The financial aid office has received word from a growing number of you that at least one of your Direct Graduate Plus loans has been placed into early repayment by the Direct Loan Servicing Center (ACS) due to an error in the ACS processing system. Some have been in repayment for some time and are now considered “past due” or may have had a payment deducted from your personal account.

We recommend that ALL students who have borrowed Graduate Plus loans view their loan record online at www.nslds.ed.gov. If Direct Loan (ACS) is your servicer and you find that your recent GradPlus loan(s) are in repayment, contact the ACS customer service center immediately at 1-800-848-0979. Ask to have the loan placed into forbearance until your graduation date and confirm your current address. It can take up to 7-20 days for the the request to be processed. For those of you who have had early payments deducted from your accounts, request that you be reimbursed. We are told it can take up to 6 weeks for the reimbursement to be processed.

If you find your interaction with the customer service representative unhelpful, ask to speak to a supervisor. Should you find that unhelpful as well, contact our office and we will contact them on your behalf.

Finally, we recommend that you report your loan servicing problem with ACS to the Consumer Financial Protections Bureau at 1-855-411-2372. We are hoping that enough students will submit a complaint with the CFPB to expedite the system-wide fix.

Q: Why is my loan payment amount less than the amount I accepted?

A: The Direct Subsidized/Unsubsidized and Grad PLUS loans require a fee. This information is explained in the Entrance Counseling required of all new borrowers and can also be found on our Loans page. The loan fee amount is deducted from the loan before the loan is sent to a student’s CARS billing account. For example, if you accept $10,000 in Grad PLUS for the fall semester you should expect to receive $9,750 to pay to your CARS account.

Fall Portion of Loan Accept Amount: $10,000
Loan Fee: $250 (2.5%)
Amount Paid to CARS: $9,750

Please be aware of this difference when budgeting for your expenses.

If you owe anything to the campus in your CARS account, your financial aid will go toward paying that amount before a refund is generated.

Students graduating in May 2011 may take out a University Bar Study Loan from Boalt Hall. These loans are to cover bar exam costs and living expenses while preparing for the examination. The University Bar Study Loan is not available to students who are blocked or have a university account that is past due.Loan amount: $4,200

The application is available for download from the Financial Aid website.

Return all completed documents in person to the Berkeley Law Financial Aid Office at 2850 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 500, no later than May 13, 2011. Office hours are Monday – Friday from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Applications received by mail will not be processed.
Repayment of loan: Repayment begins January 1, 2012 with the first payment due on February 1, 2012

Payments are due on the first of each month until the loan is repaid in full. The interest rate is 8 percent, and the interest will be calculated beginning January 1, 2012. The borrower will have 30 months to repay the loan, but there is no penalty for early repayment. Bar Study loans are eligible for repayment assistance through Berkeley Law’s Loan Repayment Assistance Program.

Notaries on campus can be found at blu. https://blu.berkeley.edu/notaries.htm. Copy Central and Kinkos also have notaries.