I am consolidating my students loans (college and graduate school) and was wondering who the best interest rates are with. Someone suggested Sallie Mae at 3% (On their website it says 4% now.)

For those of you following my other post, I put both sets of school loans (which were two seperate consolidations) in forebearance, and then based on comments on my current interest rates, (which are 8.1%) I am seeking a final consolidation.

Then I plan to apply to put the loan into forebearance, and pay off my 3 credit cards ($5000) which are at astronomical rates.

By the way, you won't BELIEVE how much in college/grad school student loans I have total: I was an idiot and accepted the total amount every semester because I lived on campus and was broke....$95,000

Consolidation loan interest rates are based on a weighed average of your current loans, rounded up to the nearest 1/8%. So if you have current 8% loans, that is what your base interest rate will be. What you want to look at is lenders who offer back end perks such as interest rate reductions for on-time payments and auto pays.

Thanks for the info! (I really thought I had something there so that just took the wind out of my sails but I'm glad I know.) The Sallie Mae website says from 4-6.5% I think so maybe they wouldn't even offer me a loan.

Oh Sallie Mae will take you....they wont turn down any application, particularly if it is a 8% loan!

Federal Consolidations do not require a credit check, so you really can't be turned down.

My suggestion is Total Higher Education. Their site is www.northstar.org. They seem to have the best consolidation benefits I have seen. I also like Wachovia, who my consolidation is with.


Remember, you are looking for BENEFITS, since interest will be the same no matter who you use.

From their website all that THE offers is .75% reduction for automatic payments, uheaa offers 1.25% initially and then another 1% reduction after 48 payments. note that ANY incentives are lost if you go into forebearance.

UHEAA is the best student loan consolidation company by a long shot!

I am not knlowleadgeble on this: but can you please post whay they are the best?

UHEAA has been great to me. They are a small office so are easy to deal with. They are subsidized by the state of UTAH so are not looking to screw you every chance they get.

Plus 1.25% interest rate deduction if you set up autopay deduction from your account.

Another 1% (maybe more) after 48 on time payments.

I consolidated last year and very thoroughly researched the topic with my accountant creating payback formulas for over 10 consolidaters. UHEAA was the cheapest.

Keep in mind you cant consolidate with them if you have only 1 lender.

With some other lenders can you consolidate even if you only have one Gov loan?

If you do the 2-step (consolidate with Direct Loans first then consolidate with a UHEAA) you can get around this.

Spoke with UHEAA today, my wife graduates in May, we need to submit consolidation after that but BEFORE July 1, UHEAA will hold onto the paperwork until the loans are finished with their grace period (6 months), but LOCK IN the pre-July 1 consolidation rate.

On her two federal loans she will have a 3.5% interest rate which will be reduced immediately to 2.25%.

Under their "Select 5" plan after a lump sum of $9192 is paid (48 months of payments) the interest rate will drop another 1% leaving approximately

$44K at 1.25% for 28 years!!!

So we will make minimum payments on this and concentrate on her $28K at 9% private student loan through Citi

whodean, do you WORK for UHEAA?? This sales pitch or whatever it is you want to call it needs to stop. It's all you post about on this forum; everyone is WELL AWARE of your feelings on UHEAA. Please do NOT continue to interject your feelings about this organization into every thread on SL about consolidation.

creditboards.com does not endorse any particular lender.

Thanks.

I got 2.875% with Citibank, but that was last summer. That is without the reductions for autopay ( I just do one-time online payments at this time) or making so many consecutive payments,etc. I think you can get upto 1-1.5% in additional reductions. I dont really know what my original loans were, but they were from '97-04; so I got the 8%, the lowest, and everything between. I chose citibank because that's who had all but one of my original loans, so it just seemed easier.

The initial interest rate on a Stafford (gov't backed) consolidation loan is based on the weighted average of your existing loans. This doesn't change regardless of who the lender is, its the same with any. When shopping for a consolidation always consider the "incentive" the lender offers, in Citi's case (http://studentloan.citibank.com/slcsite/fr_r_con.htm) it is auto .25% for automatic direct debit of monthly payments and then when you make your first 36 consecutive monthly payments on time you will automatically receive a 1.0% interest rate reduction. Not a bad deal but you can do better.

Consider folks that just a 1% interest rate reduction could save you $500 a year, over the life of the loan (30 years?) this really adds up.

And no, Student Loan Forum Lead, I don't work for a lender, I'm just trying to help people save money and warn them this consolidation thing will only be around until July 1, which is part of what CB is all about.

I have a name. Feel free to call me TxQuiltGirl or Tx or even Quilty.

We do not and will not advocate the use of one lender over another. You have made your feelings about UHEAA QUITE clear and anyone who uses the search function will turn up your feelings in the future. Should you wish to continue to make this an issue, I will be compelled to issue a warning.

If you have any problems at all regarding any of this, I invite you to contact the admin.

Quilty

There is no need to contact admin. I am senior mod and I am also the person that was instrumental in starting the Student Loan Forum. Whodean there will be no touting or shilling of a specific consolidator. You can either abide by our rules or you can decide that you will prefer to go to another board since your posting priveleges will be terminated. This is not subject to either discussion or negotiation. One more post where you mention UHEAA will result in an official warning. It will also result in you being put on preview. You are an adult and have to make the decision as to what you are going to do. Just understand that the consequences of your decision is also your responsibility.


fla-tan
Forum Moderator

Well I know that ... I was just being conversational. And NICE.

Point Made, Point taken. Advice isn't welcome in this forum.

I'm gone.

OK, I WAS gone but I've come back (probably unwanted) to let people know you have a deadline to consolidate.

IF you have your stafford loans through Direct Loans you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO CONSOLIDATE AFTER MARCH 31.

See http://www.lawschoolloans.com/dept_education.php

You were asked to stop touting a particular company; no one said you were unwelcome.

There is NO deadline to consolidate. I called the DOE and they said this is NOT TRUE. The only change is the one after July 1, 2006, that says there will no longer be the option to consolidate while in school. I don't know where this information came from, but as the woman at the DOE told me, they would NEVER give people less than two weeks' notice on something like this.

There should be no reason to rush to consolidation at this point.

OK, I could have been more specific...you WILL NOT be able to consolidate with any other company that Direct Loans themselves after March 31 IF you ONLY have Direct for your loans, they will no longer release to other consolidators (who give better incentives)

whodean

Once again, you are spouting information that does not come from the government, but from a private company whose sole purpose with the information is to make money. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with making money (I am a died in the wool capitalist), doing so with misinformation and half-truths is not accepted on the board. Direct Loans is not going to start refusing to release beginning April 1, 2006. The only change that is occurring then is that reconsolidations through Direct Loans will not longer be accepted. Direct may well also stop releasing loans that are already consolidated with them, but they have made that statement before and then that has changed and allowed Direct consolidations to be reconsolidated.

If your only purpose on this board is to cry wolf, go someplace else. I would strongly suggest that you start getting your facts straight in the future.


fla-tan

Fla-please clarify: this one consolidator company out of many, Direct Loans-says that after 3/31/06 they are not going to accept a new account if it is coming from an other private consolidator?

But other do allow you to change.

After thinking about this: probably one reason they start offering addition incentives after a year or 3 years so you do not swith your account to a competitor?????????????

So if I consolidate my loans and start school, I will lose any reduction incentives? Will they return once payments begin?

If you're considering UHEAA, you have to be a resident of that state, or you have to have attended school there to be eligible.

I would strongly recommend that you check with the different consolidation company of verification of losing their benefits. Or how you lose those benefits. These Benefits vary from company to company. What may be true of Sallie Mae, is probably not true at UHEAA for example.

I know at the company I work for, if you lose the benefits due to late payments, you have lost it forever.

Remember single lender rule for the private companies offering Fed loan consolidation. So if u have all your loans held by private X company. You are forced to choose direct or X company for consildation. get a stafford loan loaned by private Y company so you choose any fed loan company in existence.