Return to Checklist: Winter / Summer
Methods of Payment, Deposits and Final Balances:
METHODS OF PAYMENT: The University pays for study travel expenses in one of four ways, listed below in order of preference:
- Credit card
- Bank wire transfer
- International draft (check)
- In-person while you're overseas
DEPOSITS: One to two months before departure, we can pay a refundable deposit to your contacts overseas. If your travel agent or partner university would like a deposit, they should email or fax your coordinator an invoice by the first week of November (winter programs) or April (summer programs). We will make the payment by the end of the month. The invoice should be printed on official letterhead and contain the following:
- Itemized charges
- Total amount charged for the group
- Deposit amount (as much as 90% of the total)
- Refund policy
- Payment due date
- Currency of the payment (USD or other)
- Method of payment (credit card, wire, or draft)
- Name/phone/address of your contact at the institution
If they're requesting payment via a bank wire transfer, the invoice should also include:
- Account number
- Name on account
- Name of bank/branch
- Bank address/phone number/contact person
- Routing (Swift) number
- IBAN (International Bank Account Number)
- Name and ABA# of the US intermediary bank (Citibank, etc.) - REQUIRED for transactions in USD
FINAL BALANCES: Balances are paid after the group has arrived overseas. Final invoices are due the first week of December (winter programs) or May (summer programs). Unlike the deposit invoice, the final invoice must be an original, sent either by post or as an email attachment. Faxed copies will not be paid. The final invoice should contain the same information outlined above.
For final balances, we prefer to pay them during the middle or at the end of the program. In the past, students have withdrawn at the last minute due to death or illness in the family. If their program has paid a large sum in non-refundable balances all of this money becomes non-refundable to the student. The longer that we can hold off with final payments, the more flexibility we can give students in times of crisis.
EARLY PAYMENTS: Some of your contacts requests earlier deposits and final payments. Our policy is to collect enough in student deposits to cover the cost of outgoing payments. If you look at the total amount of deposits that your students have paid ($300, $1500 or $2700), and subtract the cost of the plane ticket, the remainder may be available for early deposits. We do not encourage early deposits - but if they are necessary, this is how we will calculate how much we can pay.
