The Stafford Wives

The latest from the Stafford Wives indicates that they are doing well and all of their husbands are well taken care of.

The Stafford Wives have a secret.



What they do not tell you in the movie is that there is a 3% up front charge just for giving you their service. "Explain yourself", you exclaim. It goes like this. Everything of beauty has its price and the price of having a Federally funded Stafford Wife is a 3% service charge for all of the monies that they provide. "I am still at a loss understanding your meaning."

Lets go back to the beginning. Going to graduate school at a private University (USC) is not a trivial undertaking financially, especially when you are not going to be working for two years. Finding the financing for the tuition has been my major goal for the past month. The living expenses I will deal with. The tuition is something that I want to defer in student loans. Seems simple enough. Stafford Wives, excuse me I mean Stafford Loan, to the rescue.

Today was spent fooling around the web fiddling with loan applications and downloading forms for the Federally funded Stafford loan program. I find out today that the funding companies (like B of A and Citi Corp et al.) make it a practice of skimming 3% off the top just because they can. I am entitled to $18,000 this year paid in two payments for the Fall and Spring semesters. What I discovered today was that USC has a Credit Union that will reimbuse back to the student 2% of the monies at the time of funding. This sounds like a better deal. With a 3% off the top and a 2% returned leaves them with 1% initiation fee. Sounds more like a bargain now. The USC Federal Credit Union is a full service organization with all of the banking services we have come to expect from these kinds of organizations.

The secret that I was alluding to earlier is now hidden in the fine print. Actually the secret is not even in the fine print. You have to snoop even further. Frankly, I lucked out and was able to talk to someone who really cared and had the right information. The service desk at the USC Credit Union was really terrific and pointed me in the right direction. There is an affiliate of the USC Credit Union that not only will give back the 2% but upon repayment of the loan will discount the percentage rate. This is not general knowledge. The Education Loan Resources (833930) group to the rescue. This is where you want to look when you are looking for an institution to fund the Federal Stafford loan.

Here is a little blurb from their web site:
"Zero Fee Stafford Loans
When borrowing the Federal Stafford Loan a 3% origination fee must be paid to the federal government. Typically, this fee is deducted from your loan proceeds, but with ELR's ZERO FEE Stafford Loan you get the full amount because we pay the fee for you. You'll receive more money when you need it most - right now!"

I had to download the Master Promissory Note from the ELR's web site and fill it out along with a couple of other forms that I received from USC. These people at the USC Financial Aid office are really difficult to get hold of. They prefer that all of these forms be faxed to them rather than mailed. That's different. Fine with me because it saves me a stamp and I keep the originals.

In the end the Stafford Wives really performed. Now we can get down to the real business and think about anesthesia. Are we excited yet?