.</p>
<p>They started releasing the excess money on Saturday, but I checked my account and it wasn't released so I called the Bursar's office this morning: </p>
<p>Me: I was calling about my refund. Told her about last semester.
Her: We don't take requests. The earliest you will see money in your account is January 13th.
Me: I checked my account and it hasn't been released yet. (so no I won't see it Wednesday.)
Her: What is your banner number?
Me: I tell her
Her: It will be released today...CLICK</p>
<p>No, thanks, have a nice day. I didn't even get a chance to say Thank you to her. </p>
<p>Okay...I understand that they are busy, but it takes an entire two minutes to release funds and I know that they do it cause they did it last semester. I figure once we have hit the 10 days before school starts that if it hasn't been released yet and I call, it is my money by federal law and if everything is in order it should be released without question. I am guessing that the school likes to keep the refund funds in a high yield savings account to get more interest if they can. Even an extra day or so is extra money for them. I will check my account later and if it isn't released I will call later in the day. I guess I just got the one person who happened to not be happy about working in the Bursar's office at the beginning of the semester. </p>
<p>Has anyone else had a problem releasing your refund like that if you call?</p>
<p>Write a letter to the Bursar and tell them about the interchange. I doubt that is the kind of service they want their people to be providing.</p>
<p>Someone just needs to be reminded that even though they have busy days, they still need to be polite.</p>
<p>As much as we’d like to think that students should get their excess funds disbursed as soon as they have cleared thier own hurdles (fee payment, etc.), most universities do disbursements en masse on a cycle determined by the latest deadline for all funds receipts and payments. Some monies for grants (ROTC/state scholarships/etc.) don’t arrive to the bursars office until later than you think. They generally hold all disbursements untill they have as many of these issues settled as possible. Otherwise they get inundated with calls after the fact for these things to be settled. It sounds like they did a partial (not sure what their priority list was) and have been working their way down the list. </p>
<p>That being said, there isn’t an excuse for rudeness by the folks in the office.</p>
<p>^^ Very true and I understand that they probably have some system they use and it does en mass on a cycle like you said. I did check my account to make sure that the loans I am getting had arrived at the Bursar’s Office (They were on Saturday.) I only have Pell Grant/Federal Direct Subsidized Loan and a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan. No other grants or scholarships.</p>
<p>I did send an email to the Bursar’s Office about the phone call and asked that they remind them to be polite and to say their name when they answer the phone. (She only answered the phone with, “Bursar’s Office…”) Kinda short and not polite at all.</p>
<p>Update: I called back and spoke to a really nice person who said a few things. One they do all refunds by hand…boy do I feel for those people. She did say that nothing had been released from my account, but that she was pushing it through and I would have my refund in my account by Thursday. (It was too late to refund today, but it will be in tomorrow’s batch.) I did go through the computer system at first where it says if you have any questions about your refund to press one and I think it went to a different department then the first lady I spoke too. Ya learn something new everyday.</p>