Skip to McMaster NavigationSkip to Site NavigationSkip to main content
McMaster logo

Office of the Registrar

Financial terms and conditions of enrolment

Financial terms and conditions of enrolment

Once you enrol in courses:

  • Payment of all fees are due by the deadline
  • If you refuse to pay fees, you may be refused admission or requested to withdraw
  • If you are a new student, you can’t forward academic fees to Financial Services until you have received your letter of acceptance
  • Payment of academic fees does not imply your acceptance to the University
  • You should not send your residence fees unless you have received notification of room assignment
  • McMaster reserves the right to refuse and return any payment made in excess of funds required
  • Interest: If an unpaid balance remains after the payment due date, interest is charged on the unpaid balance at a monthly rate of 1.2% (compounded to 14.4% annually), on the second-to-last business day of each month. Subject to change.

You will not be eligible for any grades, examination results, transcripts, diplomas or the payment of awards of any kind, until fees and any other accounts owed to the University are paid in full.

NOTE: Graduands who have outstanding accounts with the University will be permitted to attend convocation, but will not receive their diplomas until their accounts have been cleared in full.

Paid your fees after receiving a financial block?

Financial blocks are automatically removed within an hour after payment appears on your student account. Payments made through your bank can take 3 to 5 business days to reduce the balance on your student account. If your account was previously in collections, you will need to send an email to student.billing@mcmaster.ca to have the hold removed.

Student responsibility

It’s your responsibility to regularly review your Account Summary to ensure:

  • All charges are as expected
  • All payments made to the account have been received
  • All balances are paid in full by the payment due dates
Go to the Student Responsibility in the Undergraduate Calendar

Payment policy

  • It is the policy of the University not to accept enrolment until all previous accounts are paid in full.
  • Any payments received are, therefore, first applied to previous debts then after to the most recent debts.
  • You will not be eligible for any grades, examination results, transcripts, diplomas or the payment of awards of any kind, until fees and any other accounts owed to the University are paid in full.

Note: Graduates who have outstanding accounts with the University will be permitted to attend convocation, but will not receive their diplomas until their accounts have been cleared in full.

Payment plans

  • For the 2023/2024 academic year, students will have the option of enrolling in a payment plan.

Collection activity

If students have completed their enrolled term with an unpaid balance and have not begun a repayment plan with the university can expect;

  • Internal dunning letters/emails/dialer messages
  • If full payment is not received or no repayment plan has begun, the student account will be sent to a third party collection agency.
  • Once a student has been sent into collections, their student account will be coded as delinquent and their credit within the university will be compromised.

Re-enrolling after collections

  • To be eligible to enroll after collections, all monies owed in collections must first be paid in full.
  • If a student wishes to return after full payment has been made in collections, or if they have prior bad credit with the university, they will be required to pay their upcoming fees for the year in full prior to being eligible to access Mosaic to enroll.
  • These students must contact student.billing@mcmaster.ca for assistance.

General financial information

  • Payment for student’s course selections in full (or in part by associated cancellation fees) for each academic term is required.
  • Understanding and complying with the published financial Payment Due Dates. Failure to meet payment due dates will result in monthly interest charges, late payment fees, enrolment blocks, reduction in student services and potential cancellation of enrolment.
  • All activity on their student account, therefore, regularly reviewing your online student account (Student Center – Account Summary) to ensure all charges are as expected, all payments sent have been received and all balances are paid in full.
  • Following up with all communication from the university regarding their account, including but not limited to, email, portal MOSAIC messages, automated voice messaging, letters, etc)
  • All past-due balances are subject to collections activity.
  • McMaster reserves the right to request pre-payment for enrolment, or refuse payment options that are not within the acceptable risk, such as for students who have prior poor credit with the university.
  • McMaster reserves the right to refuse and return any payment made in excess of funds required.
  • Students withdrawing from the university are required to remove their courses by dropping or cancelling. Fees will be assessed to the date of withdrawal.