fishflake said:The big questions in any of these incentive deals are 1) are the benefits guaranteed for the life of the loan, and 2) does the lender sell its loans. You may get a great set of incentives at first, but once the lender sells your loan, there's no guarantee that the new loan holder will continue to honor the interest rate reductions.

JeebusSaves said:Anyone have any experience with National City or EFSI? EFSI has the best deal if you auto-debit and pay on time, but National City appears to be really safe because you can't lose the benefits (?).

Okay. Anyone have this info on EFSI or National City?

You might want to check out Access Group as well.. their benefits can vary by school, but when I spoke to them the rep said that they dont sell their loans and offer their incentives in the form of a real rate reduction (as opposed to back-end loaded).


isles1 said:orick said:isles1 said:orick said:isles1 said:I am deciding between PNC and Wachovia, as I am unconcerned with incentives that do NOT decrease my interest rate or give me credits while in-school since I will consolidate within 6 months of graduation.

This makes the National City 6.8% fixed rate look pretty darn good.

I do not believe this rate has been confirmed. Likely an error since GRADPlus req. % is 8.5 to start. Might be a mixup between Stafford and PLUS on their site.

Good if it is correct, however.

That was my thought at first, but this morning I called (800) 622-5097 and spoke to a real person. Confirmed. There is a 3% origination fee (no rebate like Wachovia does). http://www.nasfaa.org/publications/2006/cnnationalcity040306.html
I have decided to go with Wachovia. National City fixed rate seems too good to be true. In my experience, that usually means it is (e.g. they will sell the loan and anything goes).

Perhaps I have made a mistake, but I am going with my gut on this one.

Anyway, considering Wachovia's incentives, National City does not become the better "deal" until the 2.5 or 3 year mark (3% rebate vs. a rate that is 1.1% lower). Math is a bit fuzzy there, but you get the idea. I hope at that point there are some decent consolidation deals out there.

There's quite a bit of info on them on the web... bunch of Harvard MBAs... used them for my Stafford loan consolidation (still pending).
Very knowledgeable folks, but probably have their hands full right now trying to process all those consolidations.


Graphix said:I have been researching and came across an organization called Graduate Leverage - http://www.graduateleverage.com/index.aspx

Their web site contains some useful information concerning questions to ask lenders, but more impressive is their personalized loan assessment.

Any experience with or opinions as to the legitimacy of this web site/organization?

In the long run, having a lower interest rate outbenefits the 3% refund, especially if you plan to pay the loan off over a long period of time


isles1 said:orick said:isles1 said:orick said:isles1 said:I am deciding between PNC and Wachovia, as I am unconcerned with incentives that do NOT decrease my interest rate or give me credits while in-school since I will consolidate within 6 months of graduation.

This makes the National City 6.8% fixed rate look pretty darn good.

I do not believe this rate has been confirmed. Likely an error since GRADPlus req. % is 8.5 to start. Might be a mixup between Stafford and PLUS on their site.

Good if it is correct, however.

That was my thought at first, but this morning I called (800) 622-5097 and spoke to a real person. Confirmed. There is a 3% origination fee (no rebate like Wachovia does). http://www.nasfaa.org/publications/2006/cnnationalcity040306.html
I have decided to go with Wachovia. National City fixed rate seems too good to be true. In my experience, that usually means it is (e.g. they will sell the loan and anything goes).

Perhaps I have made a mistake, but I am going with my gut on this one.

Anyway, considering Wachovia's incentives, National City does not become the better "deal" until the 2.5 or 3 year mark (3% rebate vs. a rate that is 1.1% lower). Math is a bit fuzzy there, but you get the idea. I hope at that point there are some decent consolidation deals out there.

For those of use just using Stafford and Perkins Loans to pay for Grad School for this coming year and next year, any advice on what to do with our money that we take out to minimize the interest that it gathers.

For example, last year was my first year in med school. When I got word that Stafford Loans were increasing, i immediately maxxed out the amount of Unsub Stafford Loans that I could take out at last years rate (about 4.75%). I then consolidated all of the money I took out before July 1st (last year was the last year for in school consolidation).

With all the surplus money from last year that I didnt need at 4.75%, I stuck it in the HSBC online savings to basically offset the interest (its earning over 5% now, so its earning more than the interest now).

Basically, my plan was to just deduct the amount I took out last year from this year when calculating how much Stafford to take out so I can minimize the amount at 6.8% that I take out.

But besides that, any more tips? Should I just keep all of this money in the HSBC account and just right checks from the checking acct (its easy to move money in and out of the online savings to checking) while making 5.05% (and rising) on the money.

Or should I do something else?

(Editted since my grammar/spelling suck)

People pay for graduate school? If your grades weren't good enough in undergraduate school to get you a free ride in graduate school, you probably aren't cut out for it in the first place. Of course, thier may be exceptions such as law and medical school.

VirginiaBob said:People pay for graduate school? If your grades weren't good enough in undergraduate school to get you a free ride in graduate school, you probably aren't cut out for it in the first place. Of course, thier may be exceptions such as law and medical school.


I dont know what planet you are from, but med School is NEVER free unless you are doing the MD/PhD program and giving the school 8-9 years of your life. For those of us in an MD program, its a lot of money. I consider myself lucky that the school I am at gave me 22K a year in scholarship. Even with that, Im going to have to really spend and invest wisely to come out of these four years under 6 figures in debt.

MiaFLSurf said:I just don't see the benefit of using a Checking Acct like that when HSBC Online Savings gives me a higher rate at 5.05% (and going up) and it being very easy for me to have all my loan money stashed in there and moving tiny bits of it (when needed) to a checking account (Credit Union Acct from home that has amazing perks) that I can use for all types of BillPay and Check Writing for free.

Am I doing something wrong that I am just too oblivious to? I feel like this way Im maximizing the 5.05%+ interest that I can get on that money while still having the iltimate flexibility to take it out and use it little by little if needed.

I don't think you're doing anything wrong - it makes sense since you might need the flexibility. You can get a somewhat higher return using investments that tie up your money, like CDs, but it may or may not be worth the trouble for you. I think Citibank may have a 6-month 6% CD in Florida (I know they do in Texas). You might consider putting some portion of your money in a short-term CD and keeping some of it in HSBC/Citibank/whatever the rate leader is. Or you could do an App-o-Rama and put BT money in all of these investments.

All I can say about that is that 4 of 5 people that I know that have went to graduate school, including myself, have recieved full assistantships/stipends where not only is the tuition free, but money is provided for living expenses.

JeebusSaves said:I think it really depends what school you're at and what discipline you're in. I don't think it necessarily depends on your performance as a student, at least in some fields.

You hit the nail on the head there. Funding for graduate school is HIGHLY contingent on the individual department/discipline. For example, I just graduated with a Ph.D. in engineering and received full tuition plus stipend for my entire tenure. Other departments within the same university don't offer full assistance to many/most of their students. Other disciplines also received far less in terms of a stipend than many departments in engineering. This is mainly due to the research $ being brought in by the departments in the sciences and engineering. As many humanities/arts departments don't have this source of $, they can't typically offer comparable funding to their students...