Office of University Financial Aid
Current Preferred Lenders
Choosing a Lender
To assist students in selecting a lender, the financial aid office conducts an annual evaluation of potential lenders. All preferred lenders must satisfy the following expectations:
- Provide cost-saving benefits for borrowers. Examples may include payment or rebate of loan fees, rebates of principal, and interest rate reductions.
- Demonstrate a commitment to helping borrowers avoid going into default (e.g., proactively contacting borrowers who are late on payments, providing resources that help borrowers manage their money and avoid borrowing too much).
- The lender representatives are actively involved in the Minnesota Association of Financial Aid Administrators. This provides a clear indication of the lender's commitment to advance higher education in Minnesota, and to cultivate productive, healthy relationships with Minnesota's financial aid administrators.
- Does not sell or share borrower information without the prior consent of the borrower.
- Demonstrate the commitment and ability to provide educational loans for the long term.
- Clearly communicate the terms and conditions of their educational loans.
- Provide high levels of customer service, including, but not limited to, online loan applications, access to loan status online, disbursement of loan funds via electronic funds transfer, online loan information tailored specifically for Bethel borrowers, and prompt response to any loan processing issues identified by our borrowers or our staff.
In addition, we have a strong preference for working with lenders that are familiar to our borrowers (name recognition), partner with guarantee agencies located in Minnesota, service all their educational loan products at one location, provide full-service banking options, and are recommended by our students.
Students are free to select any lender for their educational loans. However, after a thorough review of lender data, we encourage borrowers to strongly consider one of the following lenders to ensure that they receive the highest level of customer service, avoid delays in processing loans, and have access to the best borrower benefits available to Bethel students.
2008-2009 Preferred Lenders
|
Citibank |
800.967.2400 |
www.bethel.edu/finaid/citibank |
|
U.S. Bank |
800.242.1200 |
www.bethel.edu/finaid/usbank |
|
Wachovia Education Finance |
800.338.2243 |
www.bethel.edu/finaid/wachovia |
|
Wells Fargo |
800.658.3567 |
www.bethel.edu/finaid/wellsfargo |
Note: Previous borrowers of discontinued lenders
Effective April 1, 2008, Academic Funding Group (AFG), Bremer Bank, EFSI, Student Loan Xpress (SLXpress), and TCF Bank (TCF) are no longer participating in the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). Therefore, you will not be able to borrow a Stafford, Parent PLUS, or Grad PLUS loan from these lenders for the 2008-2009 year. These lenders also terminated their private educational loan products. Prior borrowers of Stafford and PLUS loans from these lenders will need to select a new lender and complete a new Master Promissory Note for 2008-2009. Prior borrowers of private loans from these lenders will need to select a new lender for the private loan. If you have any questions, please contact the financial aid office by email at finaid@bethel.edu or by telephone at 651.638.6241.
May 28, 2008 update: Total Higher Education (T.H.E.) temporarily suspended their participation in the FFELP from April 1, 2008 through May 27, 2008. As a result of this suspension, T.H.E. forfeited its "preferred lender" status with Bethel University for the 2008-2009 academic year. For more information regarding T.H.E.'s educational loan products, visit www.theloanprogram.org .
To see a current list of lenders that are no longer participating in the federal loan programs, visit http://www.finaid.org/loans/lenderlayoffs.phtml and scroll down to the "Loan Program Suspensions" table.