When you initially register as a student at Tulane University, you establish an open-end account with Tulane through its Accounts Receivable Office. This agreement is a statement of the terms and conditions of that account, as well as a statement of your rights and responsibilities regarding that account. We recommend that you keep this agreement for your own reference. In the agreement, the words "we," "our," "us," "Tulane" and "University" refer to Tulane University. The words "you," "your" and "student" refer to you, the student or account holder. The word "agreement" refers to this Agreement and Disclosure Statement.
Credit Terms
Applicability - Your open-end account is the instrument through which Tulane will process your financial transactions with Tulane University. The terms of this agreement apply to all purchases, charges, fees, fines, tuition and loans made or obtained by you, made or obtained by someone else with your permission, or assessed to you, by, from, or with respect to Tulane (collectively referred to as "Charges" and individually as "Charge"), including, but not limited to:
a) Tuition and fees
b) Housing charges, including HSC Housing/Deming
c) Meal plan charges
d) Student health insurance
e) Bookstore, Provisions, Technology Connection
f) Campus Health Center charges
g) Library fines
h) Traffic fines
i) Federal and State taxes for international students
Promise to Pay - You promise to pay the total amount of all Charges. You also promise to pay all FINANCE CHARGES and other fees and expenses due under this agreement. Administrative, clerical or technical billing errors do not absolve your financial responsibility to pay the correct amount of tuition, fees and other obligations.
Notices – Tulane.edu email is the official method of communication between Tulane University and its students. You agree that you are therefore responsible for reading emails you receive from Tulane on a timely basis. You also agree that addresses on your account are your responsibility and you are to keep us informed of any change in your address. The permanent, local and billing addresses on your account may be changed through Tulane's Gibson Online website. If we mail you a letter, notice, or statement to the last address you have given us, you agree that you will be bound by the information contained in that mailing. All notices or letters sent to us must be sent to: acctrec@tulane.edu or Tulane University, Student Accounts Receivable #1550, 6823 St. Charles Ave, 327 Gibson Hall, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118.
Your Bill and Student Account - Bills are produced on a monthly basis. Bills will be emailed to the student's Tulane email address. Tulane’s e-Bills are accessible through Gibson Online on Student Accounts. Student must log in to Student Accounts at https://studentaccounts.tulane.edu/ to view bills and current activity, authorize others to have access, or to request paper statements if required. Paper statements are mailed to one address per month, and only to those account holders who have made this request on Student Accounts. Electronic payments can be made on Student Accounts. While payments made from checking/savings accounts are free, there is a convenience fee to make credit card payments. A variety of major credit cards are accepted. Check, cash & wire payments must be received by Tulane no later than 4:00 p.m. CST on the due date to ensure timely posting. Electronic check and credit card payments via Student Accounts portal will be accepted until 8:59 p.m. CST. The student account portal will be unavailable on the due date from 9:00 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. for monthly billing processing.
Students are responsible for making sure their parents or other authorized users of the account are signed up for e-billing. Students must invite other authorized users to access their accounts on Student Accounts. FINANCE CHARGES will not be cancelled if e-bill notifications are ignored or improper addresses are supplied by the student. Payment is due on or before the due date printed on the bill. If we receive full payment of the "Amount Due" shown on the bill on or before the due date, no FINANCE CHARGE will be assessed.
University Employees and Dependents: The employee is responsible for any charges incurred by/for them at the university. Accounts Receivable staff will attempt to contact the employee via email and phone in hopes of collecting the amount due. The employees are offered the options of making personal payments or using payroll deductions. Failure to pay voluntarily may result in forced payroll deductions by Accounts Receivable until the balance is paid in full. Employees of tuition waiver eligible dependents with delinquent accounts may be subject to forced payroll deductions to pay the dependent’s balance until the dependent’s account balance is paid in full. During termination of an employee, any amount owed to the university will be deducted from the employee’s final payroll to the maximum extent permitted by law.
FINANCE CHARGES - A FINANCE CHARGE will be assessed if any portion of the Amount due remains unpaid after the due date. We figure the FINANCE CHARGE on your account by applying the periodic rate to the "average daily balance" of your account. To get the "average daily balance," we take the beginning balance on your account each day and subtract any payments or credits. We do not add in any new Charges. This gives us the daily balance. Then, we add the daily balances for the billing cycle together and divide the total by the number of days in the billing cycle. This gives us the "average daily balance". To determine the FINANCE CHARGE, we first multiply the average daily balance by the Periodic Rate of .00049315 and then we multiply that amount by the number of days in the billing cycle. The ANNUAL PERCENTAGE RATE on your account is 18%.
Release of Information - Accounts Receivable is bound by FERPA regulations, which prohibit our representatives from discussing student information with other parties. If a student wishes to share his/her financial account information with parents, guardians or other interested parties, the student must complete and return the Authorization for Release of Information form to Accounts Receivable. The Authorization for Release of Information enables the university to more quickly comply with student and parent requests without jeopardizing the integrity of the account. By completing this form, and selecting the Accounts Receivable box, you will consent to Tulane University disclosing to parties listed billing information relating to your Tulane University account. You may revoke this consent at any time by notifying Tulane’s Accounts Receivable Office in writing.
Not Secured Credit - Your account is not secured credit.
Cancelation/Entire Balance Due - We may cancel your account and take away your account privileges at any time for any reason. If your account is cancelled, you agree to immediately pay the outstanding balance on your account in full including, without limitation, all FINANCE CHARGES and other fees and expenses due under this agreement.
Returned Payments - In the event a payment is made on your account and the payment is returned to us unpaid as a result of non-sufficient funds or otherwise, you agree to pay us a fee of $25.00 or 5% of the amount of the payment, whichever is greater. Priority-registration classes secured by a returned payment are subject to cancellation. Multiple returned payments may jeopardize your eligibility to register for future classes at Tulane and will require guaranteed funds.
Guaranteed Funds - Guaranteed fund payment options are:
- Pay online with a credit card at https://studentaccounts.tulane.edu
- Pay with cash, cashier's check or money order in person at the Bursar's Office.
- Pay by wire transfer from a banking institution to Tulane. See wire instruction form under Domestic and Other International Wire Transfer at https://studentaccounts.tulane.edu/content/payment-options .
Attorney Fees - You agree that if we refer your account to an attorney for collection, you will pay our reasonable attorney’s fees not to exceed 25% of the unpaid amount of your account. Your account may be reported to one or more national credit bureaus.
Change of Terms - We can change the terms of this agreement at any time. The new terms will apply to new Charges and to the outstanding balance on your account on the effective date of the change. We will notify you of any change at least 15 days before the start of the billing cycle when the change takes place.
Governing Law - This agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Louisiana. You agree that your account is a consumer credit transaction governed by the Louisiana Consumer Credit Law (LSA-R.S. 9:3510 et seq.) as it may be amended.
Your Billing Rights
Notify Us In Case of Errors or Questions About your Bill - If you think your statement is wrong, or if you need more information about a transaction on your statement, email us at acctrec@tulane.edu or you may write us at Tulane University Student Accounts Receivable #1550, 6823 St. Charles Ave, 327 Gibson Hall, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118. Email or write to us as soon as possible. We must hear from you no later than 60 days after we sent you the first bill on which the error or problem appeared. You can telephone us, but doing so will not preserve your rights.
In your letter, include the following information: your name and account number, the dollar amount of the suspected error, a description of the error and an explanation of why you believe there is an error. If you need more information, describe the item about which you have a question.
Your Rights and Our Responsibilities After We Receive Your Written Notice - We must acknowledge your letter within 30 days unless we have corrected the error by then. Within 90 days, we must correct the error or explain why we believe the bill was correct.
After we receive your letter, we cannot try to collect an amount you question, or report you as delinquent. We can continue to bill you for the amount you question, including FINANCE CHARGES, and we can apply any unpaid amount against your credit limit. You do not have to pay any questioned amount while we are investigating, but you are still obligated to pay the parts of your bill that are not in question.
If we find that we made a mistake on your bill, you will not have to pay any FINANCE CHARGES related to any questioned amount. If we didn't make a mistake, you may have to pay FINANCE CHARGES, and you will have to make up any missed payments on the questioned amount.
In either case, we will send you a statement of the amount you owe and the date on which it is due.
If you fail to pay the amount that we think you owe, we may report you as delinquent. However, if our explanation does not satisfy you and you write to us within 10 days telling us that you still refuse to pay, we must tell anyone to whom we have reported you as delinquent that you have a question about your bill and we must tell you the name of anyone to whom we reported you as delinquent. When the matter is finally settled between us, we must tell anyone to whom we reported you that the matter is settled.
If we don't follow these rules, we can't collect the first $50.00 of the questioned amount, even if your bill was correct.
Special Student Requests or Situations
Financial Aid- If aid has been awarded and accepted, but is not credited to your account, you may deduct one-half of the total amount of grants, scholarships or loans awarded for the academic year from the amount owed. The balance is due by the date specified on your bill.
If you drop a class, do not complete a class, withdraw from a class (officially or unofficially), you understand that your original amount of financial aid eligibility for the semester may decrease and may result in some or all of the financial aid awarded and/or disbursed to you being revoked. If this occurs you agree to repay all revoked aid that was disbursed to your account, especially if the disbursement of aid resulted in a credit balance that was refunded to you.
A student or parent borrower of a Federal Direct Loan or recipient of a Federal TEACH Grant has the right to cancel all or part of a Federal Direct Loan; Federal Direct Loan disbursement; TEACH Grant; or Federal TEACH Grant disbursement before or after funds have credited to the student’s Tulane University billing account. The procedure to cancel a Federal Direct Loan; Federal Direct Loan disbursement; Federal TEACH Grant; or Federal TEACH Grant disbursement is to submit a cancellation request in writing, postmarked within sixty days of the disbursement’s crediting date, and mailed to Tulane University Financial Aid Office, Gibson Hall, Suite #130, 6823 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans , LA 70118; sent via email to finaid@tulane.edu OR faxed to (504) 862-8750. The amount canceled will be charged to the student’s billing account and returned to the lender.
Registration- Registration for any semester may be denied if you have not paid for all Charges relating to previous semesters, including, without limitation, tuition, fees, dormitory, board, and miscellaneous Charges. Registration holds on former students and collection accounts will be released upon receipt of payment made with guaranteed funds, noted above.
Diplomas- Diplomas may not be issued to students whose accounts are not paid in full by the announced deadlines for Spring, Summer and Fall graduation dates. Payment made after those deadlines should be made with guaranteed funds, noted above.
Payment made with non-guaranteed funds for registration or diploma, requires a ten business-day waiting period for verification of fund availability.
Refunds-All student refunds will be processed through the student’s account, including, without limitation, housing deposits, financial aid, tuition refunds, etc. If a credit balance exists after the processing of such credits, a request for a refund may be made through Students Accounts on Gibson Online. The refund will be in the student's name and may be either: a) direct deposited into a specified bank account, b) a check or c) by other methods if available and requested by the student.
Student Mandatory Fees and Charges
The fees listed below are not subject to dispute and are due from the student regardless if services are utilized.
Academic Support Services Fee- The Academic Support Services Fee provides certain academic resources to all Tulane students. The fee enables students to have access to the University's computer services, data, voice, and internet hook-ups, including those services provided by all outside vendors. In addition, tutoring and counseling services, on-line library, inter loan services and other support services, such as, the language and science laboratories, are covered by this fee.
Campus Health Center- The Campus Health fee provides students with primary care, psychiatric, and contraceptive care at the Student Health Center. It also contributes to health education programs, drug/alcohol counseling and the Tulane Emergency Medical Service. This fee is not a health insurance premium.
Student Activity Fee- The student body at Tulane assesses itself a Student Activity Fee to support its activities. The Student Activity fee entitles students to participate in or attend supported activities, readership of a weekly student newspaper and admission to many events, movies, and lectures.
Student Recreation Center Fee- Fulltime students, except for the School of Medicine, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and the School of Social Work will be assessed for membership to the Reily Recreation Center. School of Medicine, Public Health and Tropical Medicine and Social Work will be assessed for membership to the downtown TU Fit Center. Part-time students have the option to join the Recreation Center.
Student Health Insurance Plan- University policy requires that all degree-seeking students have medical insurance. Prior to fall semester, degree-seeking students will receive full details regarding the Tulane-sponsored insurance plan. You will need to complete the online Medical Insurance enrollment/waiver process to either enroll or decline this coverage. If you do not respond by the deadline, you will automatically be enrolled in this plan and charged the annual premium.
New Student Orientation Fee- The New Student Orientation Fee supports expenses for all activities related to CAST and Fall/Spring Welcome Programs. This is a one-time mandatory fee for new undergraduate students. Participation is not required.
Tuition Refunds
Failure to attend does not constitute a withdrawal. Failure to receive a bill does not absolve financial responsibility for a registration. To obtain a remission of tuition, the student must drop the courses online or complete drop/add form(s) with Academic Advising. Tuition will be reduced based on the date of withdrawal. Please consult the Registrar's Academic Calendar for specific dates. Tuition remission will be credited to the student's account. If tuition has been paid by tuition waiver or other financial aid, the tuition waiver and financial aid will be adjusted according to university and federal guidelines. Fees are not refundable.
Entire Agreement
This agreement supersedes all prior understandings, representations, negotiations and correspondence between the student and Tulane University.
Rev. 09/11/2024
