jcohen73 said: The National Student Loan Database System (NSLDS) is a must when verifying that ALL student loans will be consolidated with one company, prior to the July 1 interest rate hike/deadline.

stungbybee said:Has anyone found a better deal than UHEAA's .5% and 1% reduction after 36 months? I've only got about 15k in loans so I don't think any of the principal balance reductions are worth it.
Did you read anything in this thread, especially in the QS?

UHEAA is far from the best (and now only deal with Utah people), ELC is the new champ.

Compared to most I'm in pretty good shape.

$4700 in Stafford (direct lender)
Grad June 06
Deferment to 1/07

No conncetion to Iowa, Utah or Texas.

Any suggestions?

That's how it's looking to me also, but wondering if anyone has a better idea.

Thank you

In terms of positive reputation, anyone know of the difference between scholarpoint and nelnet?

went with elc this morning. sure hope they're legit!

alexshih said:I went with graduateleverage.com. Started by a bunch of Harvard B-school folks. I liked the fact that they were able to match the interest rate I consolidate at last year. So instead of the higher interest rate, I'm getting 2.25% for ALL my loans (1st and 2nd year of grad school) for 25 years!

Alex

How is that different from what all the consolidators do?

flight23 said:My wife has about 80k in Federal Stafford Loans for Dental School, and she graduates in a month. We consolidated at the end of her third year (lets say 79k of loans) at 2.85%. Her fourth year we took out an additional 1k loan at 4.7% (currently variable since it hasnt been consolidated) in order to leave open the option to consolidate again this year with another lender. (In school consolidation could ONLY be done with Federal Direct Loans, so thats why we did that)

Now, my question is, if we consolidate with ELC and they have the .5% immediate reduction and 1% reduction after 24 months, will our rate be effectively 2.85% - 1.5% = 1.35%? (Plus the marginal increase due to the weighted average of the 4.7% 1k loan)

Disclaimer: I'm not recommending this lender, but wanted to shout out another potentially available option for some borrowers.

I received a mailing from StudentLoanXpress with a "pre-qualified" offer for student loan consolidation. The big difference is that they're offering a 1% rebate for balances > $20k, 2% if > $40k, and 3% if > 60k. Can't say if the other terms and considitions are any better or worse, so look into those yourself. What may be of interest to you is if you qualify for the 3% rebate, it's supposedly upfront!

This is a bird in the hand versus two in the bush. Should you carry out some of the 1 or 2% decrease in interest rate over 10 or 30 years, then you'll find greater savings. But if you're planning to aggressively pay off the loan in a few years, the upfront rebate can be worth more. Also applies if you're able to refinance your loan in a few years, although probably not likely thru the federal programs, but if you keep a loan off the consolidation, you may be able to reconsolidate with another lender that does offer the interest rate decrease at a later time. This isn't for everyone, but some might find it useful, and everyone should ask their lenders if they offer any upfront rebates.

This can be similar to the points versus interest rate on the morgages, where you can buy down the interest rate, or in this case get cash rebate to buy up the rate (not go down in 36 or 48 months). You'll have to do the break even point calculation yourselves (not easy), but in simple terms, 3% rebate today should be worth more than 1% interest reduction in 36 months at the 6 year mark (assuming same monthly payments), so a 7 year break even seems about right. Any quicker or additional payoff on principal makes it even better.

Hi,

I am new to fatwallet and have found this thread to be very useful. I have a few questions for the student loan consolidation experts out there. My overall student loans are $34K, and my best 2 choices are ELC or CollegeInvest. CollegeInvest offers .25 auto-payment reduction, and 1% reduction after 24 months, plus an immediate 1% payment applied to interest upon consolidation. I am not an accounting/finance person so I cannot figure out which is better with a 20 year standard repayment plan. Any ideas?

Also I have heard conflicting stories regarding when to consolidate. My grace is up May 23rd, and ELC is telling me I missed the boat for in grace rate consolidation because they use the date they fund your loan as the date that determines your interest (60-90 days from application date). Other companies like CollegeInvest and Nelnet tell me that they will use the date they receive the signed application, even though it will take them the 60-90 days to consolidate. When asked ELC why they don't use the application date, they said it's federal law and other lenders are BSing - so can anyone say how this really works?

Thanks for all your ideas,

Alex