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

Accounts Receivable -- Contact Information and More!

 Our acctrec@montgomerycollege.edu mailbox is our primary method of receiving and responding to  student inquiries.  Cashiers will either respond to the student or refer/escalate the issue to another team member or myself as needed.  The exception to that would be inquiries that are identified as Sponsor Billing inquiries.  Those can be sent directly to sponsorbilling@montgomerycollege.edu.

Our cashier phones do not have voicemail and the Rockville office phone will not be working for the foreseeable future due to the move to the new building. All of the cashier phones have an outgoing message referring students to acctrec@montgomerycollege.edu.

The Primary/Initial Point of Contact for inquiries are our cashiers.  Please direct  initial inquiries to our cashiers via email at  acctrec@montgomerycollege .edu .

·Standard acctrec response times are:  As little as 2 hours but an average of 24 to 72 hours.  Responses may take a week or more depending on the volume of email and the level of student account research required.

AR Team Members – Point of Contact

·         3 Cashiers – Laura Archer, Tsige Assefa and Carmen Kemp. 

·         Student inquires for cashiers should be sent to acctrec@montgomerycollege.edu. 

·         Internal messages – colleague to colleague can be sent to their individual college email addresses laura.archer@montgomerycollege.edu, Tsige.assefa@montgomerycollege.edu, carmen.kemp@montgomerycollege.edu

·         Staff may also  contact cashiers, or refer students to cashiers at these temporary phone numbers during the pandemic:

·         Laura Archer – 240-651-4726

·         Tsige Assefa – 240-526-0604

·         Carmen Kemp – 240-651-4001

·         Ms. Rosa Hernandez, Accountant II, rosa.hernandez@montgomerycollege.edu or 240-567-5328, temporary (pandemic) cell phone 240-526-0567

·         1098-T questions

·         Student questions regarding their billing statements and other general account inquiries can be escalated to Ms. Hernandez but initial inquiries should  go to acctrec@montgomerycollege.edu . 

·         MyMC  use/payment questions

·         Questions from colleagues about Tuition Installment Plans or Delete Dates

 

·         Sophia Li,  Sponsor Billing Coordinator, sponsorbilling@montgomerycollege.edu , Sophia.li@montgomerycollege.edu or 240-567-5344, temporary (pandemic) cell phone 240-526-0567

·         Sponsor billing questions,

·         Center for Early Education childcare account questions – parents should email sponsorbilling@montgomerycollege.edu

·         Dual enrollment payment inquiries – If the student has registration, rate code or questions about the DE program they should be referred to the dual enrollment team, dualenrollment@montgomerycollege.edu .

·         Early college payment inquiries – If the student has registration, rate code  or questions about the EC program they should be referred to  the early college  team led by amy.crowley@montgomerycollege.edu

·         529 inquiries

·         Tasha Jackson, Student Account Specialist, tasha.jackson@montgomerycollege.edu  or Office: 240-567-5333, temporary (pandemic) cell phone 240-526-0606

·         Collections questions can be directed to Ms. Jackson. 

·         Please note that Ms. Jackson must be notified by the student that a payment has been made.  Information about a student’s payment is not viewable or confirmable by Ms. Jackson until 72 hours or 3 working days after the student makes payment.  MC does not receive immediate notice of collections payments  .  Unless a student notifies Ms. Jackson, we will not receive a report  from Maryland’s Central Collection Unit on who has paid their debt until the second week of the following month.

·         Standard response time is 72 hours to 1 week.  As noted, collection payments are not viewable to Ms. Jackson until 72 hours after payment.  She must be able to view the proof of payment to list holds.

·         Refund questions

·         initial inquiries on the status of a refund should go to acctrec@montgomerycollege.edu but they can also be addressed to Ms. Jackson. 

·         If a student believes that a refund check was returned to the college due to a bad address, they can also contact acctrec@montgomerycollege.edu or Ms. Jackson

·         Natalie Thompson, The team will refer escalations to me as necessary.  Please refer any escalation or concerns to my attention, natalie.thompson@montgomerycollege.edu, 240-567-5314 or Temporary (pandemic) ell:  240-526-0600