Hi all, For people with student loans through Direct Loans (William D. Ford Foundation), I got an e-mail this morning that they have enabled electronic only bill statements and online pay. If you don't want to auto-deduct and you don't want to send the payment in the mail, here's a nice alternative... Of course, their website is all funky now, but here is the URL once it gets up and running again. http://www.eduservices.com/
Hi Marci, First off I hope I'm not totally going off topic, but this does pertain to a school loan Anyway, I hope you remember when I was telling you about a trade school (Masters Institue) and how it closed up in 2001. Well I found an archived article in our newspaper that had some interesting info on how/why they close - please read this and tell me your honest unbiased opinion: San Jose Mercury News (CA) December 23, 2001 Section: Local Edition: Morning Final Page: 1B PAYMENT DISPUTE CLOSES ACCESS TO SCHOOL RECORDS PROBLEMS PLAGUE STUDENTS LEFT OUT IN THE COLD WHEN HIGH-TECH SCHOOL IN S.J. SHUT DOWN ABRUPTLY. NOW, AN UNPAID BILL MEANS MANY CAN'T GET TRANSCRIPTS. JOHN WOOLFOLK, Mercury News Nine months after a San Jose computer trade school abruptly folded, the high-tech dreams of 158 students remain in limbo, their records held hostage in a payment dispute between the state, the school and a storage company. About 100 boxes of Masters Institute student transcripts are locked away at a Sunnyvale Iron Mountain storage yard, which won't release them until someonepays the failed school's bill. The impasse is doubly vexing for many of these students because Masters specialized in ''distance learning,'' with 1,400 of its 2,300 students taking courses over the Internet from around the country. State authorities say out-of-state students aren't their responsibility. ''It seems that I am in no-man's land with no hope to complete my education,'' said Curt Leonard, 42, an Oregon student who still hasn't obtained his Masters transcripts. The transcript stalemate began shortly after Masters' closing in early March, said Mike Luery, spokesman for the state Department of Consumer Affairs. State officials had taken most of the transcripts during an initial sweep of the school's headquarters and sent them on to students, Luery said. When they later found more, they stowed them with Iron Mountain, where Masters already kept 200 boxes of other documents, he said. But when the state went to retrieve the files, Iron Mountain balked, demanding payment first for all the Masters boxes, a bill that was $4,000 in April and closer to $10,000 today, Luery said. State officials offered to pay for the files they stored, but wouldn't cover Masters' bill for the rest. The storage company refused that offer. ''It's a real dilemma,'' Luery said. ''We want to go to bat for the students and do what's right for them. But there's no contractual obligation that would require us to pay for boxes Masters stored previously. That's why we're at an impasse.'' Iron Mountain referred inquiries to Vice President Rick Taibl, who did not respond. Richard Couch, a Danville financial consultant who has handled Masters' affairs since its closing, said he was unaware of the dispute, but felt the storage yard's policy made sense. ''My experience is that you pay them or it stays there, no matter who you are,'' Couch said. ''That's the way they do it. You've got to think about that when you put stuff in there.'' In any case, there's nothing more the school can do because it's broke, Couch said. The school never reopened or filed for bankruptcy, and the students are now the state's responsibility, he said. ''We don't have any money,'' Couch said. ''The bank accounts were swept. There's nothing left in the business. We don't even have the books and records any more. The state controls those.'' The transcript dispute is just part of the wreckage left by the school's collapse. Even though most students received their transcripts and loan waivers and moved on, many remain bitter. ''It was an upsetting experience to say the least,'' said Nathan Bowers of Ocala, Fla., who is now taking courses closer to home at Keiser College Online in Florida. ''They closed so suddenly and left us all hanging.'' Several creditors who sold computer gear to the school have sued over unpaid bills of more than $500,000. Glenn Collyer of Ciphers, who won a judgment for $260,775 in August but has yet to be paid, said the school has hidden behind ''a wall of secrecy and deceit.'' The U.S. Department of Education a year ago dropped Masters from a distance-learning program after a review found the school failed to report fraud involving its $13 million in student loans. Investors bolted and the 28-year-old institute collapsed. About one in 10 of the roughly 3,000 trade schools in California fail each year, and about a tenth of those fold suddenly like Masters, Luery said. There's no indication that increasingly popular distance-learning programs are more troubled than others, Luery said, despite other recent failures such as Columbia Pacific University in Marin County. It's unclear how many of the stored Masters transcripts are for out-of-state students. But Masters highlights the added risk faced by long-distance students, who may be suddenly cut off and at a disadvantage in pressing for answers from a distant school. State officials have no authority to ensure a smooth transition for out-of-state students. ''Long-distance students have less recourse should something go wrong, as is evidenced by this case,'' Luery said. Students like Leonard say they're disappointed with what they thought was apromising concept. ''I truly believe that distance education could work, and this is just a real black eye for the program,'' Leonard said. ''Now I'm in a situation where I need to start all over.'' Copyright (c) 2001 San Jose Mercury News
Sal, If the student loan fraud occured during the time period you were enrolled, I think that you have a very good case re having these loans dismissed. I simply don't know how to tell you to go about getting this information to the right people. I would contact some of the students named in the article to see what they have done. I would also contact your state and the school's state Attorney Generals Office. I would ask the Ombudsman's office about staying the collection efforts (i.e. garnishment) until this is resolved. A long time ago, a poster named "uniondiva" recommended filling out a form re fraud on the school's part. I can only reiterate her advice.
