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Paying for your accommodation

Your Accommodation Fees, Your Responsibilities is an essential step-by-step guide to help you understand how to pay your accommodation fees, what is expected of you and what support is available. 

When you accept your accommodation offer, you need to pay an initial £115 pre-payment online. This payment will automatically be taken off your first instalment.

You then have two ways to pay your remaining accommodation fees:

  • One payment in full at the beginning of the academic year when you move in. We’ll give you a £250 bonus on your student Smartcard to use towards university catering which will be added in 3 instalments - £100 in October, £100 in January and £50 in April.

or

  • Three instalments by recurring debit or credit card payment (see below).

You’ll be asked to select which payment option you want and provide your card details. If you’re paying by instalment, you’ll need to provide a guarantor at the same time you accept the accommodation offer.

Short courses (including Homestay)

If you’re on a short course or have a short-term accommodation licence that’s under 14 weeks, you’ll have to pay all your fees upfront before you move in. If your licence is between 14 and 30 weeks, you can pay in two instalments. Dates and details will be provided in your individual accommodation offer.

Dates

Exact payment dates will be provided in your individual offer. If you’re on the most common 40-week contract, the three instalments are:

2022/2023

  • Instalment 1.  New students 35% of fees due: 26 September 2022/ Returning students 35% of fees due: 29 September 2022
  • Instalment 2. 35% of fees due: 9 January 2023
  • Instalment 3. 30% of fees due 24 April 2023
 Recurring card payments

If you’re paying in instalments, your fees will be taken by recurring card payment (RCP), from the bank and card details you enter when you accept the accommodation offer and contract.  

Your payment instalments will be automatically collected from the account linked to the card details provided, unless you notify the Finance team that you’d like to change the card details. If you need to change the debit or credit card from which your instalments will be collected, you must contact the Finance team on 01227 922228 or 01227 923377 Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5pm.

Payments by phone or bank transfer

For payments by phone, call 01227 922228 or 01227 923377 Monday to Friday 8.30 to 5pm.

To pay by bank transfer, please send funds to:

  • Account Number: 00251008 - Canterbury Christ Church
  • Sort code: 30-91-60

Use your Christ Church student ID number (3 letters followed by 8 numbers eg. PAY11223344) as your reference

Please email accounts.receivable@canterbury.ac.uk to confirm that the payment has been made this way so that we can easily trace your payment.

It is important you ensure there are sufficient funds available to meet the payment on the due date.

If you don’t have the funds available or are experiencing problems with your student loan payment, please contact the Finance team before the payment is due so they can understand the situation and help you plan your payments.

If you’re a self-paying student, you’ll need to pay as per the details above. Please view your e-document for full payment details.

If you’re sponsored by an agency/provider, home university or college, you don’t pay as your institution should pay us direct. Please check with them that they’re doing this.

If you’re an EU or international student and you don’t hold a UK bank account, you can pay the first instalment using debit/credit card or bank transfer. You’ll then pay the remaining instalments by recurring card payment once you’ve opened a UK bank account. All payments must be made in pounds sterling.

If you’re having trouble paying your accommodation fees, please contact the Finance team as soon as possible to discuss your circumstances and get help where possible.

It’s important that once you make an arrangement to pay, you keep to this. If you don’t pay your fees on time, it can, unfortunately, lead to a range of serious consequences including eviction, which we want to help you avoid. For further information on debt arrangements see Your Accommodation Fees, Your Responsibilities.

If you find yourself in financial difficulty, please contact our student support advisers or the Students’ Union for advice, information and guidance.

Student support advisers

If you are encountering financial difficulty and it is impacting on your ability to attend University, the student support advisers are on hand to provide advice and guidance to help you to find a positive way forward.

Accommodation bonus

Depending on the payment option you choose you may be eligible for a bonus. This will be uploaded in instalments to your UPay account as a voucher and can be redeemed through scanning the in-app QR code on a card reader in catering outlets. 

Please note that you will not be able to see the balance of the voucher when you tap onto the card reader. You will need to go into your account and go into the voucher menu to see this. 

Any money loaded onto the smartcards is valid for 2 years from the date of issue and is non-refundable after this date.