Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
FERPA is a federal law that protects the privacy of student educational records. Parents have certain rights with respect to their children's education records, but those rights terminate when the student begins college or reaches age 18, whichever comes first. Thus, all UC Merced students have FERPA protection. Students can grant authorization to parents and others to access protected information. The process is discussed below. Without this authorization, Student Billing Services (SBS) cannot provide student account information (account balance, refund status, etc.) to anyone other than the student.
Granting a Parent(s) or Others with Payer Access
Parents and other persons can be granted online access to a student account to view electronic billing statements, receive account alerts, make online payments, and set up a payment plan. To grant this limited account access, the student must set up a payer access (a username and password) on the student’s My Bill, accessed by students through the UC Merced Connect student portal. Note: a student can set up multiple payers.
To set up an Authorized Payer, the student will need to do the following:
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From the My Bill home page, click the My Account tab
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Select “Send a payer invitation” under the Payers section
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Enter the payer’s first and last name and email address
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Click on the Send invitation button
The following video illustrates the setup process:
After the student sets up the payer, an email will be sent to the payer. Once the payer completes their portion of the setup process, their username and password will be needed to access the MyBill website or discuss the student’s account with SBS. If the payer forgets his/her/their username or password, the payer can retrieve the username or password on the Parent Sign-in page. SBS cannot reset usernames and/or passwords for payers.
Viewing Your Student's Account
Once on the Parent Sign-in page, you will enter your username and password. As an authorized payer, you are only able to access certain areas of My Bill.
My Bill reflects current charges, payments, and waivers. Please note that charges may appear on your student’s account well into the semester if your student adds or drops courses during the Add/Drop period or leaves UC Merced mid-term. Your student is responsible for checking their student account regularly for new charges.
Billing statements are generally available for viewing on the first business day of each month. The billing statement is a static picture of your student’s account when the billing statement is generated. Once published, billing statements are not updated with additional charges or payments.
The following link provides helpful information on how to navigate My Bill:
Contacting Student Billing Services
Individuals with authorized payer access can contact SBS via telephone or email. If contacting SBS via telephone, staff are required to verify the name of the authorized payer and their email before being able to assist them. If contacting SBS via email, the authorized payer must send their email from their email address which is reflected on My Bill.
If a student does not wish to set up an authorized payer, we can allow a one-time authorization if the student and parent/person call in together and the student verbally gives the authorization to discuss their student account with that parent/person.
Removing Payer Access and/or Change Notification Rights
Students can remove authorized payer access and/or change notification rights themselves if they don’t have any activity history on their My Bill.
To remove the authorized payer, the student will need to do the following:
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From the myBill home page, click the My Account tab
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Click on the payer’s name under the Payers section
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Click on the Remove payer button
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Click on the Save button
To change or allow access to statements, the student will need to do the following:
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From the My Bill home page, click the My Account tab
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Click on the payer’s name under the Payers section
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Click on the box next to Allow access to statements
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Click on the Save button
If the student is still an active enrolled student, they cannot remove authorized payer access themselves. The student will need to email a request to Student Billing Services at sbs@ucmerced.edu so that we can submit a ticket to the billing payment system requesting the removal.
