Student Loan Madness
I've been getting these things in the mail (via my Dad) regarding my student loan. They look quite official, and this latest one had "final notice" stamped in red on the front. I figured that something had gone wrong with my loans or there was some kind of confusion. But the times to call were from 3 PM to 11 PM Eastern time, so I'd only be able to call in the morning. Between wanting to sleep in and not really wanting to know about the problem (because that would require fixing it or something - I'm sometimes slightly avoidant), I hadn't called until this morning. All night I slept horribly. I finally decided to stop the madness around 7:45 this morning, and figured while I was up, that I should call. I sat down, found the piece of mail, and was dialing, when I read the fine print at the bottom. "You were selected to receive this offer because your sonsumer report met initial criteria. As long as you are in your loan grace period or have entered repayment on each chosen for consolidation..." It was about consolidating my loans! Grr! This is what the piece of mail actually says (it's not even a letter, it's the kind you rip the perforated sides off of and open, and that kind of mail usually means business in my experience): "Please call us at your earliest convenience concerning your student loans." That totally struck me as a "you're in such trouble" message rather than a "consolidate now and SAVE" message. Oy. But then I dug out my citibank statement and called them, seeing as how I was up anyway, and it ended up that the deferrment I sent in before I went to Israel (an in-school deferrment) wasn't applied to all of my loan, so it looked like I was severly past due. The guy I talked to was funny and beyond helpful, which really added something to this morning. He changed my address and fixed the problem of the deferrment not covering all of the loan, and fixed everything else too. Very nice.
