Hi all,

I have exercised (I believe) my due diligence in trying to find the answers to my questions before posting. I'm a newbie here, so please be gentle.

Anyways, I currently have a 612 FICO score, and I have just recently graduated from Law School. I'm currently studying for the bar exam (next week, please pray for me). Sadly, I can't concentrate, because I am penniless, and I have no co-signer. I was told that one of the reasons that my credit score was so low, was b/c my sole CC had a utilization rate of like 90%. So I took what money I had and paid off the balance to that card. According to EQ's website that should jump my score up anywhere from 40-80 points w/in about 30 days or so.

By way of background, I got kind of hemmed up in the SL crunch this last year trying to get a PLUS Loan. I had an account that went to Collection that prevented me from getting the PLUS Loan 1st semester from Sallie Mae. By the time that was resolved (settled) and off of my report, Sallie Mae changed their policy, and would not aprove me for the PLUS Loan at all. I ended up having to shop around to probably a half dozen or so lenders trying to get approved for the PLUS Loan. So, I have about 8 inq's on my CR as well. Everything (about 5 different utls, some old some not so old) are all showing paid.

My question is this: does anyone know the scores that Sallie Mae, Citi, Key Bank, or Northstar use as their criteria for granting private SL's? I'm hoping that my credit will (on the low end) go up to at least 640 when the CC reports to the Bureaus. Before anyone interjects, I've exhausted my federal loans, and at this point I would only be eligble for a bar exam loan. If anyone has any information abotu Access Group (their site says they're no longer accepting private loan app's). I don't have a co-signer and I'm at this point Desparate for any information/advice that anyone can give to me, short of "get a job," or "I recommend using fed loans," etc.

Simply stated, does anyone know what scores that SM, Northstar, Key Bank, Access, My Rich Uncle or Citi require for private student loans? So far as I can tell, those are the only lenders who offer bar study loans (and Access doesn't appear to be accepting apps).

This forum is awesome, and you guys are awesome. I'm well on my way to recovery, if I can get over this one little hump. PS - I don't have a job lined up yet, I have a few interviews next month after the bar is over, but nothing concrete presently.

Rekksy

Have you gotten your credit scores and credit reports from all three bureaus? It's possible your scores on one or two reports will be much higher (or much lower) than the others. You should start there, then target lenders that pull from the bureau that you've got the best record on. You say you have 8 inquiries, but I highly doubt all 8 would be shown on all 3 reports. Maybe it turns out you have a score of 680 on one. Conversely, you don't want to be surprised by founding out your score is 579 on another report.

There's a link in the Credit forum with a discount code you can use to buy your scores/reports from MyFico.

In regards to the loan requirements, I recommend calling each lender to find out what their guidelines are. If they can't give you a score range, they will at least tell you of any income requirements, or other factors that might make a difference such as the field you plan to go into, etc.

I hope that helps. Good luck!