<p>once i got my financial aid package, i thought it would be fine, but my family struggles a lot and things have been unpredictable. we were really surprised and unprepared when we found out the first payment of my school's monthly payment plan was due july 1st. because of our inability to pay on that date, we planned to start paying on the next due date, which is august 1st. things are even worse now because now, on that date, TWO payments are due as well as the $95 that my school's online payment service charges. on top of that, the monthly payments themselves are about $200 more each than i anticipated because i forgot about the fact i don't have any work study money yet. so, it's been a disaster...</p>
<p>my school only included $3500 in subsidized loans in my aid, so i was wondering, is it too late to take out the remaining 2k in unsubsidized loans? i already did the MP note and everything for the sub loans. i'm hoping it's not too late because this is basically the only way i can go to school. also, how hard would it be to pay off the interest of the unsub loans during the school year? </p>
<p>edit: also, i've applied to a million places, but i have not gotten a job yet, which REALLY would've eliminated most of this drama. i'm planning on working during the school year and i won't let this happen again next summer, so hopefully i won't have to take out unsub loans again</p>
<p>You can still get the $2000 unsub, but make sure they’ll refund it to you. They may just apply it to the balance and while that would make your payments go down monthly, it will not help you with the Aug payment. Even if they do give you the lump sum, you won’t have it by Aug 1 as they won’t disburse until school starts.</p>
<p>Two in…the student might not have a choice. A couple of things. In MOST cases, the Direct loans are disbursed to the school FIRST. The student only gets a refund if there is money left after all the college billable costs have been paid.</p>
<p>In addition, the Direct Loan will likely NOT be disbursed at all until after the fall term begins. HALF of the Direct Loan will be disbursed after the term starts. The other half won’t be disbursed until NEXT term.</p>
<p>My kids’ Direct. Loans were disbursed to their schools about three weeks into the term.</p>
<p>Well, I have literally no other way of getting money, so do I just not go??</p>
<p>How much are your monthly payments? Can you earn that in a month and pay on Aug 1?</p>
<p>My daughter’s school has short term loans to help students get started in a semester (books, moving expenses, deposits, etc). They are expected to be repaid before the end of the term. That could help you. Talk to your financial aid office about your needs and situation.</p>
<p>I don’t really know how to calculate it because I thought the loan would be subtracted before any payments would be made, but now I’m confused and even more worried. I don’t know if I can earn that in a month; no one will even hire me. Now that I’m realizing work study obviously doesn’t factor into it, the payment would be more than $500. And that’s times two, plus the $95 the payment service charges. If the loans aren’t subtracted, it would be WAY more than that…I don’t even wanna think about it. There’s no way in hell my mom could pay anything near that, not even half of it at once. </p>
<p>My mom is going to talk to them tomorrow, but we’ve had difficulties with them in the past, so I’m not very optimistic. I’ve had to handle all this financial aid stuff by myself; I guess I needed more guidance because this is a worse deal than I thought :(</p>
<p>also, i had to go through fafsa verification ans ended up with a lower EFC, but my financial aid didn’t change. does that not matter?</p>
<p>Callie, when you figure out your payment plan amount…here is what you do…</p>
<p>You take the amount YOU have to pay, and divide it by the number of months of your payment plan. Your loan amount is NOT included in the amount for the total payment plan…as that amount WILL be paid to the college directly. </p>
<p>So…what amount do YOU owe to your college for the year? Divide that amount by the number of months.</p>
<p>If the loans aren’t included in the payment plan amount, why would taking out the 2k loan right now not help me at all? Wouldn’t it reduce the remaining balance?</p>
<p>What is the total amount YOU need to pay? Divide THAT amount by 10 or 11…however many months your payment plan is.</p>
<p>It WILL help you…but only 1/10 or 1/11 of that loan amount will be deleted from your payment plan (if you hadn’t already dealt with those loans). </p>
<p>Do you have any other relatives who could help out financially in the short-term, or could you speak to a pastor at your church, if applicable?</p>
<p>callietorres -</p>
<p>If you can’t get the money sorted out in time to enroll for the fall, ask about deferring your enrollment to the spring semester, or to next fall. The gap semester or year would give you time to get some more money together and/or to find options that are more affordable for your studies. We know that you want to start now, but if it isn’t financially feasible, please do remember that you have options.</p>
<p>@thumper1 i know that’s a small percentage, but that’s like $400 shaved off the payment i’d owe on august 1 because it’s for two months. </p>
<p>@Madison85 I can think of one relative, but I don’t know if my mom would want to ask. We don’t really have a relationship with non-immediate family members. And and unfortunately church isn’t applicable</p>
<p>@happymomof1 I’ll keep those options in mind. I really don’t wanna give up yet, though…</p>
<p>Callie, YOU do the estimate for the payment plan. And YOU determine the amount for which you are taking it. Just be alerted…if you come up short, this will be your financial issue to reconcile.</p>
<p>Another thought…one year, we set up our payment plan with one amount…and then we changed it come October. (In our case we had WAY overestimated). Contact the payment company and see if you can do this.</p>
<p>Yes, you can take out the $2K unsubsidized loan, but only $1K will go into your account (maybe less than that as there might be a small fee involved) and, yes, that will go into the Bursar’s account, and the school is likely to just take it off the top of what’s owed.</p>
<p>. Call the Bursar’s office and explain your predicament. These accelerated plans often do not help for the reasons you just stated. You are likely to have until the date of registering for you new classes to pay your first term costs. See if you can push back the payments of the payment plan further into the term, so you’ll have some money saved to catch up as well as possibly some work study funds. Take a good look at your payment schedule. My son’s plan makes us start paying second term before first so it’s not like one gains any time, but loses it when getting the money is difficult. I suggest you pay the school every cent you can right now plus you can get the $1000 loan. Where does it put you as to what you will owe in billed costs for the semester? Remember, the way it works usually is that you CANNOT register for 2nd term courses unless you have paid for first term. </p>
<p>Again, get some help from the school on this. </p>
<p>Cptofthehouse, we did payment plans for seven years. We had to set the plan up BEFORE classes started in all cases. The first payment was always due July 1…and if you didn’t start until September! you paid July, August and September as your first payment. There was NO option to defer setting up the payment plan until later. </p>
<p>But I do wonder…can this student set up a payment plan for $400 a month, and then amend it to be higher later on in the process? That is worth asking. </p>
<p>She should be aware that the college is going to want to be certain they will be FULLY paid, and will look at that payment plan amount.</p>
<p>Yeah, the deadline for setting up the payment plan is August 1st. Anything after that has a late fee of $75 a week. After doing more reading, it looks like even just starting the plan on August has a late fee of $75 itself. That’ll teach me to read the fine print. $400 is already too much to pay a month, so making it higher later wouldn’t work. We were counting on it being near $300. The main issue right now, though, is having to make two payments at once + the $95 service fee + the $75 “late” fee. Even if the monthly payment was actually already down to around $300, it’d be way too much to pay at once. Also, I have to get the school health insurance waived before I pay anything, so that’s something else to do ASAP; it’s $1200 a semester. Once I get that taken care of and add in the new loan, the monthly payments should be down to a doable amount, but it’s the double payment that’s a problem.</p>
<p>How do I go about getting another loan? Should I ask them? Is it school specific? My mom was supposed to have called the financial aid office a while ago so I’m waiting to hear back</p>
<p>I’m on a payment plan right now with my college kid, have been for the last 3 years, and I’ve mixed it up with them. Can’t remember the specifics, but i started late and then skipped a payment. So it does depend upon the plan. Just trying to see what the OP’s options are. She really needs to talk to the Bursar’s office and find out. At my son’s school, it’s pretty much an iron clad rule that unless the account is fully paid for the current semester, one cannot register for the next term without special waivers. You can lose your seat in certain classes by waiting–my son’s never been blocked out of a class yet, but he’s always registered on time. Also,if you are not on the payment plan, you get charged a late fee each month you have an outstanding bill for the term–a specific due date is given. Since the late charge is about $50 each month, I think, if you don’t want to pay the full balance by that date, you are better off going on the payment plan as it does give more flexibility. </p>
<p>The OP also needs to talk to the payment plan provider for her school to determine options. </p>
<p>I agree. Actually, at my son’s school, there is someone there that seems to know both, as I have done some mixing and matching tog get some flexibility. We had two in college, a loan payment for one, and one in private high school the first year and it took some juggling to get the payments done then. I also missed a payment one year, and some accommodation was available. I can’t remember details of any of this, not that it matters, as what is specific to the OP’s plan and school right now is all that matters.</p>