All of our loans come with a fixed rate of 4%.

No. Loan repayment begins 6 months after the Borrower's graduation.

All loans have an 8 year term (96 monthly payments).

No & Yes ......

Possible Impact on Credit Score:

When you apply for an SAF loan we do pull your credit report as part of our underwriting process for debt verification and fraud prevention.  This may impact your credit score.

Impact on Credit Score:

If you borrow from SAF, we do not currently report your payment history to credit bureaus.  SAF is working to develop this relationship.  A borrower may also request SAF to provide payment history and details to any lender for credit history purposes.  However, if a Borrower defaults on their loan, their file may be sent to a collections attorney and collections activities will be reported negatively on your credit report and lower your credit score.  Collection activities negatively impact both the Student Borrower and their Guarantor.

SAF loans are disbursed directly to you, the student, upon a fully executed promissory note.  Funds are disbursed in 2 increments: (1) end of July/early August (2) Early December.  Funds are sent in the form of a check to the specified address in a nondescript envelope.  If funds need to be received in an expedited fashion, SAF may wire the funds for a $30 fee to the Student Borrower’s personal banking account based upon their financial institution’s wire instructions.

The first step is to verify if the Student Borrower qualifies for an SAF loan by reviewing our eligibility requirements.

If eligible, then the Student may apply online via our secure loan application form with the Guarantor’s knowledge and consent.  Be prepared to complete the online application by having key information at your fingertips.  Key information you may wish to have handy includes: contact info for parents and guarantor, school costs, financial aid package awarded along with other school funding sources (i.e. Stafford loan amount, scholarships, relative cash assistance, etc.), educational details, reference contact information, and employment history.

Next, be sure you have ordered an official transcript from your high school and post-secondary schools as applicable.  All transcripts must be official and received directly from the school.  The school may send transcripts via email, traditional mail service, or their electronic portal.  Transcripts sent from a student versus the school will not be accepted.

Be sure to notify your references that SAF will be reaching out to them and a quick turnaround is greatly appreciated especially for Applicants who applied close to the application deadline.

Once an application is submitted online, the Student Aid Foundation, begins to process the application.  The following occurs during this process which can span several days depending on the volume of applications being received:

• Verify applicant is eligible. For example, a non-Georgia resident attending a school not located in Georgia is invalid and would be denied.
• Order credit reports for the Student Applicant and their Guarantor.   If SAF has any concerns, they will contact the borrower and guarantor for more information.   Sometimes SAF may request/suggest that another Guarantor may be needed to pass underwriting expectations.
• Email reference request and track responses.
• Reach-out to Student Applicant, Parents, and/or Guarantor if any application areas require further clarifications or discussion.
• Track transcript receipt.
• Notify Student Applicants once all supporting information has been received and their application is considered complete.
• During May and June once the application deadline has passed, SAF begins to package all competed applications for review by our Loan Committee.

After loan applications are processed, the Loan Committee reviews all completed applications over a period of time.  After review and analysis, the committee together determines the loans to approve.  In some cases, an application can be conditionally approved meaning they require further processing and review before a final decision can be reached.

Then loan decisions are communicated.  Loan promissory notes are drawn-up and emailed to the Student Applicant and Guarantor for execution.  The Student Applicant and Guarantor must fully review, sign, and notarize the promissory note.  Upon receipt of completed promissory notes, the Student Aid Foundation sets-up the Student Borrower and Guarantor in the system and distributes the 1^st loan disbursement.

Lastly, the 2nd loan disbursement is sent according the SAF’s disbursement timeline.

There is no penalty for pre-paying one’s loan at any time.

Every Student Borrower and Guarantor receives a loan repayment plan with their promissory note.  In addition, prior to graduation SAF follows up with expected Graduates.  At that time, validate the Student Borrower’s graduation date and resend their loan repayment schedule and payment information.

All loan payments are due by the 1^st of each month.

Student Borrower’s have three options for loan payment method:

• Enroll in ACH Draft – The ACH Draft Enrollment form must be completed, and the original signed form received via traditional mail. Once the form is received and the Borrower is set-up in our system. SAF withdraws the Student Borrower’s monthly payment or a specified amount (must be above the minimum payment due) on the 1^st of each month from their registered account.
• Pay via Invoice Online Payment link – Each Student Borrower is set-up in SAF’s invoice system. This system sends on the 15^th of each month an online invoice via email to each Borrower in repayment. The online invoice states their monthly payment due and provides a link to SAF’s payment portal where the Student Borrower may make her monthly payment due via ACH or Credit Card.  (SAF discourages Credit Card payments due to possible interest incurred on these funds by the Borrower.  In addition, fees are incurred that lower the amount of funds that go back into available funds to loan to future women seeking assistance.)
• Pay via Check – A check payment must be mailed to the Student Aid Foundation address. Checks should be made payable to Student Aid Foundation.

  Student Aid Foundation
  1266 West Paces Ferry Rd. #577
  Atlanta, GA 30327

Please note that Borrowers who decide to pay via their own banking institutions online banking, that the checks arrive to SAF via USPS postal mail delivery.  Credit to a Borrower’s account is based upon payment receipt not the date the check was printed.  This is the slowest method of payment.