was i the only one?!?! (1 Viewer)

[fornstar]

was i the only one who didnt pay their hecs before the 23rd of February? to my horror i went to check to see when i needed to pay my hecs today to find this semester units was overdue and i now need to pay a late fee of $200.

i couldnt believe the date was before uni even started, which just seems ridiculous and one of the reasons im refusing to pay. my mum rang up to see if she could do that Bpay thing than and there, but we wouldve still needed to pay the late fee. she was told some bullshit that MQ will inform the Aust. Tax Office and it will go against my name, but when mum rang the ATO to confirm this, they said it had nothing to do with them. so basically this is just a revenue raiser for the uni.

i was just wondering if anyone else didnt realise the due date had passed? for those deferring, when is the last day you can defer?

 

[Supra]

i dont get it...i went to the lincoln office and they told me i dont have to do anything if i dont want to pay upfront...so do i get charged teh $200 late fee?

 

[AsyLum]

31st of March I assume is when that ticks over? (census date)

i dont get it...i went to the lincoln office and they told me i dont have to do anything if i dont want to pay upfront...so do i get charged teh $200 late fee?

I assume he's a partial upfront, or full upfront?

 

[pLuvia]

I thought if you applied for HECS the fees get deferred, as long as you supplied your TFN?

 

[fornstar]

i pay upfront, well my uncle pays for me and i owe him instead of having hecs fee hanging over my head after uni (theres no set date as to when i need to pay my uncle back). sorry if i used the word 'hecs' incorrectly, shoudlve called it uni fees

supra you dont have to pay a late fee, the late fee must only apply to ppl paying upfront, which in itself doesnt seem fair. it seems like ppl paying upfront are being penalised for doing so if they didnt pay by a due date which was before uni even started

could i say im deferring and than decide to pay it all upfront? would that incur the late fee? i really dont understand the system, ive always paid my fees on time in the past when we were sent a hard copy of what was due which had the due date on it.

i know we got emails about how to access the fees from estudent. i looked into it when we got the 1st email back in January, before we even enrolled in units, so obviously the due date wasnt up. so when i kept getting sent the same emails i dismissed them because they werent telling me anything new. i dont understand why they couldnt have included the due date in the bloody emails, they even sent me one on the 23rd of Feb and i also got on today, and neither of them said the due date had passed and that the late fees would now apply.

i hope my ranting is making sense, im so pissed off with MQ

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

It is stupid. I noted the 23rd as the cut off and paid it off by then, but thats only because i had to check e-student quite alot at the beginning of this year due to transfer into honours and saw that the 23rd was the cut off.

so ATO had nothing to do with it? It wouldn't surprise me if it was a breach of something. ATO is the place you send the money - to have maq give a fine for something that doesnt concern them is BS. I'd definitely find out more about that.

I was personally going to complain because it takes them so bloody long to process payments. I paid the last of my fees on the 21st, and it took 4 working days to show that i paid - i hope they havent thrown a 200$ fee in it for me, or else there will be hell.

 

[K.]

shit. im paying mine 100% upfront on hecs too, i thought we didnt have to pay till after census. WTF...=/=/=/=/=/=

 

[P_Dilemma]

wait wait, shit wat's happening... my thing looks like this now:

And THIS:

IS THIS BAD?! RED LOOKS BAD!!!

I thought if you applied for HECS the fees get deferred, as long as you supplied your TFN?

THAT"S WHAT I THOUGHT!!!

BUT

it SEEMS i got hecs-help... but i' getting freaked here, wat's happening?!

-P_D

 

[K.]

mine was red before the due date:S

Mike??

 

[iwannarock]

defer ftmfw.




ah yes.

nothing like an incredibly large loan that i hope to never pay back.

all under the radar and cash in hand jobs from here on in.

 

[xeuyrawp]

lol at all the silly-billies who pay upfront.

$1 now is worth about $5 when I'm earning over the threshold. Bring it.

 

[iambored]

i hope my ranting is making sense, im so pissed off with MQ

yes your ranting makes sense. all of it. i don't understand whether there has always been a late fee and i don't understand how it works with discounts, late fee, upfront, deferring and so on.

from my understanding from previous years- there was no late fee. you needed to pay by census date (and would get a 20% discount) or otherwise it would automatically get deferred (and you'd get no discount unless you made contributions over $500).

it's possible that i overlooked that there was a late fee because they used to send the invoices out to us whereas this year we thought we had another month to print our invoice and pay hecs.

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

lol at all the silly-billies who pay upfront.

$1 now is worth about $5 when I'm earning over the threshold. Bring it.

*sigh*

 

[glitterfairy]

I liked things better when the world used paper


I don't know whether this is part of MQ's plan to make everything go online like they did with enrollments, but probably. The problem is that a) it's not a very good system, and b) not enough warning was made... a little bit before exams/3 month long uni break isn't that wise!

 

[AsyLum]

i pay upfront, well my uncle pays for me and i owe him instead of having hecs fee hanging over my head after uni (theres no set date as to when i need to pay my uncle back). sorry if i used the word 'hecs' incorrectly, shoudlve called it uni fees

supra you dont have to pay a late fee, the late fee must only apply to ppl paying upfront, which in itself doesnt seem fair. it seems like ppl paying upfront are being penalised for doing so if they didnt pay by a due date which was before uni even started

could i say im deferring and than decide to pay it all upfront? would that incur the late fee? i really dont understand the system, ive always paid my fees on time in the past when we were sent a hard copy of what was due which had the due date on it.

i know we got emails about how to access the fees from estudent. i looked into it when we got the 1st email back in January, before we even enrolled in units, so obviously the due date wasnt up. so when i kept getting sent the same emails i dismissed them because they werent telling me anything new. i dont understand why they couldnt have included the due date in the bloody emails, they even sent me one on the 23rd of Feb and i also got on today, and neither of them said the due date had passed and that the late fees would now apply.

i hope my ranting is making sense, im so pissed off with MQ

For those in deferring and in CSP:

You don't need to worry about anything, after the 31st March, everything will tick over, don't panic.

fornstar: Are you a CSP student? If so, then it'll automatically place you as deferred as long as you've provided your TFN previously. Otherwise, you will incur the late fee, which is a flat fee for everyone. If you're a DFEE student, its another matter.

If you do not intend to obtain a HECS-HELP loan, you are not
required to provide your tax fi le number (TFN) on your Request for
Commonwealth support and HECS-HELP form. However, you may
wish to provide your TFN as a safety net. This will ensure that, if
you are unable to make the up-front payment on or before the census
date, you will be able to obtain a HECS-HELP loan.

And regarding the date:

Your provider may set an earlier date for the submission of the form
and up-front payments – check with your provider. You must ensure
that you meet this deadline as your provider may charge you a late
fee or cancel your enrolment if you do not.
Your provider will inform you of census dates and any earlier date it may
set. It is your responsibility to be aware of these dates.

Though you might try and clarify what student you are, in terms of CSP (commonwealth supported/HECS/but paying up front) or a DFEE (full-fee upfront without HECS safety net).

For 2007, late payment fees will be applied in April/May for first half year enrolments. Additional information.

As always, double check with the admin, in this case fee enquiries. And all quotes taken from http://www.goingtouni.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/B18D0E80-6242-4242-973D-2364DCC1ABEC/0/CSSUHECSManual.pdf

 

[Supra]

ahhh i get it... thanks so much guys I <3 you all

P_Dilemma, you're fine if you have supplied your Tax File Number.

This system is absolutely fucking ridiculous, to punish students who are actually paying upfront is a joke. The Cut Off Date should also be reasonable, perhaps the second week of March. Unfortunately ranting won't do anything, the uni doesn't care, they make money out of this.

 

[MaryJane]

defer ftmfw.

ah yes.

nothing like an incredibly large loan that i hope to never pay back.

all under the radar and cash in hand jobs from here on in.

Or, move overseas, and then move back to Australia once you've retired

Edit:

lol at all the silly-billies who pay upfront.

$1 now is worth about $5 when I'm earning over the threshold. Bring it.

Steve used to be upfront paying, but then worked out in actuarial studies that it costs more to pay upfront now. I think students should know these things. I just happened to pick the better alternative because I'm poor!

 

[AsyLum]

Yeah theres not too much of an advantage with paying it off now, I think I'd much rather the money now when most people wouldn't have that stable 35/40K to prop themselves on.

I made the mistake of paying up front in first year, and I've never seen 7K in my bank account at any one time again

 

[marchetta]

I liked things better when the world used paper


I don't know whether this is part of MQ's plan to make everything go online like they did with enrollments, but probably. The problem is that a) it's not a very good system, and b) not enough warning was made... a little bit before exams/3 month long uni break isn't that wise!

I totally agree

 

[lcf]

I think eStudent has great potential - but they need more/faster servers and more bandwidth for it to be viable...