Anyone know the best lender if you're not going to be in repayment for ~10 years (4 years school + ~6 years training)?

I hate to be paying/accruing the full 6.8% interest on the unsub staffords till most of the interest rate reductions lenders offer start @ repayment (for me that would be after ~10 years!).

Joboho said:Since I made 50k+ last year, and since FAFSA requires that you report 2006 income, I do not know if I will qualify for any stafford subs/unsubs loans.

I think you might be surprised. The school isn't going to expect you to pull down that kind of money while you're in classes, so unless you have that $50k+ sitting in the bank, I think it's very unlikely you won't qualify for the Staffords. Beyond that, GradPLUS loans may or may not be better than those Citi loans. It depends how many years of school you have ahead of you, how much you care about a grace period, what NYU-specific terms are offered, if any, etc. Look carefully at all the options and fine print.

Joboho said:.... After looking around at a number of threads/websites I have found that the best rates to be are 7.1% (Citi health professional loan).

A second alternative to this is to borrow money from the folks. They can take money out against the house at 5.8 %. However, i doubt there are any deductions once payment begins like I see in all the other types of loans.

Which option do you think I should take?

Parents. Let's assume that your parents are currently itemizing, and our in the 25% tax bracket. Then the net cost of this loan to them is 4.35% (0.058 * (1 - 25%)). If you offer to pay them 5% a year, they'll make money ($533 the first year) on the spread. [calculated by $82,000 * (5% - 4.35%)].

If you take the loan, the first year's interest rate will be 7.1%, since you won't have an income that can utilize the tax credits.

Joboho said:Does anyone know when repayment of a private loan in my name can begin? i.e. Can I make payments while still in school and reap the benefits of having a lower interest rate. (since alot of companies lower the rate by a few percent upon repayment)

Some places may let you do this, but I can say that EFSI/Brazos does not. Even though their website says you get a 1.75% benefit for auto-debit on GradPLUS loans, they won't actually start that until your real repayment starts. I'm thinking of suing them over that. I have to calculate how much I could claim to see whether it's worth my time.

wiggit07 said:wiggit07 said:JeebusSaves said:wiggit07 said:Here is my situation:

Graduated in June from graduate school and have federal loans of about $36,000 that have been consolidated with citibank.

I also took out a private loan (doh!) of another $38,000 with access group with a current rate of about 9.09% and its been accruing interest since i am still in my grace period. What can i possibly do with this private loan? to get a better fixed rate?

should i take out a equity loan from a known financial institution? I do not have any assests. My fico score should be up in the 720's since i have payed 80% of my credit card debt obtained from going to school?

any suggestion are appreciated.....

The short answer is that you're stuck with that loan. The long answer is that there are some places that do "private loan consolidation," but the rates are nowhere near as attractive as the federal loans. They often come with hefty origination fees. You can see a comparison chart here. It's possible you could get a rate that's a little better than your 9%, but probably not once you factor in fees. You could always try asking your bank or especially a credit union if they'll do something like this.

Another alternative is to use 0% balance transfer deals to pay off the loans a bit at a time, but this is very risky unless you anticipate earning big $ in the near future. Here's how it works. You get a credit card with a 0% BT offer. You transfer the "balance" from your student loan to the credit card. Let's say, best case scenario, you get a year at 0% with no BT fee with a $15k credit line. You transfer about $8k to the credit card, and make only the minimum payments for a year. You've saved a bunch on interest. But at the end of that year, you really have to either a) have enough money saved to pay off that CC balance or b) be able to take out another 0% or lower-interest BT at the end of that year. Depending on what your earning power and credit history are like, that may or may not be likely. If this doesn't work for you, you could also look for low % for life BTs (I think I saw PenFed giving something like 5% for the life of the balance), which is less risky because you could keep paying down the balance slowly. This strategy is still risky, though, since CC debt looks a lot worse on your credit report than student loan debt, and you can't take out another student loan to pay off the CC. Any BT strategy is extremely risky if you're not confident in your ability to make payments on time - because if you miss one, you're boned.

what about a home equity loan like the site you linked mentions? or is there no possibilities of me getting a good rate or an actual loan with no assets?


I called citibank and they are now consoladating private student loans. They said they would give me a fix rate of 9% that would lower by .25 with ezpay and .50 after my first 48 timely payments. They will also allow me to extend my payment to 30 years as oppossed to 20 years.


Basically here are my options:


2) Keep my private loan for a couple of months with access group at variable rate of 9.09%, 20 year term and a monthly payment of $725, finish paying all of my credit card debt, and then hope that interest rates will start dropping? (at some point? within the next couple of months? is that even a reality?) and then i can lock in a better rate with citbank or another competitor.

3) Lock an interest rate with citibank now to 9% and extend my terms to 30 years which would then lower my monthly payment allowing me to finish paying off my debt easier and save to pay towards the principle, and make other investements. My concern with this approach is that interest rates will start to decrease in the near future and i will be stuck with a ridiculously high interest rate.


I know that this was an older post, but here is a newer post on private loan consolidation:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?catid=52&threadid=712258

Feel free to view for tips, or just visit and offer advice/suggestions.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, since I'm probably going to go with private loan consolidation soon (lower variable rate with no fees). Thanks...