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Business Services

Collection Activity

All students are expected to review their STARS account for billing information and pay the amount due by the due date. Once a month, Billing & Receivables emails students a notification that a billing statement is available on STARS. To ensure delivery of notifications, students and parents/guests with STARS access should review their contact information and email settings.

Students who are no longer enrolled and whose student account is delinquent will be referred for internal collection. WIU collection activities include:

  • Mailing billing statements to the student’s permanent address
  • Attempt to contact students to setup payment plans
  • Filing a claim with IL Comptroller State Offset against any monies due the student from the State of Illinois, in compliance with .
  • Placing the accounts with the university attorney
  • If the above efforts fail, referring the student’s delinquent account to an external collection agency.

Please Note:

  • Former students needing assistance logging into STARS, call UTECH at 309-298-TECH(8324)
  • Student account balances are not reported to the credit bureaus.
  • Transcripts are not withheld based on a past due balance.

Consequences of Collections

Students who fail to pay by the due date will incur the following charges and penalties on their student account:

  • A finance charge of 1% per month on the past due balance;
  • A financial hold which prevents registration activity;
  • A one-time collection administration fee of $20 if the account is referred to the university attorney.

Collections Timeline

flowchart showing the information stated below

  1. When a student is no longer enrolled and has not paid the student account balance by the due date, the account will enter internal collections.
  2. When the account gets referred to the attorney, a $20 non-refundable attorney fee is charged to the account
  3. The account will remain in internal collections for about one year.
  4. If no payment plan has been created during internal collections, the account will be transferred to a third-party collection agency.
  5. Once the account has been transferred to a third-party collection agency, finance charges will stop, and any payment arrangement will need to be made with the collection agency.

Reentry to WIU

  • Students placed into collections need to pay their balance in full to re-enroll.
  • Reentry information is available at the Office of the Registrar

Contact Information

If your account has been referred for collection, please email billings@wiu.edu or call 309-298-1831.