ART INSTITUTES EARLY PAYMENT INCENTIVE CREDITS (AiEPIC)

Objective:   The Art Institutes Early Payment Incentive Credits (AiEPIC) program was devised to reward you and your family for making an earlier financial commitment to your education.

What is AiEPIC?

Simply said, AiEPIC provides you and your family with a risk-free financial incentive to make early monthly payments toward your cost of education so that your future monthly education at The Art Institute is more affordable.

For every five on-time monthly payments made to the school before you start classes, you will receive an AiEPIC equal to the lowest monthly payment of those five payments.  The credit is posted to your account upon 30 days attendance once in school at The Art Institute.  If for some reason you do not start school, all payments received under this program will be refunded in full within 30 days of the request to return the funds.

Here is an example: If you made a $500 payment on the first of each month for five consecutive months, upon attending school for 30 days, the school will automatically credit your account for an additional $500.  This means that you would pay $500 less out of your pocket than if you had not made the early payments!

Benefits to you and your family:

• Since you can make monthly payments of tuition over a greater period of time than just the program length, your average monthly payments would be reduced throughout the duration of your program.
• Paying in advance would also encourage you to learn how to budget your resources, which will assist you in the future.  Since you are in a routine of making monthly payments, this should assist you with the repayment of your education loans, and in some cases could even reduce the need for education loans.
• You and your family will also financially benefit since they would receive a credit towards your tuition.

Technical Terms and Conditions:

• The minimum month payment under this program is $100 and the maximum is $1,000.
• You must enroll and start making tuition/plan payments at least 5 months PRIOR to starting school.
• You MUST make 5 consecutive, on-time payments to receive the incentive.  For every 5 consecutive, on-time payments received, you will receive one incentive credit.  Thus, if you make 10 consecutive, on-time monthly payments PRIOR to starting school, you will receive 2 incentive credits.  On-time means the school receives the funds within 10 days of the first of the month.
• The amount of the incentive credit will be equivalent to the lowest amount of the payments received.  If payments differ in the 5 consecutive months, the smallest payment received will be used for the incentive credit amount.  For example, if you make 3 payments of $200 and 2 payments of $300 due to a change in charges, $200 will be used as the incentive credit amount.
• The incentive will be credited to your account during the month that you have attended classes for the 30th day (similar to the Title IV regulation for Stafford Loans).
• If you do not start classes, the Early Payments received will be returned in full to you.  Payments made toward application fees, enrollment fees, housing etc. do not count toward this program.
• If you start school but cease attendance before 30 days of attendance, the early payments will be applied to your account, you will not receive the AiEPIC.  A refund, if any, will be calculated as normal.
• You do not benefit by making a lump sum payment.  Using the example above, if you make only a $2,500 payment on September 1, 2001, since you did not make 5 consecutive on-time payments, you will NOT receive an AiEPIC.
• You benefit most by making even monthly payments.  If you make payments of $100 a month on May 1, June 1, July 1, August 1 (total of $400) and make a payment of $2100 on September 1, you will receive an AiEPIC of $100 since that is the lowest payment you made during the 5 months.  You are better off under the AiEPIC by making consistent payments of $500.