ECSI Student Loans
More Than Just a Student Loan Company
Educational Computer Systems, Inc. (ECSI) is a Pittsburgh-based one-stop-shop for student loan software, loan processing, and IRS 1098 services. The company has challenged industry competitors with its highly effective computing and software systems that specifically cater to "campus-based programs."
Where other companies like ECSI have gone outside their firms in search of cheaper labor, ECSI continues to work from the inside out, with highly motivated staff capable of forging long-term relationships with clients. ECSI strives for personal relationships, their website remains strikingly informal, but informative, smacking of small-town warmth, even.
Educational Software Product
The ECSI system has been under constant construction and reconstruction since its first permutation in 1972, the company’s birth year. Their signature product Stand-A-Loan (SAL) is "the only PC, Windows Based System (SAL-Win) in the country" and as such has undergone regular permutations to keep it scalable and above board. The product is used on over 600 campuses for in-house loan management programs.
The ECSI Sal system is so exclusive a design that campuses have a full range of borrower management capabilities from account access options to multiple account views all at one time.
Payment Processing
So ECSI’s SAL program gives campuses the ability to manage their own student loan accounts, but what about payment management? ECSI’s Tuition Payment Plan handles the processing of all monetary transactions associated with student loans and tuition, including monthly billing operations.
Student-borrowers may access their accounts at any time through ECSI. Auxiliary processes include monthly reports, TPP statements and budgets, both online and in hardcopy.
Scalable Online Services
Besides their student loan software product, colleges and universities rely on this long-standing company to provide support services that defy most campus infrastructures, including: electronic payments and auxiliary scheduling, e-signatures for master promissory notes, online entrance and exit interviews, a credit bureau reporting mechanism, and IRS 1098 processing, among a slew of other flexible online services.
1098 Services
Each year tax-time demands reams of paperwork from both taxpayers as well as educational institutions. According to the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, Americans may claim the interest associated with educational expenses for the Hope and Lifetime Learning credit and/or the Student Loan Interest Deduction on their tax returns. This means colleges and universities must supply statements for each student’s annual tuition expenses. ESCI offers a 1098 T processing service to educational institutions that are required to process the Hope and Lifetime Learning statements, which are not designed for this type of large-scale accounting and computing task.
For ECSI clients, the company tries to address questions associated with the 1098-T from the taxpayer point of view, as well, with instructive examples of deductible expenses.
