Plaid Cash Refund Policy

I. Unspent Plaid Cash is not refundable (i) until separation from the university, or (ii) except in the case of demonstrated economic hardship or other exceptional circumstances. Students transitioning to faculty or staff status at Carnegie Mellon are eligible to transfer any remaining Plaid Cash funds to an employee Plaid Cash account upon request. Refunds are not provided to departments.

II. Refunds of unspent Plaid Cash will automatically be generated when a student utilizing Plaid Cash on his/her CMU ID Card has separated from the university, generally within 30 days of separation. As a result, there is no need to apply for a refund of unspent Plaid Cash upon separation from the university  

III. If you would like a refund of unspent Plaid Cash prior to separation from the university and believe that economic hardship or other exceptional circumstances apply to you, you may apply in writing to receive a refund by submitting an application for refund along with an explanation of your specific hardship or other exceptional circumstances to the Associate Director of Enrollment Services. Determinations of economic hardship or other exceptional circumstances are made by the Associate Director of Enrollment Services. If your application for a refund of unspent Plaid Cash due to economic hardship or other exceptional circumstances has been approved; you will receive your refund, generally within 30 days of such approval.

IV. The university charges a maximum $25 processing fee for each refund, including those that are automatically generated upon separation from the university. The processing fee is deducted from your unspent Plaid Cash balance, and all refunds of unspent Plaid Cash balances are net of the processing fee. The processing fee charged by the university for a refund will never exceed the balance of the related unspent Plaid Cash account (i.e., you will not be personally responsible for the difference). Thus, for example, if your unspent Plaid Cash balance is $18.00 at the time of your separation from the university, the processing fee charged by the university will be $18.00, and you will not receive a refund.

V. If a student who has separated from the university has an outstanding university Student Account balance, the student’s unspent Plaid Cash balance (after deducting the processing fee) will first be applied to the student’s outstanding university Student Account balance, and any amounts remaining after that application will be refunded to the student.

VI. Plaid Cash refunds to students will be made via the same method as the student’s university Student Account refunds:

• If the student has a registered US checking or savings account within the university’s Student Information Online (SIO) and designated it as a refund account, the funds will be directly deposited into that bank account.
• If the student does not have a bank account set up within the university’s SIO, then the university will mail the student’s refund check to the student’s designated permanent mailing address.  

Updated October 20, 2016