Dear Congresswoman Robin Kelly – Part 1
I have never raised my kids in an environment where they felt entitled; we never had that kind of money. However, I knew that my oldest was handling the debt OK and I did not think it was fair to let one go and the other not.
As the education process continued, I found it was frustrating trying to communicate with the school about costs and expenses. If I had a question I could only go through my daughter. I was not allowed to communicate directly with the school. This made the process difficult if not impossible at times to know what was going on and what was needed.
As the one holding the loans and processing the finances, I was not allowed to communicate with the school about the education I was paying for. This made getting information and understanding the costs very difficult. Too often there had to be several communications just to get a sensible answer.
Too often the information provided was either vague or it was obvious that they didn’t know exactly what was going on.
At the time, my main concern was making sure she could finish. Going to Columbia University in Chicago, we felt that this would provide her with the best possible chances in the work place after her education was finished. As we continued forward, once again, it was surprising to me how easy the money was to get. In addition, as I navigated through the menus and options it was difficult to know just how much money was needed. This goes back to the communication issue above. At no time was I ever privy to the classes she was taking or the bottom line each quarter detailing the cost. Therefore, in order to make sure the school was getting what was needed, I selected the “Maximum amount required”, or something to that effect.
There was NO information required by the lender to assure that I was “Borrowing within my means”. Without any regard for my financial situation, the money was provided.
My assumption here was that if the money was being provided they would make sure the system of paying it back would be manageable and realistic. Therefore, I was able to proceed forward making sure I could provide what she needed to continue.
Often times, once the school costs were paid, we were sent a check for the remaining balance that the school did not need. This was confusing. I was not sure why we got it and what we were supposed to do with it. Each time we tried to return the money to the school they refused it.
There is NO communication between the lender and the school and the person borrowing the money. Therefore, all I could do was hope that it was all being covered without any real knowledge of cost. It was also obvious that the lender did not know the amount due as I was consistently given more than I needed.
The extra money was put to use paying for the additional costs incurred and required to keep her in school along the way.
Once school was finished we began the process of paying it back. I was given a balance due, without any explanation of where the total came from. It was recommended to me by a financial advisor that I should verify the balance due with the records of what the costs were from the schools. Once again I was confronted with the communication issue as I tried to find information about these balances. As I reviewed the information that I was finally provided I began to see that there was a difference between the amount that I was loaned and the amount that I owed. In the end, the difference was simply because of fees applied to the balance due. However, the amount of time it took to get an answer was excessive and unnecessary.
Basic simple information required to understand the amount due was unavailable.
