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Student loan conslidation advice

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morkus64

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My grace period will end in about a month and a half, so I'm trying to get everything consolidated. I'll be doing income based repayment, i think.

I'm trying to figure out where to consolidate - what, if any, companies have the best deals. I know there used to be a bunch but there don't seem to really be any these days.

I'd appreciate the help and any advice. I'm looking at ~73K @ 6.8% and ~10K @1.87 variable (all stafford loans). I'm thinking I'll consolidate the 1.87s separately to lock in the low rate, and then all of the 6.8s together to make dealing with it easier (currently that's 12 different loans).

I know there at least used to be places where you could get up to .5% off for debit withdrawl and 1% off after 24 or 36 months, but I'm having trouble finding anything like that via google.

Thanks in advance!

Ps - here's the specific loan info, in case anyone has a desire to do any mathemagic!

6.80% F 1000
6.80% F 8500
6.80% F 3500
6.80% F 8500
6.80% F 8500
6.80% F 5700
6.80% F 3000
6.80% F 8500
6.80% F 5500
6.80% F 8500
6.80% F 6500
6.80% F 5500
1.87% V 5500
1.87% V 2445
1.87% V 2625
 
You have $73k in student loans at 6.8% interest? I hope you are a M.D. or a lawyer. To pay that off in 36 months would require $2250 per month payments.
 
Loan consolidation used to be a smart idea but ever since the gov took it over it's fairly worthless. You used to be able to consolidate loans at the current market rate. I took advantage of that to lock in my undergrad loans at ~1%. Now that the gov handles it all the rates are considerably higher and you can only consolidate at the weighted average interest rate of your outstanding loans. You don't save anything by consolidating other than only having to deal with one loan servicer.
 
He's talking about some deal where interest rates are reduced if you allow them to take the money rather than wait for you to pay them.

Do you have to consolidate? A lot of the time it doesn't really help, just adds a new middleman to the equation. Be sure to look at the perks that come with student loans, like forbearance, extended grace periods, etc. Many of those won't transfer to a consolidated loan.
 
Unfortunately, sactoking is right in there not being much in the way of deals like that anymore since the Department of Education pretty much took that industry over. I do know that Direct Loans gives you a .25% reduction for electronic debit and another .25% reduction for payments made on time after 12 months. Not really a great deal, but it is nice if you are trying to get all of your loans on one bill.
 
Away said:
Unfortunately, sactoking is right in there not being much in the way of deals like that anymore since the Department of Education pretty much took that industry over. I do know that Direct Loans gives you a .25% reduction for electronic debit and another .25% reduction for payments made on time after 12 months. Not really a great deal, but it is nice if you are trying to get all of your loans on one bill.
Click to expand...

get all the loans under 1 bill was the only reason I consolidated. 6.5% - 1% for debit + timely payment like you said.
 
When I worked in the industry from 2002-2005 all loans were variable except loans from the late 80s and early 90s. Even so they would do a weighted average like the option you have. Around 2005 they were 1.77% before any incentives like auto-draft or timely payment discounts.

Thank ObamaCare for the destruction of the student loan industry. The non-profit I worked for has laid off 75% of their staff since it was signed.
 
good lawd...i don't take for granted one second how grateful i am my student loans are at 1.625%.
 
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