PSA: Do not use TERI

In the course of the past few months, I've probably spent upwards of 40 hours dealing The Education Resources Institute (TERI) trying to expedite the processing of one of the loans I'm taking out to finance my graduate study. Numerous problems arose along the way. It would, quite literally, take pages for me to outline all of TERI's mistakes, so you'll just have to trust me on it. All that time spent has led me to the following conclusion: if at all possible, avoid doing business with TERI for any student loan.

Truth be told, there is little positive I can say about my dealings with TERI. Their customer service representatives proved tremendously unhelpful, insisting either that the processing was fine, or that there was nothing that TERI could do to smooth the process. When TERI did take action, it was often delayed or resulted in an error on their part. They have proved incapable of following even the most explicit directions I have provided them.

Because of TERI's mishandling of my loan, I did not receive the funds until almost a month after the expected date. And this only took place after extensive communication all through October to ensure that the check would (finally) be sent to the right address.

So I urge you, in no uncertain terms, to avoid all dealings with TERI. And I also encourage you to pass on this advice to anyone else financing study through student loans.