Student loan vent

I just have to vent about this, because it's cheesed me off a bit.  I got a call from Bank of America (who I am attempting to get my Stafford loan from) on Friday, saying that my school didn't fill out all the information on their part of the form & the bank cannot finish processing my loan application until they had this information.  ALL the bank needs is a proposed graduation date.  The kicker, and most annoying aspect, is that they have to have that date in writing FROM the school.  This is something the school was supposed to fill out in the first place.  Well, isn't a Master's program kind of flexible and you just finish whenever you're finished?  Do they really NEED a graduation date?  The loan officer was firm - he cannot process the application until this ONE field was completed.

So I contacted the school (which, it seems to be, should be the BANK'S job) via an e-mail and a voicemail (since at this point, it was after 6pm UK time).  I haven't heard from them since, and it's now late afternoon Wednesday there.  I'm more than impatient, because I just want the loan rigamarole to be OVER with.  I can't apply for my visa until I have my loan.  I can't buy a plane ticket until I have my visa.  It's a big cycle of waiting, a game that I HATE.

Should I try phoning again?  I thought about doing it this morning, before the business day has ended, but then I feel like I need to give the school a couple days.  However, the bank definitely stressed the alacrity needed on this issue.  The problem is, I don't have any other number or e-mail only than this one woman at RH, so if she's out of office or only coming in once a week or something since it's summer, I don't know of any other way of getting ahold of someone else (which if she doesn't respond soon, I want to do).  All I need is a simple fax to the bank!  GRRRRRRR.

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Pursue this. Keep calling. Try to get another phone number through their web site or something. Anyone in admissions could fax a letter stating your estimated graduation date.

My experience is that UK universities are terrible at filling in the forms for US loans and they are also absolutely deaf when your try to tell them how urgent something is. And if your one contact is on holiday it could be 2 weeks before you hear anything as so many people don't use the 'out of office' function that's part of their email!

Good luck!

My experience is that UK universities are terrible at filling in the forms for US loans and they are also absolutely deaf when your try to tell them how urgent something is.

Mine too! You really have to do all of the leg work for everyone, I've found. I can't tell you how many phone calls I made, emails and faxes I sent, and doors I knocked on. It's a really unfortunate part of the process but if you want anything done you have to do it yourself! 

Thanks guys, at least I know this is usual process and it's not just me.  I might dig around the website and look up other e-mails. Admissions, you say?  My contact is in the International Office (or whatever), but I bet you money if I e-mail admissions, they'll just tell me to forward to the International Office!    I'm sick of waiting...I guess I'll just bombard them with e-mails until someone proves helpful.

Unfortunately this seems to be the norm.  I spent a good month tracking down loan folks, college administrators, and repeatedly sending international packages to X, Y, and Z just to be told that the U.S. FAFSA process has changed due to a move to fixed interest rates/terror funding due diligence and that they won't know until July if I'll have to fill out new forms all over again and repeat the same asinine process again, nor will the loan information even be released until then.

UK institutions don't seem to put aid packages together, the banks don't talk to the colleges, the colleges don't talk to the banks, and if you didn't have some sort of proficiency with finance you'd be completely and helplessly lost.  I don't know how many times I got contradictory information from one of the aforementioned sources.

The kicker is that you need to have the loans to go and they expect you to get your visa, book your travel, and figure out your residence before knowing if your loans are all set and/or how much on top of them you may owe.  The college I am dealing with clearly didn't understand the mutual exclusivity of what they were asking me to do.  So I'm applying for a visa with nothing more than my FAFSA approval amount in hand.  I had to book my flight already, and now pray that everything works out.  LAME

Short of there being no program at all, I'd be hard pressed to think of a way this could be less efficient.

So no worries, you are not the only one who wants to rant about this topic.  I feel your pain.

So I'm applying for a visa with nothing more than my FAFSA approval amount in hand. I had to book my flight already, and now pray that everything works out. LAME
 

This might not work...if I recall correctly they need the final letter saying that everything's all set and ready to be disbursed or it doesn't count as "proof of funds."  I'm pretty sure at least one member of this board got tripped up by this and was told by the visa people to come back when she had her official letter.

Well, it's gotten better in that the school official has FINALLY gotten back to me and said she will fax the necessary information.  I will most likely wait until Monday (give her a day to do it) and then phone the bank to see if it actually went through and they can process my application finally.  It's been fairly painless so far, and I count myself lucky, but I'm one of those who wants everything set and ready far in advance or I get nervous.

Aless,

   Drat and Blast.   Well, looks like I'm going to have to hound these folks again then.  Wish me luck.  Thanks for the heads up. 

   Btw, I thought that was the case but the international office at my school said "just use your SAR and that will be fine for proof of funding." 

The last thing I heard from my uni was back on April 28th, my forms arrived and were being processed. I sent an email last week to the guy to find out what was going on and I just sent another today because I never heard back from him. Is this normal? Am I going to hear from the school or the bank? Do I get something in the mail or do I get an email? 

I got the e-mail this morning saying they had sent the fax to my bank.  Hopefully it went to the right people.  Will call tomorrow to see how on top of things Bank of America is.  At least I got a response from Europe-side, because I was afraid I was going to have to stalk them!  I also got my final acceptance letter with statement of fees from them, which is exactly what I need to apply for the visa.  As soon as June 25 hits, assuming I have my loan by then, my application wil lbe in the mail!!

hey, can we just make this the general "student loans of doom" vent thread?  This process is really frustrating sometimes    Anybody out there use Bank of America for their Stafford Loan and applied online? If so lemme know...need to compare notes!

I also *finally* got to talk to the financial aid person at my uni after trying to track them down for almost three weeks...hopefully I won't have more questions for him or else it'll probably take *another* three weeks to get ahold of him again  Sigh.  Keeping track of all this paperwork is making my head hurt....

I used BOA, but sent in a paper application (since it had to go to my school first).  Everytime I phone, the people are super-nice.  The woman yesterday said once they start processing, it should take 24-48 hrs to know whether it's been accepted or not.

They guy at the uni sent me an email and said they were getting to my forms today and he's hopeful they'll be sent out today. I'm sure once I get that in the mail, the real headaches will start!

I have gotten my offer letter but still no word on if I'm going to have send them a new MPN and they (my uni) haven't certified my loan yet nor have they responded to my e-mails asking them what the @#$@ is going on, nor have they seemingly sent anything to my lender.

btw, my Staffords are also through IEFC and I believe the lender I am using (not BOA) also pays the inception fee.

 

Grrrrr.  I just got off the phone with BOA (calling to double-check that the fax from Royal Holloway went through okay) and they gave me the news that it could be up to a MONTH before my loan gets approved, because it's a foreign school!  Something about the guarantor takes longer to go through because it's international.  That is extremely frustrating, because I had expected something like a week, not a month!  Does that seem inordinately long to anyone else?  The money's still getting dispersed to my American bank account on American soil in American dollars, so why the delay?  I had really wanted to apply for my visa on the earliest possible date, 25 June, but now it looks like that's unlikely (because I can't really apply for my visa without loan approval, right?).

Well, since she said "up to" a month, I can only hope that it's much less.  *impatient*