We provide information and instill in them the responsibiliy of repaying their loans. Talking to the students on a consistent basis helps.
Sergio,
Having the school work on contacting delinquent students is a very good practice. Hopefully you have established good relationships with the student while they were in school which will continue on after. A delinquent student may be more apt to answer a call from their former school than a servicer they have not dealt with before, especailly if they are in a difficult situation.
Cheryl Kesson
Ileana,
It's good to see you are using these reports. In some instances a student may respond to a call from the school when they have not been answering anything from the servicer since it is someone they are familiar with. If you are able to contact the student you can always call into the servicer with them to familiarize them with their processes.
Cheryl Kesson
Maria,
When calling delinquent students it is always good to establish conversation and identify the cause of delinquency. Many people have circumstances where they have good intentions but are unable to pay at the moment. If you can assist them and show them what their options are you will help through a difficult situation before a tough situation can become even worse.
Cheryl Kesson
Loan servicers send us Skip Tracing Reports. We contact all students included in these reports to see how we can help them and explain them their payment options.
Because of employee constraints, we cannot do the one-on-one sessions with our students. We do receive from different servicers, lists of delinquent students. We use these to contact the students and then do the one-on-one conversation to help them move their loans into a good status with deferments or forbearance.
We use several tools, but one of the most effective strategies is calling the student and verifying the cause of the deliquency. This has been a very effective strategy.
MERILYN,
Wow! I am very impressed that you ensure so many points of in-person contact with students throughout their enrollment, and I have no doubt that this practice produces positive results for your CDR.
I also like your emphasis on customer service. It would be a shame if schools put forth effort to meet with students but leave a poor impression. Financial Aid staff can evince a positive and welcoming attitude in order to help build long-term relationships.
Cheryl Kesson
We have developed a strategy where our students will hear from the Financial Aid staff regarding their rights and responsibilities as borrowers -six times in a group session before they graduate. Each student will also meet one-on-one at least three times with a FA Advisor before leaving school.
How effective is it? Very effective because we have seen the results when our default rate comes out.
We also have a third-party servicer helping us stay in touch with our borrowers once they leave school. We believe this to be very effective as well because we cannot handle the volume of work that our third-party professionals can.
Last but not least, we now make sure that we provide the best customer service to our students. That way, when they need help later on, they will be comfortable calling our offices because they know will help them.
Maggie,
Great idea to have them set up an account with their loan servicer! I think this is a great practice because you are reinforcing the fact that they have loans to repay and teaching them who their servicer is so they know where to go to make payments and get additional information. Setting up an account can be such a quick process but one that is so easy to "put off until later". You are ensuring they get it done right from the start.
Cheryl Kesson
Our students are counseled throughout the program on the options available to them through Direct Loans. We also help them set up an account with their servicer. At 5 months after graduation they are sent a letter reminding them that their loans are due the following month and to call us with any questions. At 6th months they are sent a text regarding their loans. At 1 year past graduation they are sent an e-mail or letter asking how they are doing with their loan repayment and reminding them of their options if they are struggling with payments. This is a new program for our school and it is too soon to see results.
Shelly,
I agree, it is important to help students develop these good payment habits right from the beginning. Good job teaching them the importance of their obligations.
Cheryl Kesson
Making payments on time is very important. We are always on top of our payment to avoid delinquency. We are always counseling our students the importantce of paying on time
Carol,
The partnership between these 2 departments is vey beneficial to the student and to the school. A student looking for a job may come to career services and if the staff there know they may also be having difficulties making their loan payments they can direct them to FA for assistance as well.
I think they are also a great resource for maintaining relationships and keeping up to date contact informtaion on file.
Cheryl Kesson
Carol,
I am really impressed with all the practices you have put into place. I think the quarterly budgeting/ financial literacy sessions are a great idea.
I also agree that reaching out to a student in their Grace period is helpful. We have had very good success with this. It's a good time to build the relationship and make sure they are off to a good start by not mising that first payment.
Cheryl Kesson
I agree that a combination of repayment options education, and career services, makes our students successful.
Ultimately Financial Aid and Career Services should be working together, and these partnership is helpful for both departments.
To assist borrowers avoid delinquency, we conduct in person entrance and exit counseling sessions. In addition, we also conduct quarterly budgeting/financial literacy sessions with our students.
After graduation, we also check in with our students during their grace period, and as their first payment is coming due. This communication is helpful when they have questions on the repayment options available to them.
Michael,
It is important to let student know they do have options if they get into trouble.If they are struggling with their loan payments they may be behind on other things as well and feeling overwhelmed. They may not remember what their options are, but knowing they can contact someone who can assist them in a time of need can be a great relief.
Cheryl Kesson
Use of 3rd party to regularly contact students are about to enter repayment of loans or have already started repayment of loans. When conducting exit counseling, go over the options available to the student to keep loans out of default. It is important to let the student know that a student loan doesn't not go away and that there are always options to cater to their situation at the time of repayment.
Allison,
A very basic place to start would be to ensure that all updates obtained by Career Services are communicated to Financial Aid or to your default prevention team. It is unfortunate when one department is unsuccessfully attempting to reach a student and another department has new information that could have helped.
You might also think about sending a “most-wanted†list to the Placement Office, so they can reach out to or keep an eye out for students you are most in need of locating.
Also, the Career Services staff can include subtle reminders about good financial health. For example, if they have a Facebook page, website or bulletin board, they can post positive new articles and “human interest stories†about people paying off debt and successfully managing their finances. Integrating this messaging into job search resources sends an important message.
I do hope that other institutions will share ideas that have been successful for their schools!
Cheryl Kesson
