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Refunds

• Refund
• Reduce/Cancel Loans

Refunds

An overpayment or excess financial aid paid to your account will be refunded to you. This refund may come in the form of a check payable to you (the student). The refund will be payable to the parent if it was created from a PLUS (Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students) payment and the parent borrower requested the refund.

Refunds can either be directly deposited to your personal account or they may be mailed to you. If you have elected to have Direct Deposit, the refund will be deposited into your checking or savings account. After you are signed up for Direct Deposit, please allow three business days for a refund to be deposited into your personal account. If you have not elected to have Direct Deposit, the refund will be mailed to your local address unless you have designated a billing address.

Right to Reduce or Cancel Federal Loans

Students may return all or a portion of their federal loans ( Federal Direct Subsidized, Federal Direct Unsubsidized, Federal Direct Graduate PLUS, Federal Direct PLUS, or Federal Perkins) that has been credited to their account and/or received in a refund check/direct deposit. A direct reduction of the principle balance of the loan will allow the student (or parent) to borrow additional funds at a later date. The borrower will not be charged any interest and fees for the amount of the loan returned to the Direct Loan Servicer.

Complete cancellation of loans: Within the first 14 days after the loan disbursement (the date that the loan was put on the student's WMU account), the student can cancel the entire loan (s) for that semester. If a refund was received, the student must return the full value of the refund to cancel the loans.

Partial cancellation of loans: Within the first 30 days after the loan disbursement (the date that the loan was put on the student's WMU account), the student can return all or a portion of the refund to reduce the loan (s) for that semester.

Any funds received after 30 days of the date of disbursement will not be returned to the Direct Loan Servicing Center or WMU Perkins funds. Borrowers will need to send a check to the Direct Loan Payment Center or ECSI (WMU's Federal Perkins servicer) as a payment on their account.

The student must request in writing through a letter, note or completing Return of Disbursed Financial Aid form identifying the type of aid and whether this is a complete or partial cancellation. The amount of funds being returned must be attached in a check form made out to Western Michigan University. If the whole amount of the refund check is being returned, then the Western refund check may be used.