Greenville County, SC

http://www.SC.gov added Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter account access to its pages in an attempt to catch up to the usage patterns of today’s internet users.

Among the improvements are Google maps showing the State Cabinet Agency Locations:

• Department of Alcohol and Drug Abuse
• Department of Commerce
• Department of Corrections
• Department of Health
• Department of Insurance
• Department of Juvenile Justice
• Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation
• Department of Law Enforcement
• Department of Parks and Recreation
• Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services
• Department of Public Safety
• Department of Revenue
• Department of Social Services
• Department of Transportation

On the Help Center page, there is now an option for ‘Live Help’, although I saw “Department is currently unavailable. Please leave a message.” when clicking on the glossy ‘chat’ icon, that’s when I noticed I was attempting t talk to somebody at 8am, perhaps a little too early still.

Finally, the front page now has social networking sites available for visitors.

* Update: it looks like McCain’s website is getting an update too.

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With school loan organizations experiencing their own financial crises right now and many going out of business, GreenNote launched today with a novel idea. As they describe it on their website, “Using the GreenNote online platform, students connect with their social network—friends, family, friends of family, community leaders and others—to ask for small student loans. GreenNote helps formalize everything into legally binding loans and handles all the details from loan documentation through repayment.”

Curious? Here are GreenNote’s Loan Terms:

• 1. Fixed interest rate currently set at 6.8%
• 2. Repayment term of 10 years
• 3. Payments deferred up to 5 years
• 4. No citizenship or co-signer requirements
• 5. May be used for any post-secondary educational institution; proof of enrollment required
• 6. Maximum up to cost of attendance (less financial aid)
• 7. Grace period of 6 months (following separation from school)
• 8. Interest accumulates while your payments are deferred and is added to the loan balance at repayment.
• 9. No prepayment penalties
• 10. Repayment will be principal and interest
• 11. Documentation fee of 2% (minimum $49)
• 12. Annual lender administration fee of 1%

A few other companies that future students young and older may want to look at include: Fynanz, Prosper, and Zopa. With lower percentage points for school loans, these options should tailor to a wide group of individuals - an idea in these troubling times that may have a leg to run on.

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