Recently we had a good question from one of our readers, Pam:

How do I go about contacting my lenders?? I see the "notify your lender(s)" things everywhere, but nobody actually tells me how to do this!!

Sometimes we do forget to cover the most basic questions! That's why we're glad Pam asked it.

Contacting your lender sounds simple enough, but it's possible—especially if you have multiple student loans—that you may not know who your lender is. It's common for student loans to get sold, so the lender you originally borrowed from may not be the lender you contact when you're in repayment.

So what to do?

1. Check your student loan paperwork. Anything your lender has sent you in the mail should have contact information on it. If your student loan has been sold, you should have received notification in the mail with contact information for your new lender. (If you haven't been saving your paperwork all along, start now!)
   
   
2. Do some research. If you don't know who your lender is, and you don't have any paperwork with contact information, it's time to do some research. It might be easiest to contact the financial aid office at your school and ask them who your lender is. (You can probably find the phone number for the financial aid office on your school's website.)
   
   If you have federal student loans, you can also learn who your lender is by checking the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS)  website. If you have private student loans , you won't be able to research them on this site, so you may have to rely on your school to let you know who your private loan lender is.
   
   
3. Find your lender online. Once you know who your lender is, look them up online to find their phone number(s). Many student loan lenders offer their phone number pretty prominently online (proof that they really do want you to stay in touch!). Some lenders offer a way to email them as well.

If Wells Fargo happens to be your lender, you can reach a student loan representative by calling 1-800-658-3567.  Here are some other ways to contact us as well.

Posted by Caroline at 02:35 PM |  Permalink |  Comments (0)
Found in Federal loans, Financial education, Lenders, Paying, Post-college, Private loans, Student loans, Wells Fargo Bank

Recently I posted some information on financing grad school in response to a question from one of our readers.

In addition to the information in that post, here's a guide to financing graduate school  put out by the National Association of Financial Aid Administrators. This offers information on the application process, basic eligibility requirements, and sources of funding.  It's a good place to start if you're just beginning to explore your options for financing grad school.

Let us know if you have any other tips or experiences to share about funding graduate school.

Posted by Caroline at 08:48 AM |  Permalink |  Comments (1)
Found in Financial education, Graduate school, Parents, Paying, Post-college, Preparing, Student loans, Wells Fargo Bank

That is the question … on a lot of graduates' minds this time of year.

Most May graduates are in a grace period on their federal loans right now—and their decision to consolidate  their student loans should be made before their grace period ends if they have federal loans made before July 1, 2006. (Those loans have variable interest rates, while those made after that date have fixed interest rates.)

So, now is the time to ask questions about consolidation. What is it you're curious about? I'll have answers to all your burning consolidation questions in an upcoming post.

Posted by Barbara at 09:05 AM |  Permalink |  Comments (0)
Found in Consolidation, Federal loans, Financial education, Paying, Post-college, Preparing, Student loans, Wells Fargo Bank

I have some great news to share: We just launched our Wells Fargo College Scholarship Sweepstakes, which means we're giving away money for tuition!

This summer, Wells Fargo Student Loans is giving away $25,000—a grand prize scholarship of $10,000 and 15 scholarship prizes of $1,000.

Just complete an online application for any Wells Fargo qualifying student loan by Aug. 21, 2007. You're automatically entered when your application is approved (no purchase necessary).

One last thing: If you haven't checked out our other scholarship resources, now's the time. Every little bit helps to fund the most important investment you'll ever make—your education!

Posted by Staci at 12:08 PM |  Permalink |  Comments (0)
Found in Financial education, Paying, Preparing, Scholarships, Student loans, Sweepstakes, Tuition, Wells Fargo Bank

Over the past year, I've done a lot of growing up. Examples here, here and here … and I think my parents are having a tough time with it.

Five years ago, I left the nest and headed off to college. Since I'm the youngest of four daughters, my parents experienced a little empty nest syndrome . But they did OK. I might have been out of the nest, but in college, at least I was still on the branch. My parents still had a big influence on what was going on in my life—and I depended on them to help me.

For the past year, I've been spreading my wings a little more. I keep creeping farther and farther away from the nest—and now, as I'm purchasing a home, I'm ready to head to my own tree.

My home search has taken a toll on me and the ‘rents. I'm trying to be independent and grown up. They're trying to make sure nothing happens to their baby girl. We've been clashing a little bit in the form of some heated discussions:

Dad (protectively): Aren't you rushing into this a little? This is a big commitment. Are you sure you know what you're doing?

Me (sarcastically): No I haven't researched at all; I'm going into this completely blind. Why can't you trust that I'm able to be an adult?

You get the picture …

Change is difficult, but inevitable. Parents—and children, too—really have to take a step back and ask how the other party will be affected by the change (and, perhaps more importantly, your response to it).

During this transitional time of year, you might be going through changes as well. High school graduates are ready to leave the nest, and college graduates are slowly moving farther out on the branch. What part of the tree are you on, and how are you coping?

Posted by Barbara at 09:24 AM |  Permalink |  Comments (3)
Found in Financial education, Looking back, Parents, Paying, Post-college, Preparing, Remember, Student loans, Wells Fargo Bank

If you're about to graduate from college, congratulations! And, if you've taken out student loans , guess what?

You have a new best friend.

If you took out federal loans , you may have already been through an "exit counseling"  session. That's where they tell you all about your rights (blah, blah, blah) and responsibilities (blah, blah, blah) as a student loan borrower.

With the excitement of graduation looming, you may have only heard "blah, blah, blah" during this session. But your responsibilities as a borrower are important. So let me boil them down to one easy-to-remember rule: Treat your student loan lender like your new best friend.

Got it?

Now let me break it down a little further …

• When you make a life change, you tell your friends. Well, since your lender is your new best friend, remember to tell them when you change your name, when you move to a new address, change your Social Security number, or if your school status changes.
  
  
• If you're in trouble, you tell a friend, right? If you're having problems making your student loan payments, tell your lender—don't hide from them. Your lender can help you work out a payment plan and avoid default .
  
  
• You wouldn't borrow money from a friend and try to get out of repaying it. You can't do it to your student loan lender either. You HAVE TO repay your loan as agreed. No exceptions if you didn't finish school, didn't like your major, can't find a job, yada, yada, yada.
  
  
• If your friends can't get  hold of you for a few days, you don't ditch them. Same with your lender—if you don't get your bill, YOU STILL HAVE TO PAY IT. There's no "get a free month" if your bill doesn't arrive for whatever reason.
  
  
• You go to your friends' parties. Consider entrance and exit counseling sessions less-than-exciting parties given by a great friend. You gotta go.
  
  
• You read texts, emails and IMs from your friends. You new friend will probably get in touch with you in a more traditional way—like through the mail . But you're required to open and read everything your lender sends you. So, hello mailbox!
  
  
• For better or worse, relationships change. Learn about your consolidation and refinancing options—these could be good things for you. But you also have to know what will happen if things go south in your relationship with your lender—as in, if you default. (Don't do it, it's so not good.)



• Know how to reach your friends. This is Friendship 101—you KNOW their phone numbers, addresses, etc.  Same with your lender—be sure you know where to send payments and written correspondence.

Posted by Caroline at 09:21 AM |  Permalink |  Comments (5)
Found in Consolidation, Default, Federal loans, Financial education, Paying, Post-college, Preparing, Private loans, Refinancing, Student loans, Wells Fargo Bank

After Barbara and Caroline shared their post-graduation stories last week, I figured it was only fair that I tell you mine, too. So I wrote this long post filled with pomp and circumstance  about how my plans didn't pan out after graduation.

It was really depressing.

And I thought, hey, you don't need to know all that. You're graduating! You're probably anxious and excited and nostalgic enough as it is.

So, here's my experience in a nutshell: I didn't go to my first-choice college. I didn't apply to law school, and I didn't get accepted to graduate school.

I did receive my diploma. It just had other plans.

Surprise, surprise—my post-college future didn't turn out exactly as I thought it would. Really, whose does? Graduates, if you're facing uncertainties, just know that you're not alone. I moved from Plan A to Plan B to somewhere near Plan N, and I'm living proof that even if it takes awhile, things have a way of working themselves out. Now I have a rewarding career, a lovely home, a hyperactive dog, and, most importantly, a host of family and friends who love me.

And who's to say that wasn't the plan all along?

Posted by Staci at 09:05 AM |  Permalink |  Comments (3)
Found in Financial education, Jobs, Looking back, Paying, Post-college, Preparing, Remember, Student loans, Wells Fargo Bank

When you started college, you probably had a vision of how the future would play out: four years of college, a fabulous graduation celebration, two weeks to regroup, and then you'd move into a great new apartment and start your first job .

At least that was my vision.

For those of you who are graduating this spring, if you have a similar vision, don't be alarmed if it doesn't play out just that way. It didn't for me.

As I've shared, I moved to Colorado shortly after my college graduation and planned to live with my sister temporarily while I looked for a job. It was May. I figured within a couple months, I'd land something and be ready to move into my own place shortly after that.

Well, all summer long I kept shooting out resumes and working part time at JCPenney^® . I went to a few interviews each month, but nothing panned out—except an offer to enter a management training program at a record store in Boulder . For about 10 minutes I was tempted to take it—just to have a "real" job. But I wanted to be a writer, not a retail manager, so I hung in there.

Summer stretched into autumn, and my frustration was building. All my friends back home had landed their first jobs. What was I doing wrong?

With my student loan grace period  about to end, I was starting to get worried about money, so I picked up a second job as a temp. Now I was doing data entry by day (big yawn) and selling reasonably-priced junior clothing by night (bigger yawn). This wasn't good—I was getting farther away from my vision, not closer!

By January, I figured enough was enough. I could be a temp anywhere—why not move back closer to my friends and hopefully into a kinder job market?

It was a smart decision. A full nine months after I graduated from college (and three weeks after moving back home), I finally landed a job in my field and moved into my own apartment. It took longer than I intended, but I was finally on my way.

What's your vision after college graduation?

Posted by Caroline at 08:39 AM |  Permalink |  Comments (3)
Found in Financial education, Jobs, Looking back, Paying, Post-college, Preparing, Remember, Student loans, Wells Fargo Bank

I love questions. I'm very inquisitive, and I love giving people information. But there is one question that really grinds my gears: ""What are you doing after graduation?"  I absolutely loathed that question last year, because it was a question I couldn't answer.

Now I'll admit I've caught myself asking that of some of my friends. And I need to stop. Because all it does is further the delusion that all graduates have a plan when they get their diploma – which is a total fallacy.

Actually, in talking with Caroline and Staci, I found that our answers to the dreaded question were the same: "I don't know."

For me, the after-graduation question mark brought me somewhere I hadn't been since my freshman year ended – the dorms.

As I waited to hear back from various potential employers, the days of my lease in Vermillion  were ticking away. I didn't want to move back home just to turn around and move again, so as May came to a close I packed all my worldly belongings into my mother's van and prepared to live in it  until I found a job.

Luckily for me, it just so happened that at the same time some of my newspaper friends were serving as mentors for the South Dakota Girls State  newspaper, the Sacajawea Scroll. And they were staying in the USD dorms . So I hopped on the mentor bandwagon and got a place to sleep that wasn't on wheels.

By the end of the week, I had accepted my internship with Wells Fargo and was ready to move to Sioux Falls.

"Living in the dorms." Far from the most ideal answer to the dreaded question, but sometimes you take what you can get.

Posted by Barbara at 09:09 AM |  Permalink |  Comments (0)
Found in Financial education, Looking back, Paying, Post-college, Preparing, Remember, Student loans, Wells Fargo Bank

It's National Teacher Appreciation Week .

Since education is at the heart of this blog, I thought I'd share a few memories about teachers who made an impact on me. Will you share yours, too?

My first teacher—technically—was my mom. When I was three, she brought home discontinued "Dick and Jane"  readers from a school library and taught me to read. Mostly I think it was to keep me out of her hair, but it worked: I've been a voracious reader ever since.

For kindergarten at Mark Twain elementary, my teacher was Mrs. Bulman. What I remember most about her was that she loved, loved, loved the color purple. So much so that we made purple jack-o'-lanterns, purple Christmas trees, and even purple polar bears for our Alaska program. Mrs. Bulman taught me to be passionate and to do things my own way.

"Doc" Walker was in my life from fourth through ninth grades and taught me to play the violin. To be sure, I was never going sit first chair in any metropolitan orchestra, but Doc Walker encouraged me nonetheless. From him, I learned tenacity and a love of music—especially The Beatles .

From my high school French teachers, I learned how to conjugate verbs and carry on a semi-respectable conversation en français. The former gave me a greater understanding of the English language, which I went on to study in college. And the latter gave me the courage to seek assistance from les gendarmes (the police) when, in my early twenties, I was desperately lost on the streets of Paris. Merci beaucoup, Madame Timm et Monsieur Richards!

In college, my favorite professor was Dr. Looney. With her I studied Chaucer, Shakespeare, Russian literature, and modern fiction—further solidifying my love of the written word. Dr. Looney taught me that it was just as important to feed your soul as it was to pay the bills. Oh, and that you should never pass up a McVitie's Milk Chocolate HobNob biscuit  when offered. These are tenets that I still hold true.

To all the teachers who have shaped my life, thank you!

Posted by Staci at 09:18 AM |  Permalink |  Comments (0)
Found in Financial education, Looking back, Post-college, Remember, Student loans, Teachers, Wells Fargo Bank

Elizabeth, a Student LoanDown reader who also happens to be a Wells Fargo team member, recently asked a good question about finding money for graduate school:

I plan on returning to school for my doctorate within a year or two, and I'm wondering if there are any sources of "free" money available to people seeking a graduate degree.

I don't own a house, and unless I receive a sudden, unexpected raise (unlikely, as I've only been in my current position a little over a month), I won't have any substantial savings to draw upon. I'd also like to avoid plunging myself into a lifetime of debt (the thought of emerging with a degree in one hand and 100,000 dollars of debt in the other makes my stomach turn).

Well, Elizabeth—and anyone who's looking for grad school funds—here's a great resource: This article  from U.S. News & World Report's annual issue on the best grad schools. It covers ways to get "free" money (including fellowships and assistantships), a tax break for students and information about student loans available to graduate students.

Anyone else have suggestions for Elizabeth? Share them here.

Posted by Caroline at 08:17 AM |  Permalink |  Comments (0)
Found in Financial education, Parents, Paying, Post-college, Preparing, Student loans, Wells Fargo Bank

For May graduates, making your monthly student loan payments may seem daunting. You're just starting out in the "real world" and you're probably facing numerous monthly payments  already, like rent, utilities, etc. Luckily, most student loans come with a nifty grace period—time after you graduate (generally six months) when you don't have to make payments.

However, your grace period is a great time to practice making those payments. That way you're working your student loan payment into your monthly routine. Rachel mentioned a while back that she made this recommendation to her brother.

Instead of letting your monthly payments catch you off guard when your grace period ends, start making payments right away—not to your lender, but to yourself. Then once your payments come due in November (or whenever your grace period ends), you'll be used to making them.

The best part about this practice? You'll have some savings built up. And if there's anything I've learned here in the "real world," it's that an emergency savings  is a must-have!

Posted by Barbara at 02:16 PM |  Permalink |  Comments (1)
Found in Financial education, Paying, Post-college, Preparing, Student loans, Wells Fargo Bank