I'm a new transfer student and I found out that the school had accepted my total aid offer for me and disbursed it without letting me sign a promissory note and doing entrance counseling (is this even legal? I don't want this happening again for the coming semesters. Anyone have any way to ensure that this doesn't happen?). This is probably due to the fact that my counselor received confirmation that I cancelled all aid from my previous school after the first disbursement date (January 17th).

 So I found a form for canceling my unsubsidized loan and I brought that into the financial aid office. One of the terms on the form read "if the funds have been applied to my student account and the refund check process has begun, I understand that I must use the refund to pay the open balance on my student account as a result of this cancellation/reduction. I will monitor my student account and be responsible to pay the balance due."

So that brings me to the student refunds. I've been receiving lots and lots of emails from HigherOne telling me that I have a $960.25 refund, and I presume that that amount should be paid back to my lender for the cancelled unsubsidized loan because I have a charge due for $960.00.

I have a refund ready but I still haven't received a card from UMBC, so I asked SBS to order a new one. My next query is this. I don't want to open a HigherOne account/use the Student Refund Card. After opting out of using it and instead using a 3rd party (my own checking/savings account) and faxing the form, Can I simply pay the amount straight from my checking account, or do I absolutely have to use the refund card to pay back my lender? I ask this because I'm confused by the wording of the term on the loan cancellation form: "I understand that I must use the refund to pay the open balance on my student account as a result of this cancellation/reduction".

I read some of the other threads about Higher One and the card and I think Michael Baldwin mentioned that if I don't activate my card at all after 21 days, Federal Law requires Higher One to send me a paper check to deposit directly to my bank account. I tried to look for a document on this but all I found was that it applied to title IV funds when a student is withdrawing: http://www.ifap.ed.gov/sfahandbooks/attachments/0708Vol5C2a.pdf

Can anybody offer any documents detailing the federal law regulation that Michael mentioned for students who are not withdrawing? If you can, that'd be helpful. I'd rather do that than give HigherOne any of my information, which I'd have to do if I opted out and faxed them my bank information.

So in review, 

1. How can I ensure that UMBC won't accept all aid for me in coming semesters automatically?

2. In regards to the terms listed on my loan cancellation form, do I need to literally use the refund money waiting for me (thereby using the HigherOne service) to pay back my charge or can I simply have the refund deposited to my account and then pay my charge directly from my credit card?

3. Does anybody have a solid document detailing the Federal Law regulation saying that after 21 days without activating my card, Higher One is required to send me my refund by paper check, even if I'm not withdrawing?