Restrictions & Penalties on Past Due Accounts

Contents:

·        Restrictions on Past Due Accounts

·        Monthly Services Charges

·        Financial Holds

·        Outstanding Accounts Transferred to External Collections Agency

·        Academic Sanctions

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   Restrictions on Past Due Accounts

Monthly Service Charges

If not paid in full, any outstanding ACORN account balance is subject to a monthly service charge of 1.5% compounded (19.56% per annum).

All fees and charges posted to the ACORN account are payable. Students are responsible for planning sufficient time for payments to reach the University’s bank account and to be recorded in the student’s ACORN account by the payment due date. The transfer of funds from major Canadian financial institutions normally takes three to five business days, however the transfer from Canadian credit unions and financial institutions from outside Canada can take much longer.

Paper invoices are not routinely mailed. Students are expected to monitor their account on the ACORN at www.acorn.utoronto.ca until the account balance is fully paid. Non-receipt of an invoice, or failure to monitor the account on ACORN or email correspondence directed to the student’s official University of Toronto email address, does not exempt the student from meeting his/her financial obligations. Students who have left the University will continue to be able to view their financial account balance and history on ACORN.

The University considers students to be responsible for all aspects of their registration. If someone else is handling the payment of fees, it is the student's responsibility to advise that person of all the rules and requirements.

See Service Charge section for more detailed information about payment due dates and service charge billing schedules.

Outstanding Accounts Transferred to External Collections Agency

Outstanding accounts will be transferred to the University of Toronto’s external collections agency per the following schedule:

Paper invoices will be mailed to the current ACORN address for non-registered students in October and February, to provide students with a first and a final notification of the outstanding ACORN fees that are scheduled to be transferred to external collections and to provide students with instructions for addressing the outstanding fees.

If full payment of the outstanding ACORN fees have not been recorded in the student’s ACORN account by April 30^th, or an alternate arrangement made, then the outstanding fees will be transferred to the University’s external collections agency in June without further notification to the student.

At the point that the outstanding fees are transferred to the external collections agency, monthly service charge billing will stop, and the Student Account Status on ACORN will be changed to “Transferred to External Collections (no s/c)”. The outstanding fees will continue to be displayed on your ACORN invoice and detailed transaction reports and any payments made to the University by bank transfer or directly to the external collections agency will be displayed on your ACORN payment report.

In May, the external collections agency will make first point of contact with you by an introductory email message, followed by a mailed letter to inform you of their processes and services.

The external collections agency offers a wide range of convenient payment options and payments made to the University of Toronto’s external collections agency will be transferred to the University and recorded in the student’s ACORN account as a “Payment from Collections Agency” transaction on the ACORN Payments report. However, the transfer of payments from the external collections agency to the University normally takes from 4-6 weeks. Payments made by bank transfer to the University’s bank account will be recorded in the student’s ACORN account as a “Bank Payment” and will be reported to the external collections agency. All payments that are recorded in ACORN will automatically adjust the T2202A which is available for the student to print.

Students who have made full payment to the external collections agency and who are required to show proof of payment in person at the Registrar’s Office or SGS Student Services Office to register, may request that the external collections agency provide a “release letter’ for this purpose.

Academic Sanctions

The University reserves the right to impose the following academic sanctions on students who have outstanding debts or obligations to the University in accordance with the Policy on Academic Sanctions:

· withhold access to the statements of results and transcripts of students, alumni and former students

· withhold the release the official diploma to students, alumni and former students

· refuse requests to provide written or oral certifications of degree on behalf of students, alumni and former students

· refuse registration to a continuing or returning student.

A financial hold(s) is recorded on the student’s ACORN account if the student has outstanding debts or obligations to the University in accordance with the Policy on Academic Sanctions. Unpaid ACORN fees will automatically result in a Student Accounts financial hold. The Library, Health Services and Registration Offices may record financial holds for outstanding fees billed and collected outside of ACORN.

Financial Holds

Financial holds may be placed on a student account for unpaid fees previous sessions that are billed on ACORN, and for unpaid fees that are billed outside of ACORN. Payment of the unpaid fees does not automatically remove the financial hold. Financial holds are normally removed from the student account within one business day from the date on which the payment has been recorded in the student’s ACORN account or in the information system of the department or registration office that recorded the financial hold.

Financial holds will block ACORN transcript requests and all financial holds must be released to successfully request a transcript on ACORN.