Student loan vent

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*

Argh, I'm sorry   Now I'm really hoping that my uni turns the paperwork around quickly so I can still apply for the visa at the end of July/first week of August. Got a question for you though- did you specifically request that your loan money be paid to your American bank account? Because the addendum to my BOA MPN says that "effective July 1, 2006, loan money for students enrolled in foreign schools generally must be sent to the school and disbursed in multiple installments."  My loan contact person says that at my uni they get the check and hold it for me until I arrive (if it in fact it gets there before I do, which it might not. Argh!)

Aless, I'm totally living your nightmare too.  I have tried to explain to my Uni that they need to expedite the process because if they wait too long I won't be able to get my visa, which is when they told me simply going with the SAR is fine for the visa.  However, I also read the post on here where someone didn't get their loans cleared, started classes and then had to scramble when the uni/dept. of ed./lender let him down.

As I said before, I am hard pressed to think of a way to make this system more inconvenient.

"effective July 1, 2006, loan money for students enrolled in foreign schools generally must be sent to the school and disbursed in multiple installments."

- this was my understanding of the process too.  That the school will get three equal installments from the Dept. of Ed. for Stafford payments.  Not that you need another spectre to loom over this process, but with the way the dollar is inflating, this scheme could mean more expense out of pocket for us as the dollar looses more and more against the pound and euro.

Between the new interest rate/mpn issues and the anti-terror measures (no doubt what is causing the "month" in working things out with your loans).  The government is making in very hard for us to study abroad using Stafford Loans.  This coupled with the UK institutions putting the general omis on the student to take care of the student loans/financing and being generally unresponsive to our needs has created a perfect storm of bureaucratic agony.

I have a job and a life I'm uprooting, the least they could do is be responsive, helpful, or even write me a letter for my visa that says "Dear whomever, The process has changed.  Things are going to clear later than usual due to procedural changes but we will approve the loans so let X into the country to study at our institution.  Love, X University." so that I can get my Visa and plan my life.
 

I have a job and a life I'm uprooting, the least they could do is be responsive, helpful, or even write me a letter for my visa that says "Dear whomever, The process has changed.  Things are going to clear later than usual due to procedural changes but we will approve the loans so let X into the country to study at our institution.  Love, X University." so that I can get my Visa and plan my life.

Right there with you... my only consolation is that I know it'll only take a week or so to process my visa by post so even with the month+ delay on the loans it should be okay.  However, the delay means I'll be buying my (non-refundable) plane ticket before I apply for the visa since I don't want to pay something ridiculous like $1000+ 2 weeks before I have to leave.  That makes me slightly nervous...but what else can I do, right? 

Got a question for you though- did you specifically request that your loan money be paid to your American bank account? Because the addendum to my BOA MPN says that "effective July 1, 2006, loan money for students enrolled in foreign schools generally must be sent to the school and disbursed in multiple installments."  My loan contact person says that at my uni they get the check and hold it for me until I arrive (if it in fact it gets there before I do, which it might not. Argh!)

Sorry, I wasn't thinking straight when I wrote that post (was feeling negative).  It gets disbursed to the uni, who in turn would cut me a check for any excess not needed toward tuition specifically.  That could explain the delay, since the money is disbursed internationally, not Stateside.  I assume, though, that the "account" will still be in American dollars - like it would show up on my account screen when I log in to BOA website, right?  This would have to be in order to facilitate repayment.

Ditto, Andrea, which is why I'm so impatient for the visa process to begin.  I'm far too wary of buying a plane ticket without entry clearance, so unless I get desperate, I'll hold off until the thing comes through.

Also, I don't really see how a SAR could be sufficient for the visa application.  It doesn't show that you're getting x-amount of money towards your tuition, nor where that money is coming from.  If anything, a copy of your loan application itself would be better than a SAR, I would think, except that doesn't prove you're actually GETTING the money.  The only way to prove you can pay (without recourse to public funds, which is what the FOs are terrified of!) is the approval letter for the loan, plus bank statements (supplementary money).

Let me speak as someone that went through this last year. I already sent a pm to aless, but it looks as though it would have served better on the board.

First - get one contact for the bank and school - get a supervisor if possible, that is the best way. Get a direct contact number, not a 1800

2) Keep a record of all conversations, what was said, promised etc... and who said it and when (saved my hide a few times)
3) Don't believe everythign they say, especially if it is related to timing. Keep at them b/c they don't have you in their best interest and the banks in america have no clue
4) The funds will come in forms of checks at the school. There is NOTHING you can do about that. Deposit them in a UK bank account (after you get that in the UK) and pay the fee to convert it to pounds. It's worth it. My school said not to do and I did. It saved me a lot of hassle. I was not going to let checks worth that much money out of my sight unless they were going into a bank (like I didn't want them in the post of all places).
5) Don't apply for the visa w/o the official funds, I didn't get it when I didn't have the official form.
6) Expect the payment to be late. I paid the first week of November for the first term. The second term was on time (early feb), so it was just the first term that gave me trouble.

Feel free to pm me if you need anymore help. I know how hard it is - it doesn't get better until you've paid it all. good luck!

Also, I don't really see how a SAR could be sufficient for the visa application.  It doesn't show that you're getting x-amount of money towards your tuition, nor where that money is coming from.  If anything, a copy of your loan application itself would be better than a SAR, I would think, except that doesn't prove you're actually GETTING the money.  The only way to prove you can pay (without recourse to public funds, which is what the FOs are terrified of!) is the approval letter for the loan, plus bank statements (supplementary money).

I agree...none of the documents that make up the Stafford loan process has a dollar amount on it except the school certification (which you don't get to see) and the final approval notice.  Since it's the school that technically determines how much money you get, I can't see how a preliminary SAR counts as proof of funds (especially since the ECO's at the consulate likely don't know the ins and outs of the federal student loan process!)

I don't know about US/UK student loans but I do understand the frustration.  One thing that helped us a lot was a good person at the bank.  No one believed the frustration we were having - DH broke a phone one day because he was sooooo angry at the Loan people.  They had made a mistake in calculating our income and listed our annual income as monthly income, so our payments were so high, we couldn't possibly have paid them, and they were automatically deducting them out of our account.  They wouldn't change it either.  So, we ended up getting a loan from the bank to cover the student loan, closed the account, opened another one.  And were rid of the sods once and for all.  And we had a considerably lower interest rate at the bank than with the Student loan office.  DH had had a small loan when interests rates were at 12% (and it was paid off in full) so when we negotiated the big loan, even though the rates had dropped to 7%, he was committed to the 12%.   I think the rules have changed since but even so, it is frustrating!

Anyway, keep notes of all conversations.  I agree with  pittpanther on this one.  It saved our hides a few times.  And we were lucky that we had someone in our bank who was willing to take the time to deal with the student loans people for us.    She came close to breaking her phone too, they were that bad.   

As well keep all records pertaining to the loan.  Our file was probably 2 inches thick by the time we were finished.  And we're still paying on the loan 9 years later.  We may have it payed off by the time the kids start Uni!

- I've already had to buy the plane tickets so I'm at least going on a European vacation in Sept.

- I did get an update from IEFC today saying that the MPN I filled out is the correct one and I will not need to resend a new one to my Uni since I already signed one with the new fixed rate (which I did on purpose months ago so that they would approve my loan faster, a lot of good that did me ) .  Regardless, this now means that my Uni is the one dragging their feet so I'm giving them until next week to get back to me before I raise hell.

- I do have an e-mail from my Uni stating how much I am to receive per distribution and how much (roughly) I should get back in excess funds.  However, it's just an e-mail, and it's not an official document.  I had to hound them for a month just to get it so I had some idea how much money I would have to provide.  Needless to say if I continue my education it will be through scholarship if at all possible.

- I've already had to buy the plane tickets so I'm at least going on a European vacation in Sept.

Me too! 

You have more information than I do! I haven't heard anything from the IEFC, but that could be because the uni just processed my paperwork this week. Good thing I started the process back in April!

Well, one benefit of this thread is that I know I am not the only one!  I'm glad I started my rant against Stafford loans for international students .  Thanks for all the helpful advice from those who have been through this process before!  So now that I'm in the application-being-processed phase, you recommend I phone the bank every so often to try and push things through faster?  It seems like the people on the phone are just gophers, so how is phoning & annoying them going to get anything done?  I highly doubt the people I actually talk to on the phone are the ones who get things done.

When the bank phoned me initially, I got the direct extension of the man I talked to when they still needed stuff from the school.  Weirdly enough, ANOTHER person (a woman ) called my home and my cell a few hours later, wanting the same info.  So who's the official person on my application?  I don't have her number, just the first name.  I guess if I get desperate and need to talk to someone 'official' I can try phoning the man's extension, because at least he's probably not a phone monkey.

I'm willing to be patient for at least a little while, because it DOES take a little bit of time to process something as major as a $18,500 loan!

You have to INSIST on speaking to the higher ups. Ask for supervisors. I would refuse to speak to the first or second string people and get the higher ups. Then, I would ask for a direct line and their name so I could continue to only speak to them. I got to know them quite well and they knew me and my situation so it made the frustration a little easier. I did the same with the Uni. Good luck.

You have to INSIST on speaking to the higher ups. Ask for supervisors. I would refuse to speak to the first or second string people and get the higher ups. Then, I would ask for a direct line and their name so I could continue to only speak to them. I got to know them quite well and they knew me and my situation so it made the frustration a little easier. I did the same with the Uni. Good luck.

That's good advice....I'm going to try to get a direct extension for my loan contact person at my uni.  Haven't had to deal much with the bank yet, but I'll try to do the same for them....pittpanther, out of curiosity, how long did it take for your loan to be approved once your uni had sent the paperwork to the bank?

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!

Just to illustrate how you can hear wildly different things from people working at the same company....Aless, I called BOA today to ask them how long it would take to process my loan to see if they would say the same thing they told you.  They didn't- the lady I got on the line told me that it normally takes them 24-48 hours to turn around the Stafford loan after the paperwork is complete for a regular US school, and only 4-5 days for an overseas school.  Go figure    Who knows how long it will *really* take....

Yeah, LAST time I had asked (several days ago), the lady mumbled something like 24-48 hrs, which is why the month quotation shocked me so much.  I'll give it at least that 4-5 day window before I start phoning again, just to see what happens.