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  1. #1

    (Advice) Trouble with ex-college financial aid

    So I am trying to get opinions on what I can do with the below situation:

    I attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online from January 2010 to March of 2011, a horrible decision on my part and one I regret and will pay for, and dropped my classes and curriculum around March 15th. Now I was in the middle of one of their "semesters" and spoke to my Financial Aid Rep about me dropping. He told me I would have a balance of around 600$ due if I dropped when I did, but then came back to me on the same day and told me he had misread my documents and that I would have ZERO balance. I asked him to confirm this which he did with what he told me was his superior.

    Now I am getting mail and email telling me I have a balance of almost 2,000$ that needs to be paid off or it will go to collection. I have tried to get in touch with my old advisor, my financial aid planner and even his superior through email and phone and have not been able to get in touch with ANYONE and after trying a dozen times I give up.

    What can I do in this situation? I was told there would be no balance, I didn't record my conversation with the guy and they never sent me anything in writing that was signed as I figured it would not be needed for something like this.

  2. #2
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    I remember that thread! Sounds like a shady money-grab by a shady school.

    There's a good chance the guy you talk to may not even work there anymore. I imagine places like that probably have a pretty high turnover rate. School sounds shady. Odds are not good. Go straight to legal before they send it to collection maybe if you want to save your credit score, but I don't know if I'd expect it to save you money or time in the long run.

  3. #3

    Yeah it was a shitty ass and very shady school that I wouldn't recommend to anyone. What irritates me is I have no way to get them this money (they are claiming they sent back my financial aid when I dropped out and that's why I owe them).

    I think ill probably contact FAFSA and talk to them and make damn sure the money WAS returned and they arn't trying to double dip on me (had this happen with a hospital once, trying to double charge), because I signed paperwork to allow them to keep the aid received for the 1 class I took and faxed it to them.


    I'm on the phone with them now, and they are telling me they will now cut my bill in half. That sounds fucking shady to me that they will knock it down 50%.


    Looking at my account on their website, it shows that a month after I had left, they went ahead and returned my federal unsubsidized loan and then turned around to charge me the amount.

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    I kinda have the same issue, I had to drop my classes last year because I was having medical issues. Now I owe like 800 bucks before I can go back to school. It sucks!!

  5. #5
    I'll change yer fuckin rate you derivative piece of shit
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    Quote Originally Posted by Meresgi View Post
    Looking at my account on their website, it shows that a month after I had left, they went ahead and returned my federal unsubsidized loan and then turned around to charge me the amount.
    Well...then I'd take them up on their 50% off offer ASAP, and work out a payment plan so you aren't sent to collections.

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    Quote Originally Posted by archibaldcrane View Post
    Well...then I'd take them up on their 50% off offer ASAP, and work out a payment plan so you aren't sent to collections.
    this, really

  7. #7

    Quote Originally Posted by izembo View Post
    this, really
    Yeah, even though I don't trust them i'm not going to try to fight it because I never got anything in writing back then (huge mistake, never doing it again). Just have to scrape together the cash.

  8. #8

    You know I work for a college in admissions. It's not the school it's the department of education. The schools fuck up was telling you that you may have a 0 balance. But it's the department of education that say's your financial aid cannot cover your tuition for a semester that you don't finish.

    Any time you withdraw from school before a semester ends, the school has to return any dispersed loans/grants back to the lender and the balance is then owed based on whatever tuition refund schedule you agreed to. But, that balance is still owed. Unfortunately for you, you signed the enrollment documents that had that language in it, and you will owe that balance until it's paid off. There is no legal recourse for it since you agreed to that.

    For anyone reading, don't ever start a term you don't plan to finish. I see it happen to people all the time that withdraw in the middle of a term and then you can no longer return to the school without paying a balance, and can't get access to any of your transcripts until that balance is paid off.

  9. #9

    Quote Originally Posted by Meresgi View Post
    Yeah it was a shitty ass and very shady school that I wouldn't recommend to anyone. What irritates me is I have no way to get them this money (they are claiming they sent back my financial aid when I dropped out and that's why I owe them).

    I think ill probably contact FAFSA and talk to them and make damn sure the money WAS returned and they arn't trying to double dip on me (had this happen with a hospital once, trying to double charge), because I signed paperwork to allow them to keep the aid received for the 1 class I took and faxed it to them.


    I'm on the phone with them now, and they are telling me they will now cut my bill in half. That sounds fucking shady to me that they will knock it down 50%.


    Looking at my account on their website, it shows that a month after I had left, they went ahead and returned my federal unsubsidized loan and then turned around to charge me the amount.
    first reply was off the first page didn't see this.

    Basically they are making that offer to you because it's the easiest way to move forward. They will expend many man hours and other resources to try and collect that full debt from you which they may never do. It could very easily cost them 1000$ in manpower to try to collect that 2000$ from you. So there's nothing shady about it, it makes sense on their part to knock that out if you agree to pay back that 50% starting now.

    There are definitely a lot of shady schools out there, so you can never be sure but this particular situation is fairly common regardless of the school.

    For the rest of your post about the loans being sent back, that's true and the same as my first post. If you want to get mad at someone for that, get mad at the Dept of Ed/FAFSA/Direct Loans, that's their rule. They don't want schools getting revenue by quickenrolling students who only make it through half a semester and the school still profits off the loans.

    With the new legislation that just went into effect July 1st, i would expect schools across the board to be much more student friendly on helping through things. There's nothing to do about the money cause again that's the DoE, but the schools are being scrutinized a lot right now.

  10. #10
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    Give them hell. Seriously. Just don't stop until they wipe the account. I work closely with the Financial Aid department at a smaller college (in Pittsburgh also, ironically), and this school will give anybody anything if they fight hard enough for it. They're always trying to avoid the bad rep because registration numbers are down across the board. Talk to the Dean or someone else who will legitimately listen to your problem. Financial Aid counselors are typically money-hungry dicks and chodes. Don't even bother with them.

  11. #11

    My father in law gave me some advice which was "make a payment plan of 5$ a month".

    He told me he did it with a traffic ticket once, and since you ARE paying the bill, no court can really come after you because you are making an attempt to pay the bill, and just say that is all you can afford during these hard times. He said it worked for him, the judge basically said "yeah, you're paying it little by little, nothing we can do" and let it go.

    In the meantime I am going to look up more on this, I know I have read similar cases of this type of thing happening to other people in the same fashion (they dropped out, and then the college tried to make them pay due to the hidden wording in the "contract" you sign when you do your acceptance note)

    @Timwakefield:

    So you think I should try contacting the Dean? I'll give it a shot, the only issue is how fucking hard is it to find ANYONE for this college. Since it was online and part of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh but if I call AiO of Pittsburgh they tell me "oh we don't deal with the online portion" which is strange to me.


    @Skyy:

    Do you think the 5$ a month payment plan would be a good action to choose. I mean if they will indeed spend upwards of 2,000$ trying to collect my full amount which was only 1700$ then as long as I can do such a plan, I think they might eventually figure it best to leave me alone then try to collect a couple extra hundred or so bucks.


    Edit: Thanks for input btw for people posting.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Meresgi View Post
    @Timwakefield:

    So you think I should try contacting the Dean? I'll give it a shot, the only issue is how fucking hard is it to find ANYONE for this college. Since it was online and part of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh but if I call AiO of Pittsburgh they tell me "oh we don't deal with the online portion" which is strange to me.
    Most people that have succeeded in getting the things they want from this school have gone through the Dean, President, VP, or someone from the President's Office. We are advised to just pass them along really, so you might as well start at the top.

    One other plan that may or may not work (I hold no responsibility) is to tell them you are interested in signing up for classes again, but can't get aid/can't register because you owe this money. People have pulled this one off before and it works like a charm. President's office gets a boner when they think they have a chance to add tuition dollars and will basically absolve all of your past mistakes. I've seen kids get F's wiped off records, classes deleted that they showed up for 13/15 weeks of, and plenty of other things. Then spin it around and tell them to get fucked. This method might require a lot more work though, as you may have to actually physically re-apply to the school, so I guess it's a matter of how much the money is worth to you. Also depends if the higher ups at the AI are as big of pussies as they are at this school.

  13. #13
    I'll change yer fuckin rate you derivative piece of shit
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    Is all the effort in being dicks to them, fear of being sent to collections regardless, time on the phone, in person, etc. etc. worth the $850 (marked down from $1700) that you actually, legitimately, owe?

  14. #14

    Quote Originally Posted by archibaldcrane View Post
    Is all the effort in being dicks to them, fear of being sent to collections regardless, time on the phone, in person, etc. etc. worth the $850 (marked down from $1700) that you actually, legitimately, owe?
    Since I don't have the 850$ on me and they require it ALL in a lump sum payment, I do kind of feel it's worth it in my view to set up a payment plan of 5$ a month and go from there and make THEM decide if it's worth it on their end. I wouldn't feel this way had I not actually had them check, double check and triple check this for me on suspicions on my part, and then found out now that they lied to me and have just been sitting on this without notifying me.

    @Skyy:

    They do want me to come back, I get emails and phone calls all the time about it. Though i'm not sure about that method as if I go back I will probably have to sign something to reintegrate myself and i'm not putting my signature on anything they give me anymore as I don't trust them and I have no lawyer friends.

  15. #15

    So apparently I just got an email saying that they will offer me 30% off my balance, and when I asked what happened to the 50% they told me "Oh we don't do that".

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    Quote Originally Posted by Meresgi View Post
    My father in law gave me some advice which was "make a payment plan of 5$ a month".
    He told me he did it with a traffic ticket once, and since you ARE paying the bill, no court can really come after you because you are making an attempt to pay the bill, and just say that is all you can afford during these hard times. He said it worked for him, the judge basically said "yeah, you're paying it little by little, nothing we can do" and let it go.
    Are they charging you interest? If so, I doubt they'll let you get away with a $5 / month payment plan. The judge in the situation above said $5/ month works because it's a government agency, they don't charge you interest, and they don't need your $$$ as their operating capital. A student loan company likely won't let you get away with that without sending you to collections; the minimum payment they will accept will be somewhere above the monthly interest. This was probably something that we covered deep in one of the contracts you signed, I would guess.

  17. #17

    Quote Originally Posted by Byrd View Post
    Are they charging you interest? If so, I doubt they'll let you get away with a $5 / month payment plan. The judge in the situation above said $5/ month works because it's a government agency, they don't charge you interest, and they don't need your $$$ as their operating capital. A student loan company likely won't let you get away with that without sending you to collections; the minimum payment they will accept will be somewhere above the monthly interest. This was probably something that we covered deep in one of the contracts you signed, I would guess.
    It's not the loan company though I need to pay back, it's the college themselves. So technically in my understanding it's not a loan. It's just that I am subject to pay for 2 courses now even though I only took one. I'm thinking about the interest thing as well and having someone look into and i'll probably try to double and triple check it as I don't trust this college to give me the full answer.

    To me it seems like they can't charge me interest as they didn't loan me any money at all. It's a set bill. Now I think they could try to tell me they would charge me late payments, but if I can show a judge that I made every effort TO make a payment plan but they refused and wanted more then I could afford it wouldn't work out in their favor very well. So long as I am attempting to pay my debt I don't think there's a thing they can do about it, if I miss a single payment they might charge me some huge fee or something, but other then that...yeah i'm not sure. Hell what type of lawer would know about this and how much does consultation cost? lol.

    I think i'll try to note to the Dean though first just to see if it can be easily remedied.


    Edit: The woman just confirmed that there is no interest for this in an email to me.

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    just make your payments, and you can transform this from a massive negative into a positive from the resulting boost to your credit score. it sucks, but gotta look on the bright side

  19. #19

    Quote Originally Posted by solanis View Post
    just make your payments, and you can transform this from a massive negative into a positive from the resulting boost to your credit score. it sucks, but gotta look on the bright side
    170/month is nothing I can afford at this time, especially having to pay 125/month towards my credit card as I scrimp and save to pay it off in full.

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