My Student Loan Servicer took $560 and kept it for a year

A quick update on last year’s “Giving My Student Loan Servicer a $560 Interest-Free Loan”: they gave me my money back!

#Timeline recap

Here’s the story I covered in my post last year:

#New developments

At some point after all these interactions, the negative balance on my loan disappeared from the website. Luckily, this didn’t turn out to be a problem, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to convince them that they owed me money if it wasn’t visible in their database.

I recently received a letter from Aidvantage dated July 3rd, 2025 titled “ACTION REQUIRED—YOU MAY BE OWED A REFUND”, asking me to verify my address before a refund check could be created. The letter did not explain how much of a refund I was owed. I called up Aidvantage, verified my address, and they sent me a check. Thankfully, the check actually arrived this time.

On July 25th, 2025, the check for $560 cleared and my student loans are finally, truly complete. If I’d been able to invest that money in the S&P 500 over that period, I would have $714 instead of $560. Unfortunately for me, if you have someone’s routing and account numbers, you can just take $560 from their account and hold on to it interest-free for a year. What are they going to do, consult with a lawyer for $600 an hour?