Loan rigmarole

I'm about to tear out my hair over this. 

When exactly does the school certify your loan? I've been told by the registrar's office that the application is complete but my lender claims it's still in pending status because the certification request hasn't been responded to.

Is this something that needs to be done before I apply for my student visa??

If the loan disbursement date is supposed to be Sept 15, when does it actually arrive at your school?

My school had my loan paperwork for AGES before they certified it. Okay, realistically it was like six weeks or so but I had to hound them to get them to do the certification. I finally had to say, "Look, I'm going to be coming to Exeter in a week. What time on Friday can I stop in at your office to discuss why this is taking so long?" Don't you know, a day later I got an email that they'd completed the certification and sent it to the lender!

I believe the loan money will be sent to the school before the disbursement date. My loan is being disbursed in three installments, on dates requested by the school. Since the loan doesn't cover my tuition, I don't much care when they do it. I'll just have to pay the difference on each of the three dates.

As for doing it before you apply for your visa, that I'm totally guessing on. Since we're required to show proof of funding, but we don't really get any paperwork back, I requested a letter from my university student funding office that verifies my loan amount. I'm sending that along with a copy of my master promissory note that I sent in as verification of that part of my funding.

I hope this helps some. I know we have a couple of people who will know definitively, so hopefully we'll hear from them as well.

Find out the name of the person responsible for dealing with US student loans at your uni, and call/email them often to make sure they send in the school certification form.  Once that's done the application can progress, but if it's still sitting on someone's desk your loan will never get approved.

If you need the money from the loans to prove you can pay tuition and/or living expenses, they need to be completely approved before you can apply for your student visa.  You should get loan approval letters from your lenders once the process is completed, these are what I used for proof of funds for my visa.

The disbursement date is the date they mail the cheque to the UK.  So it'll arrive several days later, likely.

My school insists that the loan has been certified and that everything's confirmed.

I'm seriously considering using another lender. Wachovia has already lost my paperwork once and now can't seem to keep good records because every time I call them their information isn't up-to-date and there is much time being put on hold to sort things out. I've sent them my MPN and application several times already, yet they keep telling me that information is missing.

I hope it's not too late in the game. Which lenders do you recommend? I hate to say this but one in particular had very bad customer service- surly and rather uneducated-sounding.

Any reviews of Citibank? Great Lakes? IEFC? Sallie Mae hasn't got decent reviews.

had a good experience with IEFC, give them a thumbs up for customer service.