oh, forgot...
once I consolidate allmy loans into two payments (private and federal) is there any way I can re-consolidate or refinance to a lower rate (if they ever come back)? I read once you consolidate and are done with school you are SOL, and stuck with whatever you get. how true is this?

any links to financial or loan forums where I get more info?

I don't know the answer to the questions about private loans.

But regarding consolidating federal student loans: you can consolidate more than once ONLY if you have additional federal loans that you didn't include the first time you consolidated, or if you take out additional new loans for additional education.
I consolidated my student loans twice. But I was only able to do so because I did not include all of my loans in the first consolidation.

Be aware that when you consolidate you lose some of the options originally available for some types of loans. For example Perkins loans have more possibilities for loan forbearance and forgiveness than most other loan types, and if you consolidate them you'll lose those options. That's one reason to consider holding some of the loans out of the consolidation. Read the fine print on your original loans and compare that to the conditions on the consolidation loans.
Another reason to hold some out might be if you have some loans that have relatively high interest rates compared to the others AND are small enough that you might be able to pay them off sooner if you focus on them in the short term. That's because your interest rate on your consolidation loan will be the weighted average of the rates of the loans you consolidate. In the long run you'd be better off by keeping a small loan with a high interest rate out of the consolidation IF you'll be able to pay that loan off completely within a few years.

yeah that makes sense. thanks for the reply.

I would not consolidate the private and federal loans. Right now the rates on federal loans are so low it is as if they are holding your debt free of charge. With inflation, you could pay these off as slow as you need.

As your income increases, you could pay the private loan off more quickly while not over-paying the federal - while tempting, I try not to. Ideally you could wipe out the higher interest loan earlier (100 years rather than 200 years... I kid).

I have consolidated all my federal loans except the Perkins, which, because of higher interest (5 not 3), I will tough out and pay individually as to not increase the rate of the considation. This was a common thing with my peers. Paying all of the higher individual bills suck, but the Perkins will be done in 10 years, rather than 30. And the private loan is the same.

Aluminate brings up a huge point. Re-consolidating will have you most likely lose those wonderful options, or rewards. In my case I can speed up or slow down the payments. And also after 3 years on on-time payments, my rate drops a percentage point. That is thousands of dollars...

I've considered consolidating the Perkins and the private, but I haven't looked into it. Anyone try this?

i cannotn seem to find anyone who will consolidate my private loans AND my federal loans. Joe who were you looking into?

Just know that on federal loans you forfeit your grace period when you consolidate. A fact that they neglected to mention to me, and they also neglected to send me a notice that my bills were due, but they did send me a notice saying I was 46 days over due. Fuck the federal government.

Wow. That sucks, Cuervo. Some consolidation companies offer a grace period equivalent to the federal 6 months.

May I ask what company?

I've done some research on consolidating private student loans. I've found three that have various options available. I've waited until my grace period is over (in November) to avoid making payments early.

Citibank Student Loans link : Most recent as of this month, will allow you to chose between locking in a rate (around 8%) or having a variable APR. They have fees between 0 and 5% based on credit scores. No prepay penalties. Various intrest rate reductions based on payment history, etc..

Wells Fargo Private Loan Consolidation link : Similar to Citibank, but don't allow you to lock in an interest rate. They don't have any fees and no prepay penalties.

NextStudent link : Have fees, but don't recall exactly what they are, doesn't allow you to lock in rates. I don't believe they have prepay penalties either.

At this point I am leaning towards Citibank because I can lock a rate, but before they came along, I was looking at Wells Fargo. I have talked to Citibank and they say that I will be able to reduce my payments from $800/mo to $550/mo.

I think this is the only thing good about my debt - I consolidated when interest rates where much lower. Bought my place when rates were lower, too.

Still, I pay and pay...and I am gonna keep paying. Ah, the joys of higher education.

dont let the state agency's buy them out if you stop paying on them.... i had 12g's to pay off about a year ago....i lost my job at the time and couldnt pay....try to defer/etc...didnt work.....then the michigan guarentee agency bought out the loan and charged me 25% and incured interest....so now that 12g's is up to 18gs....... once i hustle in a few more jobs, i'll "offer" them a pay out and see if i can get it to 14-15...... it's bullshit...... 25% is a big jump...i can see like 4-8% but damn......

b

shit I wish I only had $18.000 in debt. needless to say I'm galaxies beyond that.

last night I looked at next student, so we'll see what they have to say about my private loans. there doesnt seem to be much competition for them though, unlike federal consolidation which has tons of people waiting in lines to buy up your debt. so I'm going to try and research it hard over the weekend.
so still, if there are any links and advice I would greatly appreciate it. thanks so far.

get you a side job and stack the chips in the bank with a locked account..... seriously..... sort of sucks that in this field you dont make much of anything to live....... i dont even know the going rate of a recent grad.... maybe 14-16 an hour?..... to keep things in perspective, my brother drives a hi-low and makes 15 an hour and he's 21.... me sister makes 27 and hour plus o/t working for the postal service....... my last job offer was 21 an hour...wtf..... makes me wanna punch water......

of you can, start up a side hustle or soemthing to make you a few hundred a month and put it aside.......

unless you run your own business or slang', it'll be hard to survive in this field.....

good luck

i just deferred my consolidated loan once more...i think i'll leave it to the grandkids in my will...

I am just starting to pay. It hurts. I could have a nice beemer for the same cost (literally)!!

Thankfully, they like to let you defer and don't ask many questions. Compounding interest works for them, too, and the debt just keeps snowballing.

snowballing is a good term for it. I have thought about getting an additional job, but I think I will wait till its absolutely necessary. which actually wont be far off. I have deffered several of my payments already as well vado. I'm not worried too mauh about it. I think the situation will be better once I resolve aeverything and find out exactly how much I will have to pay after my 6 month grace period is up (2.5 more months).
well anyway, keep researching I suppose. and now research a decent paying weekend job too. fun.

Deferring payments in a situation where interest is still accruing should be avoided if at all possible. If you do this for even a few months you'll have effectively added thousands to your payments in the long run. This will become apparent when the payments do start and the first several months - and possibly even the first few years' worth depending on how long you've deferred and how much you owe - show that you're paying nothing but interest, with no dip in the principal at all.

If you are in repayment already and you have already consolidated consider this: if you can scrape up the money to add an extra 1/12th of the minimum payment to each month's payment (for instance paying $542 each month instead of your regular $500 minimum payment) you will reduce the amount of time it takes to repay by years (as much as 5 years or more if they're consolidated on a 30-year term) and hence save thousands (even tens of thousands.)

take 20 bones and go to the casino and bet on the routlet wheel........ just need to break down the odds mathmatically........ black,black,black,red,black,red,red,red,black.......

black jack is a quick return


but then again i never dropped a coin in the casino's..... my ex used to play blackjack and was good....until the last hand when she would get greedy............ her loss........

see if you can teach a cad class for night school or a community college........


b

eeayeeayo - yeah, deferring sucks, but the whole point is that you can't afford to pay, so it's really not a choice.

Personally, I plan to pay it off in large chunks. I'd go insane if I thought I had 30+ years of debt for school! A hard balance, though, as many of us have low interest loans, so theoretically it'd be wiser to invest it and make a few points on the money.

Sorry, I know this has nothing to do with anything and is inappropriate, but I can't help but think that our hundreds of billions going to Iraq could have taken care of generations of bills and debt.


Maybe we could all sue the gov.'t, or at least sue Sallie Mae.

i wonder if the brainiacs who decided that everyone needed a masters degree to be an architect ever considered the huge debt loads that so many grads have taken on...didja huh didja???

I consolidated with the government. So again, fuck the federal government.

Careful, Cuervo. They have three copies of that statement. They probably already put microphones in your frozen corn.

vado, it's how the weed out the poor kids from the rich kids. Architecture is for rich kids only. And when the poor kids get a degree and go bankrupt, the rich kids say "see!"

hustle man.....

only reason i'm attempting to get my masters is so i can teach college level as a side shin dig job.........my company first/teaching on the side......

but it's hard to weigh the masters/under grad programs to what you get out of it........

just because you go to some big name school doesnt mean that the cash flow will be there after you graduate...... so you have to scale it out....... money spent now<money received later.......


i would recommend paying off in larger chunks if you can also..... the more you let the loan sit there, the more you end up paying..... sure people say let you money sit in the bank and pay monthly and grow the interest...but who really lets money "sit" in the bank?..... i'm sure people have a side stash if possible but as consumers, we tend to buy things that we really dont need so that saved money that could have gone to paying off the loan is now some 20" rims on your capric......

2:37am

the government charges you fees/late charges for past taxes...but do they pay you extra when they take out tooo much and give you a return?....nope.....