Payment methods and managing your university finances

For transaction specific questions contact Transfer Mate via live chat, email or phone.

All international payments made through TransferMate are completely free of charge although you may be charged by your bank for making a local transaction, this is unfortunately out of our control. Domestic transactions are subject to a $20 fee to cover costs.

By law, TransferMate is required to identify the person transferring funds to their bank account. Your identification will ensure that you and MDX are protected against Money Laundering attempts.

Once your payment has been received, the pending payment will be removed and the transaction added to the Payment History in the Student Account Centre. Additionally, you will receive an email confirming that your payment was successful.

Once TransferMate has received your payment into the local bank account in your country, TransferMate sends your payment the same day from our account to MDX. These payments are generally received by the university same day if payments are received into our local account in your country before 2pm GMT.

Your payments will automatically be posted to your student account within 24-48 hours from payment completion.

When a student or authorised user registers the payment, it is displayed on the home page in the Student Account Centre as a pending Alternative Payment Method. Once the payment is made, and funds are confirmed by TransferMate, your student account is updated and it can be seen in the Payment History and Account Activity.

Generally, phishing attempts to look authentic by looking as if it is from a large organisation, such as a bank, the police or even one of the University’s departments.

They will sometimes ask you act immediately by clicking a link or a logo, opening a document or to send money. The email may refer to you by name and/or claim that it is from someone you know.

Consider the contents. Before you act on it or respond to it, do you recognise the senders email address? Are you registered with that particular organisation for anything? Have you searched the email address to see if it is authentic?

These scams aim to create the impression that there are issues with your student loan or can target international students by offering discounts or exceptional currency exchange rates. Criminals could pretend to represent the government or even university staff members when they contact you and are trying to get access to your sensitive information.

An official organisation would never ask you to pay tuition fees over the phone and you should only ever use the official university or government websites to pay your fees in full, with your own money and bank accounts.

Imitating official organisations such as the Home Office, Student Loan Company, government officials, law enforcement such as the police, or National Insurance (NI) Administrators

Fraudsters will be looking to take some of your personal details, ask you to move money to ‘safe accounts’ or demand a ‘fine’ be paid to prevent further action such as more fines, deportation (of you or your family) or being put in prison.

One of the tell-tale signs of a visa scam is receiving a text message from an unknown number, asking you to provide personal information. Legitimate visa providers will already know such information when you started your visa process.

This scam is a form of money laundering and 3 in 5 students have been approached in person or online to become a money mule. By offering students cash to put money into their bank account and then transfer it elsewhere, criminals can break the connection between the money and any criminal activity.

Students become a money mule in this instance and become implicated in a financial crime.

With the exception of authorised individuals, always pay your own fees yourself and do not make payments via a third party. Never allow anyone else to use your bank account.

This type of scam involves posting adverts or contacting students with unrealistic i.e. ‘too good to be true’ job opportunities.

Do not sign up to any opportunities, such as jobs, without undertaking proper research on the company or individual who has contacted you.

Never pay money or sign-up fees to a recruiter or an organisation advertising work and check if the organisation has a physical address. Proceed with caution and treat such correspondence with suspicion. If you think you are being scammed, stop all communications, and report the group.

Finding affordable housing and accommodation can be tough and fraudsters can trick tenants into paying an upfront fee for rental properties that don’t actually exist, are already being rented out or are rented to multiple other people at the same time.

Always to make sure to check out the property in person, ensure there are screening processes for you as a tenant and sign a lease agreement. Is the price too good to be true?

Be wary of any phone calls asking you to pay money for your accommodation. Middlesex University, landlords or rental agencies would never ask for money over the phone like this. 

Criminals take advantage of students who are big fans of major sporting events, gigs and festivals.

When buying tickets to big events, make sure the website is secure by looking out for the padlock symbol in the browser window, the website address begins with ‘https’ (the ‘s’ stands for secure) and use official websites rather than links from social media.

You may receive emails from various accounts claiming to be from known people, colleagues, or peers. Their aim is to get you to act without thinking and make the situation seem urgent, tricking you into buying vouchers and gift cards for them and claiming that they will send you back the money.

If you suspect that an email is a scam, delete the message before clicking on or opening anything.

Some of these scams can often fall under the label of ‘sex-tortion’ as they blackmail based on explicit or pornographic images and videos. This involves the threatening of a person to publish sexual information, photos or videos of someone, usually themselves, to extort money or force a victim to do something against their will. 

Targeting is typically via dating apps and social media using fake profiles. These scammers and they know how to gain your trust and develop a relationship. 

The exchange of intimate images or videos always has potential risks and we recommend avoiding sending them at all. If you decide to, ensure you do it only when you are completely sure. 

In other instances, blackmail messages are often sent in a widespread and indirect way but will include a piece of personal information to make you feel specifically targeted.

If you feel you are being threatened, remember these criminals are experts in manipulation and coercion so it's not your fault.

It's important you seek help with someone you trust, do not send over any money, just block them as a contact and do not engage with them. Instantly report them to the police and contact the Care and Concern team.

You may want to take screenshots and save the messages beforehand as evidence when filling out the reports.

There are a number of useful online resources on how to avoid falling victim to fraud and scams:

• Action Fraud is the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, where you should report fraud if you have been scammed, defrauded or experienced cybercrime
• UK Finance's Take Five website offers further guidance on how to avoid unwittingly becoming involved in scams
• Barclays Bank Digital Wings program offers a number of courses regarding online safety. All modules are free, following registration. You can also take their fraud awareness course, for more information.