Ruth Brown

Almost one year ago, SDSU put the direct deposit refund program into action for students to use as a resource for online student fee payments.

The program took some time to set up because quite a bit of testing was required to make sure there were no problems. “We wanted to make sure that we had all of the kinks worked out and that it was user friendly,” said Larry Youngren, the accounts receivable supervisor for SDSU. “We also needed to put up safeguards to make sure that money would never be sent to the wrong account.”

Direct deposit refunds are one way SDSU gives refunds to students who have financial aid or scholarships or work for the school by sending money directly to their banking accounts, whether it is checking or savings. The refunds are usually transacted within two business days of the check date, meaning Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays are excluded.

Any SDSU student with a WebAdvisor account is eligible to apply for a direct deposit refund. Students may apply for the opportunity by entering their WebAdvisor account and filling out the application that is listed as “Direct Deposit Refunds” under the financial information section.

A student may also check their account transactions through SDePay, which is also located in the financial information section on their WebAdvisor account. The “Direct Deposit Refunds” will be shown under the current account transactions section.

After the university makes a refund, a confirmation e-mail will be sent to the student’s Jacks account. E-mails are also sent to a student’s Jacks account when they apply for the direct deposit refunds and when they make a payment to the university.

“I think that there are both pros and cons for students and administration relating to direct deposit refunds,” said Youngren.

One pro for students who are employed by SDSU is that they do not have go to the Cashier’s Office and fill out a payroll form to get their checks. Now they can just have it deposited into their bank account.

A downside, on the other hand, is that a student may have to wait two business days to get their check. For example, when a student picks up a check on a Friday at the Cashier’s Office, they can immediately take it to the bank and put it into their account. If they were to get the check through direct deposit online, they would have to wait until Monday, because Saturdays and Sundays are not classified as business days.

The major pro for the administration is they are able to focus on those students who truly need help with their billing. The administration always enjoys being able to help students as much as they can, Youngren said.

If a student dropped a class before the final fee date of Feb. 12, the refund would be processed at that time, and the student would be refunded. A confirmation e-mail is sent to their Jacks account. If a student wishes to add a course, SDePay would show that that student currently owes the university money for that particular course.

Youngren said, “At the moment, most students do pay directly through the school. I wish we had more students who would use SDePay, but we can’t make it mandatory for them.”