SWR: Student Loans

Please do not more this to NWR

PSA: If you have student loans and have not consolidated them yet, you might want to look into doing so before the rates go up on July 1, 2005.

[I say SWR because with brides paying for their weddings themselves, any extra $$ they can save is a good thing. I am also afraid that not everyone will read this on NWR.]

ETS: Call your lender or your school financial aid office and find out who your lender is. If you have multiple loans with many lenders then you can pick who ever gets you the best deal. If not I think you are stuck with the lender you have, but check it out anyway.

As for loans, try to consolidate for below 3% with percentage deductions for automatic payments to get you to 2.75%. And definately no fees for early repayments - in case you hit the lotto or a favorite person leaves you $ so you can pay it off early. If you can, also remember to preserve your 6 month graduation deferral. (Many lenders will lock you in and let you keep your 6 months).
This is not meant to be legal advise nor is it meant to be financial advice and you must do what is right for you.

yes! Consolidate whatever Federal Loans you have now! You can lock in at a rate of 2.875% which is insanely low. As of July 1st, they are expected to increase by almost 2%. As long as you have the paperwork in by June 30th, you will get the low rates.

I'm going through this with my husband right now as a matter of fact.

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Posted by VickiC

yes! Consolidate whatever Federal Loans you have now! You can lock in at a rate of 2.875% which is insanely low. As of July 1st, they are expected to increase by almost 2%. As long as you have the paperwork in by June 30th, you will get the low rates.

I'm going through this with my husband right now as a matter of fact.

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Thats a really good rate....mine is 3.25 which I got last year and I thought that was good

I just did that. I have to go into repayment a few months early since I don't have to technically start until 6 mths after this August, but I'd rather be set with a 3% interest rate.

I went with Bank of America.

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Posted by kdelace

who did you consolidate with?

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I don;t even know...and then my loan was sold to another company or something...its very confusing...my mom helped me....

Great post! I thankfully paid off my student loan last week!!! Whoohoo!!! Now...if I can only figure out how to pay off the rest of this wedding...it would call for celebration!!!

As of JUly 1 interest rates are going to 4.70% so it is a great idea to consolidate. I did & locked in at 2.87%.

Make sure you don't waive your grace period, any lender that tells you you have to isn't the right lender for you. Citibank & bank of america are 2 that won't let you waive it. Also Access or www.northstar.org (my lender)Also if you took time off b/w college & grad school you might want to consolidate your 2 loans separately as I did b/c otherwise you will waive your grad school grace period.

When your grace period is up you can add your undergrad loans to your grad school loans & make 1 payment.

Just some info that I learned at financial aid workshop at school. Hope this helps.