I am starting to see a smattering of lender lists on school financial aid websites. Here are some that I uncovered this afternoon:
- Grinnell College provided the following details for their 2009-10 Stafford Lender List:
Lender Selection: We contacted lenders previously included on our list and determined that the following would continue to be included for 2009-10 based on criteria described below. Additionally, lenders who asked to be added to this list were considered using the same criteria. Grinnell State Bank is new to the list. This list is effective as of 11/18/2008.
Lenders on the list were selected because they:
- Provide quality customer service
- May offer desirable loan features and services such as paying upfront fees and/or offer repayment benefits
- Do not require an account relationship
- Have electronic capabilities. Through electronic funds transfer (EFT), loan proceeds will be electronically transferred from the lender to Grinnell College and then to your student account. This is particularly important for students who plan to study abroad, because EFT eliminates the need for borrowers to endorse a paper check.
- Provide geographical diversity to the list (local, regional, and national lenders).
If you borrow, you are not required to use any of the lenders on the list. We will process a loan for any FFELP lender. Additionally, we are not permitted to select a lender for you.
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Grinnell also included a comparison table to allow borrowers to compare lenders across the following criteria: servicer, guarantor, interest rate, origination fee, default fees, repayment benefits .
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Millikin University provided the following disclosure on their lender list process:
Federal Stafford Loans, PLUS loans for Parents and Alternative Educational Loans
Below is Millikin's 2009-10 lender list, listed alphabetically. All lenders meet or exceed Millikin’s standards for customer service, electronic loan processing, as well as, default education and prevention. Each lender offers several loan types. In addition, 4 of the 5 lenders are unaffiliated, individual corporations, which we believe is evidence of their stability. Stability will be the key to providing you a necessary source of funding for your academic career. Though we believe we have provided a strong list of lenders, you are not required to select a lender from this list. If you already have a relationship with a bank or have already chosen a lender not on the list, please work closely with them to track the progress of your loan. We will do our best to work with any lender you may have chosen.
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Waubonsee Community College provided these details about their Stafford loan list:
The lender list in Step 6 of this page was compiled by reviewing information submitted by each of the lenders that included their source of funds, standards of customer service, and repayment benefits. Each lender provides a minimum of a .25% interest rate reduction for the direct deposit of payments from a designated bank account. Current interest rates on Stafford loans are 6.0% for subsidized and 6.8% for unsubsidized.
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I will keep my eye on this over the next few weeks and continue to provide examples.
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