Online payment facilities for students

Students, generally international are subject to been particularly vulnerable to financial crimes when paying towards their university fees. Please be aware that online and telephone financial fraud is on the rise. Often fraudsters will offer significant discounts, incentives, or attractive exchange rates. Please remember that if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Tuition and accommodation fees should always be paid directly to Brunel University London. 

You should never provide your personal or banking details to any company or individual that says it offers discounts or preferable exchange rates.

Most common scams to look out for include: 

• Fee payment scams: use of unknown external third-party agents making a payment on the student’s behalf or FX Bureau agents. You can also be approached by a fraudster and/or another student either in person or via social media. They will offer to provide help to pay forthcoming tuition fees.  The fraudster will initiate the tuition fee payment using a stolen bank, debit/credit details. However, the fraudster is well aware the payment is unlikely to be successful and will disappear before the payment is chargedback when reported by the genuine cardholder with their bank. Another example includes where the fraudster will appear to have made a successful payment by sending you a copy of the receipt showing the full payment made. In reality, all they have done is made a successful payment of an lower amount example £1 / £5 etc using their card or a stolen debit/credit card and then altered the receipt to make it seem like they have made a full tuition fee payment. 

• Money muling: the ‘money mule’ trap involves students being offered payment in exchange for receiving money temporarily into their bank account. They will then be asked to withdraw the cash to hand over or transfer it on. This type of scam is on the increase, targeting students who are short of cash and may be tempted by offers to make ‘easy money’ on job search or social media websites.

 Losing money on tuition fees can have serious consequences on your studies and admission. Money Laundering is a serious criminal offence, and it is treated as such by Law Enforcement. Indirectly, you get involved in that process and there could be an enquiry. Severe impact on your reputation.

 Advice for students:

• • Be mindful of ongoing scams.Learn more about Tuition Fee and Refunds Scam, Money Laundering, Secure websites, Phishing, and Card Payment Scams.
  • Request for a number to call back. Usually, a fraudster will never give out their details. Do not share anything over a phone call . Do not share your bank account number, credit or debit card details, PIN with anyone. Your bank will never ask for full details over the phone, like the PIN. 
  • Avoid sharing any details about your college/ course, University login credentials with anyone, especially on social media with strangers, any third party agent.
  • When in doubt, always contact the University Finance department. Never be pressured by any deadline, threats of retaliation or threats to revoke your student visa if payment is not made.
  • Be cautious of unsolicited offers of easy money or discounts. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. There are no discounts on tuition fees offered via our social media channels. Beware of favourable exchange rates provided by unsolicited agents.
  • Do not feel pressurised to transfer the money to an unknown individual. Stay calm, be aware and sceptical of such scams and act accordingly

If you or your appointed third party is found to have made a fake/fraudulent payment, the University will hold you responsible and take disciplinary actions against you which may result in your de-registration from the course immediately. We strongly advice that payments on your account are either made by yourself or an immediate trust-worthy member of family and not by an unknown third party. The University is not accountable of any financial loss to yourself and you will be asked to settle any charges payable to the University.

• Make sure you have sufficient funds in your bank account or that your credit card limit will cover your payment.
• Contact your bank (for debit cards) or your card issuer (for credit cards) in advance to let them know that you will be making a payment to Brunel University London towards your fees issued. Some card issuers automatically block transactions that don't fit your usual spend pattern or are over a certain amount of money as you may have a daily spend limit.
• If the online payment system declines your transaction, call your bank or card issuer. They should be able to tell you why it was declined and may be able to authorise your card so that you can try again. If your payment is ringfenced due to 3D Secure check failure the bank would usually return the funds back to your account within 3-5 working days hence please contact your bank directly as the University is not able to assist on this matter. 

• Tuition Deposits/Pre-payments: Applicants can make a tuition deposit/pre-payment via their ‘my Applications’ portal in eVision. Clicking the relevant button will allow applicants to view their deposit amount or allow additional payment, find useful financial information and make a payment through Flywire.

• Invoice charges: Students with access to eVision should  log into their account to make payment against invoices charges issued on their account. 

Student will be directed to the Flywire Portal that allows them to make payment by debit/credit card, e-wallet in addition to an option for bank transfer in local currency.

• Brunel University London has partnered with Flywire to accept payments from students based in the UK and internationally. Flywire enables students to make payments securely from the safety and convenience of your home. Millions of students and their parents world-wide trust Flywire to facilitate their education payments.

Watch this video to see how Flywire works

• Flywire allows you to choose from a variety of payment methods including bank transfers, credit cards, e-wallet and more
• Flywire offers peace of mind by providing tracking information for your payments through email, in-app and text alerts each step of the way until the payment reaches Brunel University London
• Flywire has a robust anti-money laundering program so you can feel confident in the security of your payment.Flywire offers 24/7 multilingual customer support via email, phone or live chat
• Please note Flywire is not configured to accept American Express for UK payments, but this an option in certain territories.

Our portal can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You’ll need your seven digit student ID number to hand when you do this as you’ll be required to enter this in order to make a payment – this can be found near the top of the emails you’ve received from the Brunel admissions team. Once you’ve completed all mandatory fields and submitted your payment, you’ll receive a receipt via email.

If you have a suitable UK bank account and have elected to pay for your Tuition and/or Accommodation in instalments, you may wish to provide us with your bank details in order to set-up a Direct Debit. This would allow us to collect future Tuition or Accommodation instalment payments automatically as they become due. It will take a minimum of 15 working days from providing your details in order for your Direct Debit to be activated and you should not therefore use this option if your payment is required more immediately.

Please also note that this facility is only available for payment of the standard UG Tuition instalments due from November to March for September starters, February to June for January starters and Accommodation instalments due from October to May. Deposits, instalments due at enrolment and any other types of charge you might incur will have to be paid separately by another method.

Important note regarding Tuition Fees: Please be aware that the provision of bank details for setting up a Direct Debit will not in itself result in your Tuition Fees being collected successfully; you must also ensure that you select the appropriate payment method when you complete the task to enrol on your course.

For Tuition instalments, you will enter your bank account details as part of the online enrolment process. For Accommodation instalments you will be prompted to complete your Direct Debit form at the end of the online contract acceptance process.

Outside of these processes, you may amend details previously provided by re-submitting new details via the links below. If your parents or someone else are paying on your behalf, it is they who will need to complete the Direct Debit set-up as we can only accept bank details from a genuine account holder.

If they do not have access to the Internet, they must contact the Brunel University London Student Centre (contact details below) to set-up the instruction by phone.

Under the rules of the Paperless Direct Debit scheme, only the genuine account holder may set-up a Direct Debit instruction; this means that the student should not enter your bank details. As the account holder, you will need to access the Direct Debit Set-up facility via the dedicated separate link below and, for verification purposes, be ready to provide the relevant Student’s ID number and their date of birth before entering your own bank details.

Yes; the charges for Tuition and Accommodation are completely separate to each other and as part of the set-up process you must choose whether the Direct Debit is applicable to Tuition or Accommodation.

A minimum of 10 days prior to the first collection being made, the University will issue a confirmation to the bank account holder detailing the account details received and the dates and amounts to be collected. If you haven’t received a confirmation 10 days prior to the date of the first expected collection, please contact the Student Centre (contact details below) who will be happy to assist.

If you are a student wishing to amend or cancel an existing Direct Debit, please log into your eVision portal, click on the ‘My Money’ tab and select ‘Set up a Direct Debit’.

If you are a parent or third party, to change or amend previously supplied bank details, simply set-up a new Direct Debit providing the new details by visiting Direct Debit Set-up. Our systems will automatically close the existing Direct Debit and set-up a new one using your new details.

Bear in mind that setting up a new Direct Debit will be subject to the same minimum 15 working days activation lead time and any payments due during this period would still need to be made on time but by another method.

For any questions regarding the Direct Debit process or fee query, please contact the Student Centre who will be happy to assist you.

• If you have a query on bank transfer payment you will need to contact Student Finance: stufin@brunel.ac.uk        ( Note : Direct Bank Transfers can take upto 3-5 working days to reflect on your account and in certain cases even longer due to Banking Anti Money Laundering Financial checks.) Bank transfer payments can be made via Flywire in most local currencies, GB Pounds, US Dollars or Euros, and will be fully tracked through their journey, so students are kept informed on the payment status. In most cases bank transfer payments via Flywire are received by us faster than they would have been if transferred directly to a University account.
• If you have a query on online payment you will need to contact Income Office: incomeoffice@brunel.ac.uk           ( Note  : Online Payments can take upto 48 hrs to reflect on your account )
• Enquiries related to your payment through Flywire please contact : support@flywire.com with your Payment ID, or Visit Help on Flywire for info.

Contact the Income Office on 01895 265264 (10.00 am - 1.00 pm Mon -Fri) for making a payment by phone if you have problems making a payment online. When calling our Income Office, you’ll need to quote your student ID number (the seven digit number found at the top of all emails from the Brunel admissions team) and the reason for your payment, e.g. tuition or accommodation fees. 

Please note that at certain times of the year the telephone lines gets really busy, hence we encourage students to make payment Online and only call if you intend to make a payment over the phone.