HESC Student Loan Marketplace - e-Presentation

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Nobody is more committed to helping students pay for college than the Higher Education Services Corporation. HESC guarantees federal student and parent loans, offers loan management services, and provides guidance for college planning. HESC also manages more than 25 grant, scholarship and loan programs, including the Tuition Assistance Program, the nation's largest state grant. As a nationally leading guarantor, we’re always working to create innovative products and services that benefit students and schools.

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That’s why we’ve launched HESC Student Loan Marketplace — a dynamic interactive Web site that lets students and families learn about, compare and consider alternative loan terms quickly and easily.

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HESC Student Loan Marketplace, powered by Overture Technologies, is the premiere site where students can compare private loan terms from multiple lenders with only one credit check — preserving their credit scores and ensuring they receive trustworthy information.

Marketplace is designed to find the best loan option for each student and provide a smart borrowing experience.

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HESC designed Marketplace as an open network to ensure transparency of lender information. HESC’s Marketplace, using student and co-signer credit data evaluated against lenders’ actual guidelines and scorecards, provides listings of Actual loan terms, not “as low as” ads. Lenders do not pay for placement.

The loan terms are presented in one place, in a consistent, fair and transparent manner, so borrowers can compare and decide with confidence.

Marketplace addresses federal and state regulations on disclosures and transparency and has features to support the interests of students, lenders and schools.

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With Marketplace, the school can rate lender products and lender service and support using HESC’s star-based system — preserving its advisement role in helping students choose the loan product that best fits their needs. Each lender is rated by the school, which can rate loan products with one to five stars. Marketplace provides disclosure of the rating criteria used and what the number of stars means.

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Student Loan Marketplace also offers school administrators a powerful content management system they can use to customize the borrowers’ experience throughout the site. Ensuring students are well-informed about the loan process and the school’s policies and deadlines, and guiding them as they evaluate their options.

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Now let’s take a closer look at Marketplace.

The home page of Student Loan Marketplace is a portal that guides students to two main sections, the Learning Center and the Loan Center.

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The Learning Center helps students and their families plan to pay for college, and includes helpful information on smart borrowing, budgeting and managing credit cards intelligently. This section encourages smart borrowing practices such as using federal loans first and reducing loan costs by having a co-signer. There is also an information section that includes FAQs, common term definitions and articles.

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In the Loan Center, students first select their school, subsequently making each page customized by the school. Every time students log in, Marketplace welcomes them by name. Marketplace also features strong security and authentication provided by the HESC PIN.

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The welcome page features helpful information about loans, a school specific area, and a special “My Finances” section where students can enter their cost of attendance, financial aid and determine what they need to borrow.

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In the future, Marketplace will be integrated with HESC’s Empire Planner, a revolutionary online resource that allows schools to deliver aid packages and alternative funding resources on the Web at anytime. With Empire Planner, students will see their actual cost of attendance and their real financial aid package, making it even easier to determine how much they need to borrow and prevent over borrowing.

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Next, students are guided through the Personal Information Form collection process in a simple step-by-step fashion.

Students enter their information, then any co-signer information. Marketplace strongly encourages students to have a co-signer to achieve the best rates and fees. Marketplace will determine eligibility for the co-signer as well.

Throughout the process, Marketplace’s help text is available to assist students in choosing the best financing option.

Students then fill in their personal information, and are asked to validate their responses before submitting them.
With Marketplace, students and cosigners need to enter their information only once.

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Next, they can read and accept the alternative loan term disclosure statement, which provides them with the information they need to make the best choice in a clear, fair, transparent manner.

The disclosures are in plain English to aid the borrower in understanding the process and their obligations and commitments. Concisely written, the disclosures make it possible for borrowers to acknowledge and accept their responsibilities and consent to a single credit check.

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As you can see, Marketplace provides students with rich information about each loan product they qualify for in a clear, easily understood format. At a glance students can see the loan amount, total cost, monthly payment, interest rate and APR, any fees associated with the loan, and the loan term.

Students can sort loan terms by schools’ STAR ratings, total loan cost, monthly payment or APR.

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Students can then select up to three loan products for a side-by-side comparison. This allows students to go into even greater depth to learn all the details and borrower responsibilities of each alternative loan product.

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Once students have selected a loan product, they complete their personal information, validate their responses, and submit their data. Marketplace then transmits the data to the selected lender. The lender contacts the student to complete the loan process.

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Schools have the ability to review and/or certify all Marketplace loan applications. Schools can follow their current loan certification process with each of their private loan lenders, or a school can use Alt Loan Connection to certify loans on HESC Web.

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Whenever a student revisits Student Loan Marketplace, they’re welcomed by name and informed of both their and their co-signer’s current status.

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There are other loan comparison sites but Marketplace offers power, flexibility, a single online credit check and actual loan terms.

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HESC’s Student Loan Marketplace provides students and families with an incredible opportunity to access an open network of lenders and to compare real loan terms to help them finance their education.

Join forces with HESC in our mission to help people pay for college.