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Refund Information - Columbus State University

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Office of Student Accounts

Refund Information

Student Refunds

Sign up for Direct Deposit

  1. Log into MyCSU
  2. Click the "Students" tab in the top navigation
  3. Click "Student Account Portal" button under the Student Accounts Services Section
  4. Click "Refunds" on the top navigation
  5. Enroll in Two-Step Verification
  6. Set up your Direct Deposit Account (please use a traditional checking account)

Parent Plus Refund Process

Receiving a parent plus refund by mail can take anywhere from a one to three weeks to receive and sometimes more depending on the USPS. In an effort to make receiving excess aid (refunds) from parent plus loans as seamless as possible, we are pleased to offer parents the option to have funds direct deposited into their bank account.

NOTE: If you selected on the parent plus application that the refund can go to the student the refund will be issued to the student.

Requirements for Refund Processing

Before you start the process for signing up for a parent plus e-Refund an authorized user account will have to be created for verification and security purposes. Touchnet uses a 2-point verification method to ensure the refund is going to the same person who applied for the parent plus loan.

In order to verify this, your personal profile will need to match two of the following requirements exactly as it is on the Parent Plus loan application:

  • Email Address
  • Last 4 of SSN
  • Date of Birth

If you are a first-time user, when you log into TouchNet, you will be prompted to change your password and you can set up this additional information at that time.

Current users: select Personal Profile under My Profile Setup and enter or update the information on this page. Once you have completed this section, you can continue to set up your Refund Account.

Set up Parent Plus eRefund

To set up your e-Refund account complete the following steps:

  1. Using your Email and password that your student previously set up for authorized users, log into the Authorized User TouchNet Portal.
  2. If you are not set up as an authorized user, please have your student log into their account and set you up as an authorized user.
  3. Click "Refunds" on the top navigation
  4. Enroll in Two-Step Verification
  5. Set up your Direct Deposit Account (please use a traditional checking account)

Important Dates for Student Refunds

Refunds will be processed within 14 days after aid is officially disbursed to the student's account.

Note: Your disbursed financial aid must be greater than tuition/fee charges for the semester in order to receive a credit balance refund. Further, financial aid only “authorizes” to your account prior to the start date of classes in a specific mini-session. Credit balances and refunds only generate based on actual fund disbursements after classes have started and attendance has been verified.

Financial aid may appear on your bill in "authorized" status. Aid is not officially disbursed until enrollment is verified. Please note that your aid is paid based on attending hours, so if you have a class that starts later in the semester, your aid will disburse 5 days after that start date.

If you have financial aid and it says “Authorized” next to the awards, this is an estimated amount based on your current enrollment. After the semester officially starts and attendance/enrollment is verified, any financial aid will move from an authorized status to a disbursed status on your CSU student account (the authorized notation will disappear). Once disbursed to your CSU student account, if you have a credit balance or overpayment, it will be disbursed (forwarded) to your eRefunds Direct Deposit Account that you set up within 14 days. When CSU’s portion of the refund process is complete and the funds are ready to be forwarded to eReunds, the credit balance will disappear from your CSU account. eRefunds will disburse your refund to you via your chosen refund preference and will notify you via email. All other refunds (Non-Financial Aid) typically take between 2–4 weeks to process.

Columbus State University uses a third party provider, eRefunds, to process student refunds. Students will need to set up their refunds account, see instructions above.

You will receive an email to notify you that your refund was processed.

If you owe a past due balance to the University, your refund will be applied to that before a refund is issued. If your fees were paid using sponsored funds or paid by a third party such as VA benefits, the funds will be returned to the third party and not the student.

Ask Cody

Ask Cody