ITT Tech & Student CU Connect Not much education for the cost Arnold, Missouri
I have the same bad feeling about ITT Tech and their association with ACS & Student CU Connect. I graduated from ITT with an associates in drafting. I'm working as an accounting (AP), project & office manager. I'm 51 years old and have been doing this type of work with out a degree for over 25 years now. I would have to say the quality of instructors, material and overall educational quality at ITT Tech is some what lacking compared to their commercials and sales pitch.
I will say I did come out knowing more than when I went in but I think I could have probabaly garnered that information on my own if I had looked hard enough and at a much cheaper cost. I have a total of 7 loans. Six are with Sallie Mae, and in my opinion they are great to work with. Student CU on the other hand is nothing more that a collection agency. They even say so on all the recordings you get when you call their offices. They started calling me before my loan payments were even due to remind me that I owed them money. And you're right the numbers just don't add up.
My tuition was suppose to be $48k for the two years I attended ITT. I had a $3k scholarship, a Pell grant of $3k and another grant of $5k from WIA, roughly $11k. I was also given a refund of $3200 from ITT at the end of the two years. My Sallie Mae loans total $34866.45 right now and Student CU shows a note of $8829.45. If you do the math it comes out that the Student CU loan negates any and all of the credits that should have been applied to my loans. I was under the impression I didn't have any private loans, but according to Student CU that is not the case.
I have tried to talk to the financial aid people at the school, but of course the person who did all the paperwork on my account is no longer there. When I first contacted ITT they also said I didn't have any private loans but then when I went to the school to meet with financial aid they changed their tune. I think they rotate those people out so you can get a straight answer. I applied for income based payments with Sallie Mae and thank the gods I have no payment due for the next 12 months. I feel there is something foul afoot but don't know exactly how to put my finger on it.
3 Updates & Rebuttals
Balor
California,Same boat
#4General Comment
Tue, December 10, 2013
I am in the same boat right now. I neve signed the loan forms but ITT took the loan out on me anyways. Student CU calls me a year and a half after I graduated and tells me I owe them money and my loan is delinquent. So they are already hitting my credit. I say fine lets work something out tell them I can make payments of $125. Well they want $800 upfront and then they will take the lower payments. Well a year later my rent has gone up and they have been actually taking $197 out of my bank account. I call up and ask can you lower the payments. They say two options. First I pay them another $800 and they will rewrite my loan for lower payments. or Second I cut the payment to what I need and they will keep charging the extra $97 and start intrest on it. Plus it wil become delinquent payments and hit my credit again....... Any ideas on how to get out of this issue would be great.....
Aineonly
arnold,Missouri,
Not much you can do
#4Author of original report
Thu, July 11, 2013
John,
Since ITTapplied for the private loan from Student CU on my behalf, not paying would just end up screwing my credit score. So I'm paying the monthly installment. My boyfriend went to school at ITT the same time I did. We took all the same classes and received the same worthless degree. They applied for a private loan for him through Peaks, they are just as bad if not worse that Student CU. ITT refunded all but $200 of what they received but Peaks wants total of over $1700 as repayment on the $200. They say he owes interest from the inception of the loan on the total ITT received and a $440 origination fee. He has told them he will pay interest on the $200 since that was all that was used for his tuition. It seems ITT gets people signed up then apply for all the money from all the sources they can, deposit to their accounts and use it not just to cover tuition but to cover some of their operating costs. Then they refund what they need to to balance the student account at graduation, but the student is hung with the interest and fees. None of that was ever explained to either of us until we found out about the loans after we graduated. i guess the only recourse would be to sue ITT but that's going to cost you lawyer fees up front and is a crap shoot as far as winning the case. There was a case of a women suing one of these for profit schools and winning $13 million but that was because she found out the degree she was signed up for was useless. She was trying to become a nurse. That's all I know at this point, pretty much out the cash if you do pay to try and save your credit or constantly hassled by the private loan goons if you don't pay. Best to try and renegociate if possible.
johnk
Michigan,What was your solution?
#4REBUTTAL Individual responds
Thu, July 11, 2013
I am having the same problem with CU Connect. So what did you end up doing about it? I am not going to pay if this bill is not legit and i will file a lawsuit against them.