Citibank and RioSalado Community College
Federal student loan money delayed between school and bank

I am a student at Rio Salado Community School in Tempe, AZ. I started school on June 18th and was awarded Federal Loans to attend. I was informed that I would not receive any money until after the first 30 days of school because I was a first-time borrower. That was a little hard to take, since you apply for help to go to school because you need the help to go to school. I ended up waiting for that and finally received it in 45 days. Now one class has ended and the other will be over in 2 weeks, and I am still waiting to receive the remainder of my money for attending school.

For 4 weeks, I spoke with Rio Salado's Financial Aid Department to make sure there were no problems or issues with the process and that I had done everything I needed to do on my part. I was told that everything was fine, that there was no problem, and that I was due that money on the 6th of August (which could be the 6th-10th). Well, on the 6th there was nothing, so I went to the school and asked what the problem was and was told there wasn't one, just give it a few days to be processed.

I went back on the 7th, 8th and 9th and still nothing. I finally asked to speak with a supervisor in the Financial Aid office, who informed me that my advisor had overlapped my courses and that this was the problem with my money being released. I was told to move the classes, and I did that in 15 minutes and returned with proof that the changes had been made. I was told that my money would be released. That was the 9th; however, it was electronically transferred to Citibank on the 10th of August.

OK, so that was a Friday, so weekends don't count, at least for us. On Monday I called, and every day after that I checked with Citibank as to when the money might be released. All they kept saying was that they needed 5-7 business days to receive the money from my school. I would always ask Citibank why it takes so long to process it when it was sent over electronically. Are you keeping that money in some kind of account for the interest off that Federal Aid money? There was never an answer to the question.

Today is my 7th day waiting, plus two weekends, and Citibank is still claiming that they don't have the money from the school yet. A supervisor was unable to tell me what the problem was. He just kept saying to check with my school. I told him that I have been checking and they showed me where they sent it to you on the 10th of August. This is a mess that a student shouldn't have to deal with. We have finals and papers due (and those have to be on time). Why can't our money be released in a reasonable time frame as well?

I just called the school again this morning and was told by a student worker that something happened to the electronic wire transfer and that something happened to everyone's money that had been sent on the 9th-11th of August. What, nobody knows. When I asked about the problem and whose fault it was, Rio's or Citibank's, I was told he didn't know. I was then transferred to a supervisor in the Cashier's office on campus, but no answer. This is too much for a student to have to go through. School is hard enough, but doing it without money that has been earmarked to help you attend school is outrageous.

Something needs to be done about the distribution process between the school and Citibank. Who awarded Citibank the right to distribute Federal Loan and Aid money to students? Do they know about the holdups and problems within the system process? Is Citibank holding these Federal funds for interest, and if so, who made that deal with them? A 3-5 day processing time would be acceptable, but 5-7 days plus free weekends for Citi to acquire interest off that money? What is really going on here, and should I just give up on my dream of becoming a teacher?

It's a bad setup. Instead of helping students reach their goals, you are making it harder than ever to go to school. I wanted to speak with Joe Ducey at Channel 3 News. Maybe he would like to investigate this story here in AZ. How many Arizona colleges are playing games with student Federal money? The community needs to know what is going on, and for that matter, so does the Federal Government. I think that students should be able to choose the bank that they wish to handle their student money. I don't even bank with Citi and I never will. Signed, Jacked UP in AZ ; (

Company: Citibank and RioSalado Community College
Country: USA
State: Pennsylvania
City: Conshohocken
Address: P.O. Box 284
Phone: 8885611829
Site: riosalado.edu

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