Refunds

A refund is generated by a credit balance on a student's CARS account. This appears as a negative number in CARS becuase it is being deducted from the university to go to you.

Refunds are processed automatically and are generated daily. Once a refund has been generated, it can take up to three business days for a the process to complete and the refund to be available to the student.

If the source of the refund is from an overpayment made by check, the credit balance will not be eligible for refund until 30 days after the payment was originally received.

Depending on the source of funds generating the refund, it is possible for a refund to be issued even if the CARS account has an outstanding balance. Please see BearFacts (https://sis.berkeley.edu/bearfacts) for a current account balance and a listing of CARS refunds.

For example, some department awards may disburse to you without paying your bill. Additionally a surplus from financial aid might not pay off an outstanding balance from a previous term.

Receiving a Refund

The fastest way to receive a refund is through Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). Students can log onto the EFT site to establish an account. Otherwise, students will have a paper check issued.

Note: Paper check refunds cannot be mailed. Students must pick up paper checks from Billing and Payment Services, 140 University Hall, Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m., 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. Only the student to whom the check is payable may pick it up. Checks not picked up in a timely manner are subject to cancellation.

If a CARS account is past due or if registration is not complete for the term when a refund is issued, a check will be printed and held for pick up at Billing and Payment Services, 140 University Hall. Checks cannot be released until the hold is resolved.

No matter what method is used to process the refund, if the student has an email address in BearFacts, a notice will be sent advising that the refund was issued.