Student loans

[brikis98]

I have over $15k in student loans that I need to start repaying soon and have gotten lots of mail about "great" ways to consolidate my loans and what not. I have 6 loans, all federal (i think) and each with an interest rate of 7.140% (although it's not fixed and bounces up and down).

i'm sure some of you have experience with this, so what would you recommend as the best company/method to use to consolidate my loans and (hopefully) get a better interest rate?

 

[Atheus]

I have student loans in 2 different countries - my basic strategy is to ignore the one in the country I am furthest away from at any time.

 

[bobdelt]

talk to fannie mae, if they can lose 6 billion dollors of profit im sure they could lose your loans too...

I would talk to a legit bank, like citibank, b of a, something like that... If you got one of those crappy flyers in the mail, with the word urgent written all over it, from some company trying to pose as the federal gov'ts, i would stay very far away from them.

 

[DaWhim]

wow......what the hell? you didn't lock in those federal subsidized loans when it was as low as 3%? shame.

do you even know how loans consolidation work? here is a thread to FW http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?catid=52&threadid=596894
there is alot of informations, time to do your hw.

 

[ngvepforever2]

Originally posted by: Atheus
I have student loans in 2 different countries - my basic strategy is to ignore the one in the country I am furthest away from at any time.

Awesome strategy :laugh:

Regards

ng

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: DaWhim
wow......what the hell? you didn't lock in those federal subsidized loans when it was as low as 3%? shame.

do you even know how loans consolidation work? here is a thread to FW http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?catid=52&threadid=596894
there is alot of informations, time to do your hw.

no, i was way too busy and honestly just didn't think of it until... well, the last minute, really. no one to blame but myself, but now i gotta make the best of it.

thanks for the link, that has some great info. any more advice is certainly appreciated.

 

[KillerCharlie]

Here's another loan question....

I consolidated my federal loans at the 2.8% rate last year. However, there were two more loans that came out right after that - one was another federal direct loan and another a perkins. Can I still consolidate those two? Can I do so through the same group (government org?) I did on the other loans? I just made the first payment on them a few days ago.

 

[Wreckem]

Originally posted by: brikis98
I have over $15k in student loans that I need to start repaying soon and have gotten lots of mail about "great" ways to consolidate my loans and what not. I have 6 loans, all federal (i think) and each with an interest rate of 7.140% (although it's not fixed and bounces up and down).

i'm sure some of you have experience with this, so what would you recommend as the best company/method to use to consolidate my loans and (hopefully) get a better interest rate?

Dude you should have consolidated last May/June before July 1. If you had done so you could have locked in at around 4%, now you wont be getting anything lower than 7.14% if they are federal student loans.

 

[brikis98]

bump for the monday morning crowd.

 

[Exterous]

Originally posted by: KillerCharlie
Here's another loan question....

I consolidated my federal loans at the 2.8% rate last year. However, there were two more loans that came out right after that - one was another federal direct loan and another a perkins. Can I still consolidate those two? Can I do so through the same group (government org?) I did on the other loans? I just made the first payment on them a few days ago.

Depends on the group. Alot of places will let you combine the loans with your consolidated loan but with a change in intrest% rate. Sometimes its an average, sometimes its a total rip-off. If you want the easy way out - I would just consolidate the second two loans into 1 loan and just make 2 payments a month (one to the older loan and one to the newer loan)

 

[Exterous]

Originally posted by: brikis98
I have over $15k in student loans that I need to start repaying soon and have gotten lots of mail about "great" ways to consolidate my loans and what not. I have 6 loans, all federal (i think) and each with an interest rate of 7.140% (although it's not fixed and bounces up and down).

i'm sure some of you have experience with this, so what would you recommend as the best company/method to use to consolidate my loans and (hopefully) get a better interest rate?

I was able to consolidate mine through FSA - which IIRC is the government loan servicer
http://www.dlservicer.ed.gov/

But any respectable bank with the lowest interest rate will do.

Perhaps consolidate at the 7.140% now and look for interest rates to drop (might be a while) and then take out a lower % fixed personal loan to pay them off? Thoughts?