Pay your fees
Find out when and how to pay your fees, including through our payment portal or via a student loan, and what happens if you can’t pay your fees on time.
When to pay
You need to pay your fees in full before your courses begin.
For students commencing study in Trimester 3, 2024, you need to pay your fees by Friday 8 November 2024.
If you are unable to pay your fees by the due date, contact student-finance@vuw.ac.nz.
Fees Free tertiary study
You should check if you are eligible for Fees Free well before courses begin. You are responsible for making sure that your eligibility is confirmed before your fees are due.
The Government has announced that Fees Free for the first year of study will finish at the end of 2024. A final-year Fees Free scheme will replace it, starting from January 2025.
Visit Fees Free to find out more and check your eligibility.
How to pay
Information provided here is for tuition fee payments. Ensure you follow payment advice provided by the Accommodation office when making payment for your hall of residence.
If you are a domestic student, you can pay your fees in these ways:
Family members, employers, and other third parties paying fees on your behalf can also use the online payment portal.
If you are a new international student, find out how to pay your fees.
Online payment portal
You can use Account2Account, Visa, MasterCard, Convera and China UnionPay to pay your fees through our online payment portal.
If you use a credit or debit card we will add a ‘convenience’ fee of 1.9%. Find out more about this fee.
Go to the payment portal—accommodation
Payment by a third party
If you are asking a family member, employer, or other third party to pay your fees, you need to use the online portal to send them a payment request and an invoice.
When you reach the ‘payment method’ screen, select the ‘3rd Party Payer’ option. You’ll then be asked for the third party’s email address, name, and physical address.
An invoice will be sent to the person you selected. The invoice PDF will include a link to your payment screen in the portal. They can then choose a payment method, including Visa or Mastercard, Account2Account, and China UnionPay.
Pay by bank transfer
You can pay your fees directly to Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington’s bank account. Our details are ANZ Bank New Zealand, account number 06-0606-0100241-00.
Use your Student ID number and your name as the reference on the transaction.
Receipts are not automatically generated for bank transfer payments. Please contact student-finance@vuw.ac.nz to request a receipt if required.
If you are paying towards accommodation fees, please contact the Accommodation office at accommodation@vuw.ac.nz for their banking details.
Pay by student loan
Once StudyLink have approved you for a student loan, you can use it to pay your fees. We recommend you apply for your loan as early as possible. You are responsible for ensuring your student loan is approved by StudyLink before your fees are due.
You do not need to be fully enrolled to start your student loan application. Studylink encourages all students to start their loan application by 16 December for study in the following year.
Find out more about student loans.
Pay by instalments
Domestic students not paying by student loan who commence study in trimester 1 and register in multiple courses over the year can delay the due date of their trimester 2 course fees until July. This is called paying in instalments.
Contact the student fees advice team at student-finance@vuw.ac.nz to arrange to pay your fees in instalments.
Refunds
You may be eligible for a refund if you withdraw from course(s) before the course change deadline. Find out more about withdrawing from courses.
If your fees were paid by StudyLink, Work and Income (WINZ), or any other contracted organisation, contact the student fees advice team at student-finance@vuw.ac.nz to request a refund. We will pay the refund to that organisation and they will refund you as appropriate.
If you paid your fees yourself and your account is now in credit, complete our refund request form. Submit it to student-refund@vuw.ac.nz to request a refund.
We may charge you an administration fee depending on the size of the refund and the method of payment. We will not charge an administration fee if you paid your fees from your student loan, if you have withdrawn from a fees-free course, or if your account is in credit due to an approved fees reconsideration.
If you made your original payment by debit or credit card and were charged a ‘convenience’ fee, we will not refund you that convenience fee.
We typically process refunds within 20 days of receiving a fully completed request. At the start of each trimester we delay processing refund requests until after the add/drop courses period ends.
Failure to pay in full
If you don’t pay your fees when they are due, there will be consequences for your enrolment, and for your visa if you are an international student.
Late payment fee
If you don’t pay your fees in full by the due date, we will add a late payment penalty of $154 to your account. If you think that you won’t be able to pay your fees in time, you must contact the student fees advice team at student-finance@vuw.ac.nz
We will not accept non-payment of fees, ceasing to attend classes, or verbally advising a member of staff as notice of withdrawal from a course or courses.
Enrolment impact
If you do not pay your fees by the due date, you will be unable to enrol in other courses, receive a transcript or academic certificate, or have a degree conferred.
The University reserves the right to temporarily cancel your enrolment until your fees are paid in full. If fees remain unpaid, we may refer your debt to a debt collection agency.
Student visa impact
If you are an international student and you haven’t paid your fees, we may cancel your visa to study at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. We will notify Immigration New Zealand.
Student ID cards
Your Student ID card will only be issued or updated if you are up to date with your fee payments or if your student loan has been approved.
You need your Student ID card to use the Library, and to access Halls of Residence and the Student Computing Suites after hours, as well as to access discounts and other student services.
Convenience fee
We charge you a ‘convenience’ fee of 1.9% of the total amount when you use a credit or debit card. For example, for a payment of $100 you would be charged $101.90 if you chose to pay us by credit or debit card.
We apply this fee to recover the transaction costs that we are charged by the credit and debit card providers. Like other New Zealand universities, we are no longer able to absorb these transaction costs.
You can avoid this fee as we have made alternative payment methods available for all transactions. For example, Account2Account or direct bank transfer.
We apply a convenience fee to payments for goods and services made by credit or debit card, including:
- domestic and international tuition fees
- gym memberships
- events
- conferences.
We do not apply a convenience fee to:
- payments to Mauri Ora—Student Health and Counselling, as there should be no additional costs for our students to access health and wellbeing services
- donations made through the Development Office.