Last month we introduced you to T.H.E.’s Electronic Loan Counselor, or ELC for short, an online tool that guides borrowers to personalized repayment options. The ELC has since undergone a few updates to make it easier for your student-borrowers to get the practical guidance they need.

Here’s what’s new:

• Enhanced “take action” page allows users to save, print, e-mail and even implement the repayment strategy they choose from the ELC’s recommendations. As of April 20, all features will be clickable—-meaning users don’t have to print, fax or send any paper. They can do it all online.
• Personalized advice tailored to student’s goals makes the ELC’s guidance even more meaningful for each individual borrower. Your students can tell the ELC whether their goal is to lower payments or reduce interest expense—-and the system comes back with recommendations for each loan to meet these goals. If the borrower changes the goal, the messaging and options change along with it.
• Comprehensive contact page makes it easier for students to get help—-from a real loan counselor here at T.H.E. Along with our phone numbers, this page features an e-mail option, which captures the user’s recommendations from the ELC and sends it to a T.H.E. representative, along with their e-mail and contact info. That way, our counselors can see exactly what the borrower has seen, making the transition to live help as seamless as possible for the borrower.

We invite you to spend some time with the new and improved ELC, which is set to get one more set of enhancements in the next few weeks. We’ll update you with any new features as soon as they’re available. Find the ELC and other debt management resources online at theloanprogram.org.

Lender advisory boards are the latest segment of the student loan industry to come under scrutiny. Amid claims that advisory board members are paid, either directly or indirectly through undue perks and kickbacks, some are suggesting that the easiest solution is to get rid of advisory boards altogether. Knowing the tremendous value our own T.H.E. advisory board has produced over the years, we strongly disagree with this notion.

To accomplish our nonprofit mission, lowering the cost of financing a higher education, in an efficient manner, we have always felt we need to address three key goals:

1. Deliver our message of savings to schools and borrowers 2. Receive application data and deliver funds in an efficient manner 3. Provide counsel to borrowers and their families throughout the life of their loans

As one of the top 16 lenders in the country, we at T.H.E. have received the request for information from Senator Kennedy, and we will cooperate with the Senate’s review of relationships between schools and lenders. Total Higher Education has always acted with the highest ethical and legal standards and we are confident that this inquiry will show that to be true. We have never offered illegal inducements to schools or anyone else. While we do not expect that this request will affect your school or your students (or require any effort on your part), we will keep you up-to-date as the inquiry progresses.

Come see us July 8 —- July 11 in Washington, D.C., for the annual NASFAA conference. We will be giving away two $500 scholarships, so stop in at booth 406 for your chance to win!