every year when it comes down to refund time, there are always issues. Financial aid tells me they have disbursed the funds, while everybody at the student business office has no idea what I am talking about, forcing me to bounce between the two offices until somebody finally finds my funds. This year it has gotten even worse, my financial aid was filed in august, but i had some verification issues due to missing tax info for my mother who lives in another country. Once i got the info, I sent it to the financial aid office, mr Daniel Schutt sent me an email on the 27th of october telling me funds were disbursed. I waited a week to go to the student business office, when I went in to inquire about my refund, they told me my aid had not yet applied, i waited another week and this time my aid had still not applied, apparently because of the late fee i acquired while waiting sorting out my aid issues. I paid the late fee, and then my aid was disbursed on the 10th of November, with a promise of a refund in 5-7 business days. This is a ridiculous turn around time, if they can see that my aid clearly warrants a refund why should it take more than 2-3 days of processing to issue said refund? On top of this I signed up for the higherone account, for the sole reason of same day refund disbursement, which just does not happen at UMBC apparently according to SBS, if it is not possible it should be removed from the list of benefits of having a higher one account. After waiting a week, I return only to be told that there is a hold on my refund, BECAUSE i paid the $200 late fee in order to gain registration clearance, the lady at the desk a Ms. Heather told me to write a note asking for the $938 refund to be applied to my account to pay the late fee and return the overage. I obliged, because well, what do i know about student billing service policies. One week later there is still no refund, I called today to inquire as to the status only to be told that it is processing by CHECK. Puzzled, I ask why? Then she tells me that Ms. Heather's method leaves me with no option of refund but the check, which she did not mention to me at all. I told her I had a higher one card and would prefer to receive an e-refund and she still led me down the path of another 10-14 business day wait for money that as a student with no part time job, I REALLY need. I am not sure what you can do about the matter I just wanted to bring to your attention my extremely negative experience with student business services. As one of the top undergrad IT programs in the nation, I expected more from UMBC's billing office. The policies are not made clear to us the students, they cannot offer us a frame by frame view of what is happening with our money. I've literally been told by a member of that office "I dont know what to tell you". not very confidence inspiring to say the least.