Payments & Holds for Outstanding Balances (DA and CA Holds)

I  wanted to share some information that I’m hoping you will share with your teams to help them better understand many of the questions coming from students and what services the accounts receivable (AR) can offer. 

Topic:  Payment and Holds for Outstanding Balances

During the pandemic AR office was not allowed to place DA holds for non-payment.  We began to place holds again this past February but it has taken time to place holds on all students with prior balances.  AR typically places two types of hold:

• CA – applies to students with any existing balance and prohibits enrollment verification, graduation, and grades
• DA – applies to students with an existing balance of greater than $250 and prohibits all of the above and registration for additional courses.

The pandemic guidance to not place DA holds was meant to foster enrollment during difficult times and allow students time to pay.  Unfortunately, this has resulted in many students not paying prior balances but still enrolling in additional semesters before we were again allowed to place DA holds which prevent further registration. 

 

The OBS/AR office is has now returned to holding students to the requirement that full payments for tuition and fees (or payment arrangements) are due at registration.  If the student has a balance from a past semester(s) that balance must be below $250.00 in order to register for classes.  Students with a balance of $250.00 or greater for a prior term will receive a DA hold. 

 

If a Tuition Installment Plan (TIP) is available for a current or prior term the student may enroll in the plan and that is consider making a payment arrangement.  However, our TIP plans are set up with the intent that the student will plan ahead and enroll in the plan early.  Current term TIP plans are offered in advance of the term, for this fall the 5 payment plan opened in April and the plans generally close two weeks to the semester – the last 2 payment plan for this fall closes 9/15. 

• Our TIP plans are for specified, usually current and immediately prior, terms i.e. Fall and Spring
• There are no TIP plans that are ongoing or would address multiple terms or multiple years of debt.  Example:  a student with $2,500 of debt from Spring of 2023 has missed enrollment in the TIP plans and prior TIP plans for that semester and would need to pay their balance in full or set up their own budget to make partial payments via MyMC. The link to How to Make a Payment on Your Student Account can be found on this page of our website:  https://www.montgomerycollege.edu/paying-for-college/payments/options.html

 

AR is the office which receives money from students to pay their tuition and fees.   We cannot forgive outstanding debt and we are not making exceptions to the DA hold policy which requires that the student have a balance below $250.00 in order to register for additional classes.

 

Regards,

 

Natalie Thompson, MS

Accounts Receivable Manager

Montgomery College

9221 Corporate Blvd., 3^rd Floor

Rockville, MD 20850

 

Phone: 240-567-5314

Natalie.thompson@montgomerycollege.edu