"The credit crunch is starting to take its toll on college students: Several students who have turned to banks or private companies to borrow extra tuition cash in recent weeks have been shocked and penalized when the checks they received were refused," according to U.S. News & World Report. "There haven't been any reports of problems with federally guaranteed Stafford student loans or PLUS parent loans. Chris Blawat, a prechiropractic student at Ivy Tech in Lafayette, Ind., was relieved when he got an $8,500 Astrive private loan check in April. Then, four days later, his account was suddenly overdrawn by $4,000, and he had racked up more than $600 in bad-check and insufficient-funds fees."