Under federal law, the authority for schools to make new Perkins Loans ended Sept. 30, 2017. The final disbursements occurred in spring 2018.
Students who received Perkins Loans in the past are still required to complete Exit Interviews when they leave school or graduate, and they must repay the loans.
Federal Perkins Loans were low-interest educational loans for students with high financial need funded by the federal government and administered by the school.
Perkins Exit Interviews
Students who have previously received Perkins Loan funds and graduated, left school or dropped below half-time status at PennWest Edinboro must complete an Exit Interview.
HEARTLAND / ECSI
PennWest Edinboro uses a company called Heartland/ECSI (formerly Campus Partners) as their Perkins loan agent. Heartland/ECSI handles all the federal requirements (Exit Interviews) and monthly payments. The conversion to ECSI occurred in early May 2019. All borrowers received communications from ECSI with a Heartland key to access their website in order to set up a profile and make monthly payments. We encourage setting up automatic payments to avoid delinquency and late fees.
Some students are making monthly payments to collection agencies other than ECSI. Continue those payments with them. Williams and Fudge and Reliant Capital Solutions are our two current agencies for delinquent Perkins Loan repayments.
Setup your profile with ECSI here.
Current Repayment Status
Those who were in current repayment with Campus Partners will now be paying ECSI. The billing dates and due dates have changed. Be sure to set up your online profile and payment methods with ECSI as you had before.
Delinquent Repayment Status
If you were late on repayments with Campus Partners (now ECSI), your account would have been placed with an outside collection agency. We currently employ Williams and Fudge and Reliant Capital Solutions for this purpose. Once your account is there, you can set up automatic payments with them. They may also help you consolidate this loan with any others you may have.
Repayment Default
Sometimes we see accounts go into default. A Perkins Default hold would be placed on your records at PennWest Edinboro to prohibit transcript or diploma receipt.
Perkins Loan Assigned Status
This means that after several attempts at collections by us, our agent and our agencies, we were unsuccessful in setting up a monthly payment arrangement or receiving payment on the loan in full. This loan has been turned over to the Department of Education for collection. The only way to remove this block on your records is to provide proof to us that you paid the Department of Education in full for the loan. You can contact the Student Accounts Office for assistance. They can be reached at 814-732-3502 or via email at studentaccounts@pennwest.edu.
