Sooo, my parents pay for tuition with a credit card but I also get Pell Grants. Last semester the Pell Grant was applied before I got my total tuition bill. Is there a way/process to pay the tuition bill before the Pell Grant money hits my account? I’d like to have the tuition paid and have a $0.00 balance so that the Pell Grant money kicks back to me.
Please don’t judge. Surely I’m not the only person who has thought about this… 
Not sure I understand this.
Your Pell is paid to your school and is applied to your billable costs. When you get your bill, your Pell amount should already be indicated on that…and therefore, would not be an amount you would owe. In other words, that amount would not be included in your credit card payment.
Schools get these grants and apply them to your bill. You only get a refund if you have extra money.
Now…having said that, once your Pell is credited to your account, you will have a surplus there for this term…and you can request a refund of that surplus.
Go to your school billing office and ask their procedure and timing for refunds of excess payments.
If your parents can pay your full tuition and you get a Pell grant you or they may be guilty of fraud which is a criminal offense.
Your parents need to pay the bill before the grants are posted. For both of my kids, the bills are available before the due date and before awards are posted. If I pay before that day, the system would let me pay the amount due. It’s a timing thing and one I’m sure your parents will question.
The funds are disbursed to the school first to pay your bill. You get whatever is left over. Mine is usually disbursed six weeks into the school year. My school uses Higher One. I have it set up to go into my checking account.
Right, because no one has ever put anything on a CC that they can’t afford. That seems like quite a leap.
I’ve heard of this happening before with first gen families who don’t understand how aid works. Often, you will get a bill that shows “pending” aid but will also show the amount due. In my student account right now, it says I owe 10k in tuition despite the fact that I’m a graduate student who has a tuition waiver as part of my funding package. For parents who are new to the system and don’t understand how pending aid works, they see a bill and believe they have to pay it.
With all that said, if your family is low enough income that they’re qualifying for Pell, it is pretty slimy to have it “kick back” to you after they put YOUR tuition on their credit card. Yes, you can request that any excess FA be paid to you but your parents should know about it. If they’re fine with you getting the refund, then by all means. Somehow, I doubt that’s the case though.
+1 Slimy
*Morally repulsive, as in being dishonest or corrupt
It sounds like the student wants the Pell money,and the parents won’t hand the money over to the student…but will pay the college bill.
To the OP, you asked us not to judge…but why do you want this to happen?
Prll funds FIRST are used to fund billable costs to the university…any leftover after that would be sent to you. It sounds like your parents paid the balance after the Pell was applied to your bill.
That is exactly what is supposed to happen.
The bottom line is this … unless your parents are interested in paying a bill they don’t yet have, it won’t work. Your Pell will be posted to your bill as an estimated payment, and your bill will reflect that credit.