The Falcon   |   Volume 81, Issue 26

Published 6/02/10   |   Log In

Understanding student loans

Communication key, finance office says

By SHAWNRENE KEPPEL, News Editor

Published: May 28, 2008

In her freshman year, Jessica Spencer found that her financial aid was not enough to entirely cover her tuition. She decided to take out a student loan to make up for the funds she lacked, and last year Spencer graduated with a little over $11,000 of debt.

While Spencer said her debt is not overwhelming her, she wishes it was not there.

"I wish I would have tried to suck it up and tried to make extra money to pay out of pocket so that I wouldn't have to be paying it off for years and years to come," she said.

In total, the average SPU student will graduate with $23,753 of student loan debt to pay back. While the amount and types of loans that students have acquired may vary, loan repayment is a commitment that all graduates must plan for and take seriously, said Debbie Bristol, the assistant director for student loans and collections.

There are three different types of loans available to students: Stafford loans, campus-based loans and private loans. Each type of loan comes with its own conditions and policies for repayment that students need to be aware of prior to leaving SPU, said Bristol.

"Loan repayments are non-negotiable at this point," she said. "You are required to repay the loans even if you don't receive a statement."

Stafford loans are granted to students who meet the requirements set by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form. The loans come in two forms, subsidized loans in which the government pays interest while students are in school, and unsubsidized loans in which the borrower is responsible for the interest and all unpaid interest is added to the total amount of the loan.

Spencer took out two subsidized loans and one unsubsidized loan to cover the remainder of her tuition. Her initial loan balance was a little over $10,000, but after interest rates, her balance raised nearly $1,000, she said.

The interest rates for these loans depend on when a loan was distributed. Jordan Grant, director of Student Financial Services, said that loans disbursed between July 1, 2006, and June 30, 2008, have a fixed interest rate of 6.8 percent. Loans disbursed between July 1, 1998, and June 30, 2006, have variable interest rates with a 8.25 percent ceiling.

Campus-based loans are disbursed by SPU. These include the Perkins, nursing student and SPU institutional loans. The Perkins and nursing student loans are federal loans with a fixed 5 percent interest rate with a minimum payment of $40 due each month once repayment starts.

The SPU institutional loan is a private loan with a 5 percent fixed interest rate. Borrowers must make a minimum payment of $50 per month on this loan once repayment begins.

With each of these loans, Student Financial Services is available to assist borrowers with each of the questions they have. For private loans, though, Bristol said the most information she can give to borrowers about their loan repayments is the right people to contact from their lender.

"The terms and conditions are set by the lenders, so we don't know all of the ins and outs [of private loans]," Bristol said.

Private loans are taken out by students from various lenders like U.S. Bank or Citibank. These loans do not have fixed interest rates, and there is no ceiling to how high they can be.

If a student has taken out multiple loans to cover their schooling, they will pay each of them back simultaneously. However, they do have the option of consolidating the loans, Grant said. Consolidating student loans means that the borrower takes out one additional loan that pays for all of the loans they took out in school. This extends the repayment period from five to 10 years to 20 to 30 years, Grant said.

Loan consolidation is not for everyone though, Grant said. Though the repayment period is extended, interest will collect on the loan the whole time, leaving the borrower with more to pay off.

"You have lower monthly payments, but you end up paying more," Grant said.

Spencer chose not to consolidate her five loans. She now pays $110 each month to cover each one.

"I had a steady job, so I did not feel too overwhelmed by the cost," Spencer said.

Each type of loan has a grace period between graduation and the time that repayments will start, Grant said. The grace period for the Perkins and nursing student loans is nine months, whereas the grace period for Stafford and SPU institutional loans is six months. Private loans will typically have a six-month grace period as well, he said.

Bristol said it is vital that borrowers make sure lenders have their current contact information to ensure that they are aware of when their repayment begins.

Spencer's repayment period began in January. She had listed her parents' home as her permanent address, and they collected her mail for her, not knowing that her loan statements were among everything else.

"I was a month overdue on my first payment, which was not a very good start," she said. "They charged me an extra amount."

Other penalties that can come with being late on repayment are losing benefits that are granted to the borrower when they sign the promissory note for their loan, Grant said. Consistently late payments also look bad on a borrower's credit score.

"There is usually some type of grace period, but you can still lose your benefits," Bristol said. However, if the late payment is reported by the lender, "it stays on your credit report for seven years," Bristol said.

If people are unable to make their first payments when their grace period has ended, most lenders have options for them, Grant said. Depending on the lender, a person may temporarily postpone his or her monthly payments due to unemployment, economic hardship, at least part-time school enrollment or military service. They may do this through loan deferments and forbearances.

"At the first sign of trouble, contact your servicer," Grant said. "They don't want you to get behind."

"You have to work for these things [deferments and forbearances]," Bristol said. "They're not easy to come by."

The worst thing that a borrower can do is default on their loans, Bristol said. Defaulting on loans means that a person fails to make loan payments for 270 or more days on Stafford loans or does not make payments for 120 or more days on campus-based loans. Consequences for this include bad credit scores, income tax refunds withheld and wages being garnished.

Lenders are willing to help people avoid bad situations, she said.

"It is different from a car loan or a mortgage where they make standard procedures and say, 'oh well,'" Bristol said. "We work to help before a situation gets out of control."

The key to staying on top of student loans is constant communication, Bristol said.

While Spencer said having to start repaying her loans was "a little alarming and jarring," she said that repayment is fairly easy to figure out. She now has her monthly payments taken directly from her checking account and makes sure that she pays above the minimum payment so that her repayment period will end sooner.

"It's not rocket science, I guess," she said.

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