School loan consolidation?

[skypilot]

I'm about to graduate (May 19th) and am confused about loan consolidation... I've done some searching, but it's tough to distinguish the crap from unbiased information.

I'm in the following situation:

$8000 private party loan
$15000 parent plus loan
$15000 stafford loans

Can all of those be consolidated? What kind of interest rate am I looking at? Who should I go to for this service?

Thanks!

 

[fbrdphreak]

You shoulda consolidated last summer Lower interest rate then

The question is, are they all through the same loan company? I'm sure you can consolidate diff loans from diff companies, but my experience is limited to consolidating multiple loans through the same company. I would call your loan company and ask, but I have the advance of having CFNC here in NC; IIRC its a non-profit that helps kids get college paid for and they are REALLY REALLY helpful. Last summer when the deadline for loan consolidations was coming up, they stayed open until midnight to process applications :Q:thumbsup:

GL

 

[Imported]

Bumping this.. anyone know a thing about consolidating private student loans? I have one federal loan, and the rest of mine were private through TERI or Bank of America. Any information on the best options for consolidating would be nice

 

[skypilot]

Originally posted by: Imported
Bumping this.. anyone know a thing about consolidating private student loans? I have one federal loan, and the rest of mine were private through TERI or Bank of America. Any information on the best options for consolidating would be nice

Amen. Bump!

 

[PHiuR]

i don't know the answer, but bump for you.

 

[rezinn]

Ask who you would consolidate your loans through, we don't know. They have a hotline for sure.

 

[Eeezee]

bump!

 

[dmw16]

I found out that I couldnt consolidate my private loans at a fixed rate. I was told the rate could vary up to 16%. THat would have sucked since I had 40k in private loans. THe option I went with was my parents offered to take out a home equity loan in order to essentially refinance my student loans at a fixed rate. As for the federal loans - it is too bad you didnt lock in last summer @ 2.875, but you can still consolidate and lock in a rate.

 

[randomlinh]

your stafford loans you can consolodate all together (unless it already is.. regardless, lock in the rate you can get.. i don't think it's going to plumet anytime soon). I got in last year at 3% (one of the loans i shouldn't have consolidated I realized bumped it up to this, but I didn't really care).

parent plus is under your parents social I believe. So you cannot take it and consolodate, that is what I was told anyway.

private loans... you're SOL.. heh. Half my loans are in this and the rate is slowly crawling up. And I'm paying the parent plus one too (not too much tho).. so I'm being ripped sidedways for the next few years.

I would be happy if I could reconsolidate all of it to something like 6% fixed. the shear number of payments I make month depress me

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: randomlinh
your stafford loans you can consolodate all together (unless it already is.. regardless, lock in the rate you can get.. i don't think it's going to plumet anytime soon). I got in last year at 3% (one of the loans i shouldn't have consolidated I realized bumped it up to this, but I didn't really care).

parent plus is under your parents social I believe. So you cannot take it and consolodate, that is what I was told anyway.

private loans... you're SOL.. heh. Half my loans are in this and the rate is slowly crawling up. And I'm paying the parent plus one too (not too much tho).. so I'm being ripped sidedways for the next few years.

I would be happy if I could reconsolidate all of it to something like 6% fixed. the shear number of payments I make month depress me

I just checked my private loan last night and it went down by .25%. woot!

 

[j00fek]

best thing to do is call you loan provider and see what the consolidation process is. i know thaT You have a chance of doing this at any time during the load term.

 

[randomlinh]

wtf, last month i got the "it was just adjusted" and it went up. It had been down earlier because they finally activated my auto-debit... but now it's over 7.5% again

 

[Feldenak]

I've got the same problem. MOHELA has some of my loans and the Dept. of Ed. has my others.

 

[Imported]

Originally posted by: dmw16
I found out that I couldnt consolidate my private loans at a fixed rate. I was told the rate could vary up to 16%. THat would have sucked since I had 40k in private loans. THe option I went with was my parents offered to take out a home equity loan in order to essentially refinance my student loans at a fixed rate. As for the federal loans - it is too bad you didnt lock in last summer @ 2.875, but you can still consolidate and lock in a rate.

So your parents with the home equity loan basically paid off all your student loans and you just pay them back for the home equity loan at a fixed rate? That sounds interesting if thats how I understood it.

 

[dmw16]

Originally posted by: Imported

Originally posted by: dmw16
I found out that I couldnt consolidate my private loans at a fixed rate. I was told the rate could vary up to 16%. THat would have sucked since I had 40k in private loans. THe option I went with was my parents offered to take out a home equity loan in order to essentially refinance my student loans at a fixed rate. As for the federal loans - it is too bad you didnt lock in last summer @ 2.875, but you can still consolidate and lock in a rate.

So your parents with the home equity loan basically paid off all your student loans and you just pay them back for the home equity loan at a fixed rate? That sounds interesting if thats how I understood it.

Yes, that is how it works. We locked in at 5.5% (better than the variable w/ max rate of 16% i had w/ my loans) and now I am just paying them back monthly.

 

[Cattlegod]

mine got locked in at 3.15% or something like that. had about 17k total when i did it i think.

it was at 5% when i graduated and was variable, so i decided to lock it in right away.