USA Funds Helps Financial-Aid, Education-Lending Staff Prepare for Guarantee Fee

To help campus financial-aid offices and education lenders prepare for the reinstatement of loan-guarantee fees, USA Funds^® offers several resources.

• USA Funds offers "guarantee-fee impact" fact sheets for the leading financial-aid-management (FAM) systems. In addition, USA Funds offers a checklist of operational and system issues that financial-aid administrators should consider regarding the guarantee fee. The information also is available from your USA Funds Services representative.
• To assist lenders with the collection of the guarantee fee, USA offers a description of the various guarantee-fee-billing options.
• USA Funds will provide training for education-lending professionals who will be involved in the collection of the guarantee fee.

USA Funds announced on Oct. 21, 2003, that it would charge a guarantee fee of one-half of 1 percent on Federal Stafford and PLUS loans guaranteed beginning April 1, 2004, and a fee of 1 percent on Federal Stafford and PLUS loans guaranteed beginning Nov. 1, 2004.