You Have Questions. We Have Answers.
Here are most questions asked about our financial aid & student aid programs.
Understanding Student Loans
We believe education is an investment and should be treated that way — with tuition allocated appropriately and the expectation that it will deliver a return through career and salary growth.
Career College of the Pacific Hawai’i offers the knowledge and skills required for jobs with strong earning potential in today’s economy. Our partner, Climb Credit, then provides accessible, affordable student loans to attend — which will improve students’ earning potential.
In addition to paying for your tuition, Climb can offer you the following:
- No payments until after you graduate or no interest payments until after you’ve completed college.
- Quick decisions, so you can start your education as soon as possible
- Fixed interest rates starting at 6.50%
- No pre-payment penalty
- Fast, friendly, and responsive student support
- A simple, secure, online account through which you can upload documents, view your status, and take action on your application
Interest rates for Climb loans start at 6.50%. Your exact interest rate is calculated depending on a few factors, including your state of residence, credit history, the school you attend, and applicable lending laws and regulations. Just applying will not affect your credit score.
These are fixed interest rates, so you don’t have to worry about your monthly payments changing.
You may be able to qualify for a lower rate if you apply with a co-borrower (any person willing to pay if you can’t).
If you’re a US resident, you are eligible to apply for a Climb loan to attend Career College of the Pacific!
If you’re under the legal age of majority in your state, you can work with us as long as you apply with a co-borrower who is of the legal age or older.
To speak to a Climb representative, there are several ways you can reach out:
- Send an email to [email protected]
- Submit a message on our Contact Page
- Give us a call at 888-510-0533
Understanding the Co-borrower process
A co-borrower is any person willing to sign onto your student loan and take on responsibility if you are unable to make payments. For some more in-depth information, check out this article about co-borrowers!
Before approval, we may require proof of residency or income from a co-borrower. Once an application is submitted, we will send an email to the co-borrower to let them know what documentation is required. After approval, there will be a few documents for the co-borrower to review and sign: the Master Promissory Note and the Notice to Cosigner. These will be available through their Portal page and as attachments on the Approval Email.
A good candidate for a co-borrower is someone with a strong credit score, extensive credit history, no bankruptcies, delinquencies, or accounts in collections, and low debt compared to their income.
Things that may disqualify a co-borrower include a FICO score of less than 620, less than four years of credit history, a bankruptcy within the last five years, a delinquency or account in collections, and high debt compared to their income.
If a co-borrower does not qualify, that’s not your last option! You can always reapply with an alternate co-borrower at any time — there’s no limit to how many times you can apply.
Co-borrowers will have their own personal Climb account, where they can upload their documents. (Already on an application? Click HERE to access the Portal and sign in using your email address!) Additionally, documents can also be emailed to [email protected]. If you email documentation on your co-borrowers behalf, we will just need to reach out to the co-borrower for authorization to use it.
Applying for a Financial Aid Loan
If you’re a US resident, you are eligible to apply for a Climb loan to attend Career College of the Pacific! CNA students do not qualify for this program.
If you’re under the legal age of majority in your state, you can work with us as long as you apply with a co-borrower who is of the legal age or older.
Just applying to check your offer will not affect your credit score.
Once you’ve submitted your Climb application, we will conduct what is known as a “soft” credit check to evaluate your eligibility. This soft inquiry may be recorded on your credit report, depending on the credit bureau, but it will not affect your credit score.
If you are offered a Climb loan and accept that offer, we will perform what is known as a “hard” pull on your credit. This action will be recorded as an inquiry on your credit report and may impact your credit score.
You have the right under the Fair Credit Reporting Act to obtain one free credit report from each of the three U.S. national credit reporting agencies during any 12-month period. We encourage you to do so to make sure your reports are accurate.
Absolutely! You are more than just your credit score, and we look at several factors in order to offer a financing decision.
If you’d like to increase your chances of approval, you can also apply with a co-borrower (any person willing to pay if you can’t), as this can strengthen your application and may even lead to a lower interest rate!
Connecting bank information is just an optional method of automatic address verification to make your application process even faster. If your bank isn’t listed or you don’t wish to connect it, you can go ahead and skip this step!
If your application is not approved, we suggest reapplying with a co-borrower — there’s no limit to how many times you apply, and applying multiple times does not hurt your credit score.
Students can also apply for the Career College of the Pacific Direct Money Student Aid Program, which offers monthly payments to help students pay off most of their loan before starting their new career.
You can also take a look at this article on How to Strengthen Your Student Loan Application or the What If I’m Not Approved section of the Climb Help Center!
No. We only fund loans for students who are attending the program. The program attendee should always be the primary borrower on the application.
During your application, you will have the option to add a co-borrower. If you have a co-borrower with a better credit score that you, adding them to your loan application can potentially help you get approved and/or receive a lower interest rate offer.
Receiving your money
The total loan amount is available on the confirmation email you receive upon acceptance to the college.
Like all lenders, we borrow money to lend to you. Most lenders charge you a higher rate than the one they borrowed at and make money on the difference. We do that so that we can pass the lowest possible rate onto you.
With that said, to keep the lights on, we may charge up to a 5% fee to cover all of the costs associated with making your loan happen. You don’t have to pay this fee upfront; we add it to the balance of your loan.
After your loan is finalized and your school has verified your enrollment, we’ll send your tuition funds directly to your school.
If you decide not to attend your program, we will cancel your loan. We don’t want students taking out loans for education that they don’t receive! Just let us know as soon as possible.
If you drop out after the loan is funded, refer to the college catalog regarding our refund policy. If you are owed a refund by your school, your school will return funds to Climb and we’ll apply the refund to your loan balance. You are responsible for making payments to Climb on your remaining balance.
Paying back your student loan
Depending on your program, we may offer loans with either an initial interest-only period while in class and for a few months after, a full deferral period while in class and for a few months after, or immediate full repayment.
For loans with an interest-only period or immediate full repayment, your first payment is due one month after your loan is funded.
The maximum amount of time you have to pay back your loan depends on your school and program.
Our goal is to make sure that your monthly payments stay low and affordable.
Our standard loan term is 36 months, but you can pay any time before that, as there is no pre-payment penalty. You can repay your 3-year loan in 3 years or in 1 day.
Our goal is to make sure that your monthly payments stay low and affordable, which is why we give you the option to choose your term length when you apply.
Absolutely! You can pre-pay your loan, in whole or in part, at any time with no penalties.
Payments and billing are handled by our loan servicing partner, UAS. Through your UAS account, you can pay via ACH (auto-pay from your bank account), check, or money order. Most of our borrowers choose to pay by ACH, because they don’t have to worry about late payments. As an added bonus, we’re able to reduce your interest rate as long as you’re signed up for automatic ACH payments.
For repayment help, check out our post on Student Loan Repayment Tips or the How Do I Pay Back My Loan section of our Help Center!
During your Climb application, you will be provided an ACH Auto-debit Authorization Form. This will connect your account to automatic payments and give you a .25% interest rate reduction. If you later want to add or remove automatic payments after your loan is funded, you can reach out to our loan servicer University Accounting Service (UAS) to connect or disconnect your bank account.
Great question! The Hana Lima scholarship and PACT (Parents and Children Together) funds will be paid directly to the college, and the college will then pay down the balance you owe.
Career College of the Pacific: Student Reviews
