Paying online by instalments
Heriot-Watt University offers its students to pay for their tuition and accommodation fees, by fixed instalment plans with a debit or credit card, at no additional cost.
Students who do not choose to pay by recurring payment plan must pay their tuition & accommodation fees within 30 days.
Setting up your recurring payment plan
to set up a recurring card payment plan, you must:
- Fully complete online enrolment (please wait 24 hours after completing enrolment before trying to set up a payment plan).
- Activate your central Heriot-Watt University email account.
- You do not need to have a UK bank account to make recurring card payments.
Please ensure your plan is set up before the first payment is due. Please note, if a plan is set up after the first collection date, all missed instalments to that date will be claimed immediately.
To pay for tuition and accommodation fees by instalments:
- Go to the online payment portal
- Select 'Pay Your Fees Online'
- Log in
- Select 'Recurring Card Plan'
For all Recurring Card Plans, both Tuition and Accommodation, instalments are taken on the 15th of the month.
Please ensure you have either sufficient money or credit available in your account, to meet each instalment payment in full.
Payment confirmations
Once you've set up your recurring card payment plan, you will receive an advance notice email for each invoice. This tells you the exact dates and amounts when payments will be taken. You will also be sent an email that confirms each monthly payment.
All successful payments will be shown on the credit or debit card statement you get from your card provider. If you have doubts about whether a payment has been processed, please contact your card provider.
Further information is given in the student fee policies:
Types of payments
Tuition Fees
September intake students studying for the full academic year can pay their tuition fee in six monthly payments between October and March. The monthly instalments are calculated by taking your total tuition fees less any advance payment.
January intake students can pay their Tuition Fee in 4 monthly payments between February and May.
Single semester students & Go Global second semester transfer students, will be required to pay their fees in full.
For more information about paying your fees online, see our online payments page.
Accommodation Fees
Students arriving in their accommodation in September who want to pay the full year's accommodation by recurring card, must ensure that they select Semester 1, Semester 2 and – if it applies to you – Semester 3.
If you do not select all applicable semesters, the unselected duration will not be included in the recurring card plan. This means that you will have to pay for the unselected duration in full 30 days after the start of that semester.
Fees for a 40-week accommodation contract are made in 8 instalments: the first instalment of your plan will be taken on 25th October, then all subsequent payments will be taken on the 15th of each month.
Fees for a 50-week accommodation contract are made in 10 instalments: the first payment of your plan will be taken on 25th October, then all subsequent instalments will be claimed on the 15th of each month.
January intake students who are staying in accommodation until June will be offered 4 monthly instalments between February and June.
January intake students who are staying in accommodation until August will be offered 6 monthly instalments between February and July.
Cancelling Recurring Card Plans
You can cancel your recurring card plan at any time, but the remaining balance on the invoice must then be paid in full immediately.
To cancel the recurring card plan, please contact rcp@hw.ac.uk 5 working days before the next payment is due to be taken.
Payment queries
What happens if I miss a payment?
If the University cannot take the payment at the first attempt, we will try again, within five days.
If this again fails, students can pay the missed instalments through the student portal, Pay Your Fees Online, 24 hours after the second failure.
There is an option to enter the amount as a one-off payment.
If you have any questions or queries surrounding RCP Payments, you can email rcp@hw.ac.uk.
Non-payment of fees
If you do not pay, the University will contact you to find out why. Please co-operate with the University staff who will do this. The University can apply sanctions to students who owe money to the University. These sanctions can disrupt your studies/accommodation/graduation.
If you wish to pay your tuition fees in one lump sum, please visit our online payment portal.
Problems paying
We understand that changes in personal financial circumstances can make it difficult to meet payment commitments. If you think you will be unable to make a payment when it falls due, please contact Student Finance by raising an enquiry via the AskHWU tile in your portal, or book an appointment through your student portal, to speak to a member of Finance.
Cancelling recurring plans
You can cancel your recurring card plan at any time, but the remaining balance on the invoice must then be paid in full immediately.
To cancel the recurring card plan, please contact rcp@hw.ac.uk 5 working days before the next payment is due to be taken.
Changing card details
You will need to change your card details if:
- Your card is lost or stolen
- Your card expires
- Your card provider changes supplier
- You change your bank account
UK campus students can change their card details by clicking on the “Updating Card Details” link on the online payments portal.
Key information
Student Service Centre
- Phone
- +44 (0) 131 451 8899
- student-services-uk@hw.ac.uk