The sudden closure of the for-profit educational service, ITT Technical Institute, is leaving more than 400,000 students with a multitude questions and very few answers. Many students are also wondering and worrying about the status of any loans they used to fund their education. According to the Department of Education, there are two options available to displaced learners.
If you were an enrollee of ITT Tech who did not complete their plan of study and received aid through any federal student loan programs, you may be eligible for a loan discharge. A loan discharge – in circumstances like the one involving ITT Tech – allows a borrower to avoid repaying the loan and entitles them to reimbursement of any payments they’ve already made. On the other hand, if you’re a student who funded your education using private loans, your first step should be to contact your lender to discuss your options. The correct contact information for your private loan lender should be included on the most recent billing statement.
If you haven’t completed your program and are thinking about transferring to another school, check to see if any of the credits or courses you took previously would be transferable. Not all schools will accept ITT Tech credits, so it would be ideal to request your transcripts as soon as possible so that you have that information on hand. You can then use those transcripts to contact other schools directly to determine whether or not your credits will transfer. If you do find a similar program that will accept your ITT Tech credits, you can enroll. However, if you decide to continue your education using transfer credits from ITT Tech, you will not longer be eligible for a school loan discharge.
Veterans who were enrolled in ITT Tech and were using their GI Benefits to pay for tuition and housing are encouraged to locate another VA-approved institution as soon as possible so that they do not lose their homes. GI Benefits are grants and do not function like student loans; there is no debt to forgive. If veterans are not using their benefits for an educational program, those benefits will be revoked. The Department of Veteran Affairs offers assistance to find comparable colleges that will accept benefits and has more information about what to do if you are in danger of losing your home on their website.
Any students recovering from ITT Tech’s closure should also be on the lookout for scams offering unsolicited help in repaying your loans. Scammers often send emails to students involved in a shutdown claiming to help them with refinancing any loans and asking them for personal information like their Social Security or bank account numbers. These emails typically include an attachment and, if opened, release malware into the user’s electronic device that affects the hard drive. BBB recommends against clicking any of the attachments included in the email and encourages recipients to delete the email from all folders.
Student loan borrowers should also be wary of any phone calls from official-sounding organizations – usually with federal or national in their names – as they may be scammers intent on stealing information. These calls usually include an offer to consolidate your debt, however, the caller says they need personal data to get the process started. If you were enrolled in ITT Tech and receive one of these calls, refuse to disclose any personal data and hang up the phone.
Former ITT Tech students, regardless of their situation, are urged to do their research when seeking help. Visit the Office of U.S. Department of Education for more information on how to proceed after the closure of ITT Tech, verify sources of financial aid to make sure they’re legitimate at bbb.org, and report any student loan forgiveness scams to bbb.org/scamtracker.
Sandra Guile is the Community Outreach Specialist for BBB. She promotes BBB’s message of marketplace ethics through public speaking engagements, presentations, media relations, press releases, web content, and other written materials. Tune in Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. with Scott Sloan on 700WLW for The Scam of the Week and every third Thursday with Brian Thomas on 55KRC. Contact Sandra at (513) 639-9126 or sguile@cincinnati.bbb.org. Your BBB is located at 1 East 4th Street Suite 600 Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 – to reach the office, call (513) 421-3015.