We recently got a default management company to help us with delinquent students it has helped us a lot. What we have been doing now is talking more with student about different options they have. We let them know that the borrower is willing to work with them but the key is communication. I think it has helped us a lot since I started.
I agree...the more the better! You never know what information will be the one that leads you to the borrower.
We hold entrance and exit counseling and we discuss default prevention and re-payment dates. We also have a default prevention team in place that monitors this. I think anything in place is effective however putting as much as possible in place is always going to be more effective.
It sounds like you have some excellent practices in place. I really like the idea of keeping up contact in the beginning before the borrower finds themselves in a situation where they feel overwhelmed. Knowing they have someone to support and assist them in a time of need can absolutley turn a bad situtaion around and they will remember that they were able to get help and will hopefully look for assistance again in the future before things go badly.
We have created a default prevention specialist at my campus. We spend our entire day skip tracing our students that are in danger of going into default or delinquency to reexplain their options or see if they are having issues that prevent them from maintaining their financial obligations of paying off their student loans. In addition, we perform exit counseling and touch base with the students during grace periods to remind them that we are here to help if they have any issues. Sometimes, the constant reminder helps the students remember who to call when they are struggling or more importantly, before they start to go down the wrong road.
It sounds like you are doing a great job at helping to make your students successful. Including a budgeting worksheet and offering life skills lessons are great resources to offer the students to encourage them to be responsible and successful in all areas of life.
Contacting students during their grace period is a great practice. You not only remind them they have a payment coming due but can also ensure they have all the information for who their servicer is and where they will be sending payments.
We have definitely started being more proactive by counseling the students on their loan repayment options before they even enter repayment. We do this through group entrance/exit counseling sessions. We also contact our grads and withdraws during their grace period with the use of a letter and by phone. At this point, we can assist the student with their options before they reach our delinquency lists. This is a relatively new initiateve so the effectivness is still being measured.
Obviously we need to keep them in school moving toward graduation. We have numerous programs but most important is the quality of teachers and classroom engagement opportunities. Our success is mixed.
Next is finding them work, both in school and after graduation. We have an extremely high success rate in this area.
Finally is our FA education. Our Financial Aid interviews not only include detailed handouts describing ALL their various options but also budgeting worksheet and other life skill leasons on living withing your means and establishing good credit.
Overall I think we work very hard at doing the right things, however we still certainly have our share of deliquency issues.
We work hard at our institution to assist borrowers to avoid delinquency. Placement Assistance is very important. We have exit interviews and a letter are sent to students explaining the grace period. After 5 months have passed, I call each student and remind them about their payments coming due and check if they are ready and able. If not, we discuss deferment or forbearance options until they are employed and ready to make payment. In a nutshell, we communicate with our students while in-school, at graduation, and after they have leave. I believe that good communication is the key to success in avoiding delinquency.
The most important thing is that we emphasize the importance of staying in contact with the lenders.
Always Educating the borrowers on repayment options and getting them in the habit of making regular payment is always in their best interest.
We have recently implemented a number of practices that will hopefully help our students from becoming delinquent. Firstly we have partnered up with our career services dept to help ensure our students are placed either during or after their education, because a working student is more likely to repay their loans. Secondly we have dramatically increased the amount of education regarding loan repayment options that we give to our students not only at the beginning and the end of their time in college but also during their grace period, and moving forward we will be monitoring their repayment behaviour to ensure they do not become delinquent and ultimatley fall into default.
You have a great opportunity being new to get your borrowers started on the right path and keep them there. Best of luck to you for a successful future!
This branch campus has just recently received approval for Title IV. Therefore, I am trying to absorb all of the great ideas on this forum. I plan to utilize many of the strategies discussed. The bright post card, the brochures and posters, the 60, 90 and 120 day contact, and providing forms in advance of them possibly needing them are all great ideas. they can become familiar with the forms, so if they do need them in the future it won't seem so foreign.
We emphasize the importance of staying in contact with the lender. Upon completion of the program or when the student drops below half-time status we do a thorough exit counseling. At that time I give lender contact information to each student with their respected lender information and their options. In addition, we have a very strong career placement program that we encourage students to participate in; this will ensure they have the means to pay back their student loans.
We have noticed an increase in delinquency this past year; I believe the economy is playing a big role in our current situation. Reaching out to our borrowers is becoming more and more important to avoid delinquency.
Having all your staff involved in the process is a great idea. Educating the borrowers on repayment options and getting them in the habit of making regular payment is always in their best interest.
I agree the placement office places a major role in keeping the students current on student loans.
We have developed a task force consisting of all staff to contact a delinquent student. Additional advising is done at this time to assist the borrower in making the right choice. This could be a new repayment plan or a short term deferment.
Additionally we have added bulletin boards to talk about finances in the student lounge. This gives the borrower the opportunity to learn to budget their money.
I think Michele had some great points in her post.
A couple other hints I got from staff that works directly with the borrowers on the phone is stressing the consequences of default and using phrasing such as "what we also need to do is", that makes it seem necessary and not optional.
Also if you have a borrower who is not too far past due a tactic that can be used is to let them know Direct Loans will not report to their credit until 60 dpd so that can be an incentive for them to get it done before it is reported.
Thank you, I will try this with my students and see what kind of results I get. I hope it will work for me. This would really help with the students that are in a serious situation with their loan/s.
