Computing Service

PWF Information Pages

Paying for printing from the PWF and checking your balance

Charges

The charges for printing on the printers in Computing Service public rooms are:

  • Black and white A4: 4p per sheet (whether double- or single-sided)
  • Colour A4: 25p per side (i.e. 50p for an A4 sheet printed on both sides)
  • Black and white A3: 8p per sheet (whether double- or single-sided)
  • Colour A3: 50p per side (i.e. £1 for an A3 sheet printed on both sides)

Charges for PWF printers in Colleges and Departments may vary.

How to pay

To use the self-service printers in CS public rooms (and some others, see below) you need to prepay by a minimum of £4 (100 b&w A4 sheets). Each time that you print a page on a charged printer, your balance will be reduced by the appropriate amount. When your credit is exhausted, you will not be able to do any more printing. No refunds are given for self-service printing. Any sheets generated through the printer will be charged for, even blank ones, so it is in your interests to ensure the pagination of your document is correct before you print it.

You can pre-pay:

  • online using a debit or credit card

or in cash

  • at Computing Service Reception
  • some departments will accept payments from their own staff and students, so ask your local computer officer

If you pay online the minimum payment is £5 and you can buy credit in units of £1, but online payment is not allowed if it will take your credit balance above £30.

If you pay in cash at the Computing Service, the minimum payment is £4.

To make an online payment, launch the "PWF eCredit" application from the Windows Start Menu (Start -> PWF Programs -> Utilities -> PWFeCredit). Online payment is subject to the Computing Service policy regarding online payment for PWF print credit and to the University's general Standard Terms and Conditions of Sale. Note that AMEX cards are not accepted.

If your payment is successful you will receive a confirmatory email. If your online payment fails because of an error in filling in the form, you should get an explanatory message. In case of difficulty please contact the Computing Service Help Desk. If the payment fails because your bank has rejected it, you should get an email informing you of this. If the reason for the failure is not obvious to you, you will need to contact the bank.

Payment made by any of the methods above also covers printing on a number of Departmental and College printers participating in the "common balance" scheme (see the list of common balance printers). For other Departments and Colleges you may need to maintain separate credit balances for each; consult your local IT support staff for more information. Some Colleges charge for printing retrospectively rather than by pre-payment.

Checking your balance

  • To check how much prepaid printer credit you have left using a PWF PC, click on Start and then on PWF Programs: double-click the Utilities folder and then the Balance icon. Your balance (in pounds.pence) will be displayed in a new small window. Close the box by clicking on OK.
  • To check your balance on a Linux machine, use the pccred command (found under utilities in the applications menu).
  • To check it on a Macintosh, click on the Apple menu and select PWF Account Management Facility.

The title of this document is: Paying for printing from the PWF
URL: http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/pwf/printscan/payment.html