ok let's get back to student loan questions.
I am in a bit of a touchy situation. I am working full time with a decent income, going to start my MBA at Stern this fall, going part time. I have a bit of money saved but I do want to get a student loan. One of the reason being that I am also looking to purchase an apartment, and I would need pretty much all my saved money, and equity in my current apartment for down payment.

My question is how would one affect the other? obviously having a student loan is going to affect my mortgage limit. But would they consider me purchasing an apartment as not needing a student loan? I mean I have no intention to use student loan to pay for the apartment in any way.

JeebusSaves said:mister2cool said:ok let's get back to student loan questions.
I am in a bit of a touchy situation. I am working full time with a decent income, going to start my MBA at Stern this fall, going part time. I have a bit of money saved but I do want to get a student loan. One of the reason being that I am also looking to purchase an apartment, and I would need pretty much all my saved money, and equity in my current apartment for down payment.

My question is how would one affect the other? obviously having a student loan is going to affect my mortgage limit. But would they consider me purchasing an apartment as not needing a student loan? I mean I have no intention to use student loan to pay for the apartment in any way.

I believe that you can borrow Staffords up to $18,500 (subsidized and unsubsidized), and then GradPLUS or private loans up to whatever the financial aid office says the student budget is. If that's true, the amount of savings you have is completely irrelevant. The school may care as far as deciding whether or not to give you grants (unlikely if you're pulling down a full-time salary), but they really don't care very much how many loans you take out. They don't have a financial stake in it.

Stafford and GradPLUS loans are not "need based" like undergraduate loans. What I mean by that is that at teh Graduate level, the estimated family contribution does not come into play.

As JeebusSaves already stated, your Financial Aid office sets your "budget" based on your status as a FT/PT student and On/Off campus resident. You may borrow up to that figure; which is what it means for the school to certify the loan.

When applying for these various GradPLUS loans, how long does it take between the application and getting approved/getting the money?

cashneedie said:Hey guys, I have this situation and I am not sure how to go about it.

Earlier, I contacted GraduateLeverage to consolidate my student loans from undergrad and grad and I was told that I couldn't due to one single lender rule. So I went ahead and applied for consolidation with my current lender.

While I thought my consolidation with my current lender was in progress, GraduateLeverage contacted me again but this time they said they can go ahead and consolidate my loans with them. So I did, to get better rates them. After that I tried to contract my original lender but I was told that my consolidation with them is completed and I can no longer cancel my consolidation.

Now from my understanding my current lender's consolidation is complete and my consolidation with GraduateLeverage is in pending. I really want to go with GraduateLeverage because the difference in interest is about 1.5%, but on $30,000 loan with 20 years that 1.5% really adds up and I also getting additional 1% from GraduateLeverage after 36 payments. So the interest difference is really more or less 2%.

My questions to you guys is
1. Is there anyway I can cancel/void my consolidation with my current lender?
2. What will happen to my GraduateLeverage consolidation application? Will it go through? Can they still take over my loans from current lender?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Cashneedie

GL will consolidate your loans, but you'll probably have to re-apply and you may have to add a new non-consolidation loan under the new rules. Furthermore, they won't give you last year's rate, so the difference is likely to be much smaller. That's based on what they told me when I had the same situation - I consolidated with Direct but then asked GL what they'd offer me. The answer was 'not much' - the same as Citibank, Sallie Mae, or any of the other 1% after 36 months/0.25% autodebit incentives.

I was about to go with National City but then called. It appears this is correct, 6.8% for the life of the loan with 3% origination fee. However the catch is that if you consolidate, the rate goes back to 8.5%, and you still don't get a refund on the 3%.

So looks like Wachovia is probably a better bet if you want to consolidate.

isles1 said:
I agree. In my case I made a decision to go with Wachovia already, meaning the application was submitted and approved, and certified by my school.

No one has reported getting any promise in writing from National City stating that the loan would not be sold and possibly effect the advertised low rate of 6.8%. Without that paper in hand, I would not have gone with that lender anyway.

Those who have opted for National City, or any lender for that matter, please post your experiences.

ninersfan said:I was about to go with National City but then called. It appears this is correct, 6.8% for the life of the loan with 3% origination fee. However the catch is that if you consolidate, the rate goes back to 8.5%, and you still don't get a refund on the 3%.

So looks like Wachovia is probably a better bet if you want to consolidate.

isles1 said:
I agree. In my case I made a decision to go with Wachovia already, meaning the application was submitted and approved, and certified by my school.

No one has reported getting any promise in writing from National City stating that the loan would not be sold and possibly effect the advertised low rate of 6.8%. Without that paper in hand, I would not have gone with that lender anyway.

Those who have opted for National City, or any lender for that matter, please post your experiences.

But what do you gain by consolidating a PLUS loan?

isles1 said:JeebusSaves said:ninersfan said:I was about to go with National City but then called. It appears this is correct, 6.8% for the life of the loan with 3% origination fee. However the catch is that if you consolidate, the rate goes back to 8.5%, and you still don't get a refund on the 3%.

So looks like Wachovia is probably a better bet if you want to consolidate.

isles1 said:
I agree. In my case I made a decision to go with Wachovia already, meaning the application was submitted and approved, and certified by my school.

No one has reported getting any promise in writing from National City stating that the loan would not be sold and possibly effect the advertised low rate of 6.8%. Without that paper in hand, I would not have gone with that lender anyway.

Those who have opted for National City, or any lender for that matter, please post your experiences.

But what do you gain by consolidating a PLUS loan?

Weighted average of other lower interest loans you are also consolidating(read: Stafford) used to determine the consolidation rate.

I see. I thought you couldn't consolidate PLUS loans with other loans, but I guess you can with GradPLUS, since they're taken out by the student him/herself. But does anyone let you take your benefits with you when you consolidate? I thought that would void any repayment benefits on the original loan.

I've been kinda getting lost with all these loans. I thought the GradPLUS loan was a good option for me, but my school is actually offering what seems to be a pretty decent alternative. It's a private loan through Bank of America:

Loan terms

Variable Interest Rate: The LIBOR Index** + a margin of 2.60%
Origination Fee: 0%
Interest Rate as of 3rd Quarter 2006: 7.59%

So assuming the intrest rates will drop in the future, I could possible consolidate at a low interest rate and get a fixed rate. With Wachovia GradPLUS loan, the best interest rate would be about 7.9%

Anyone have any good input on my situation. I'll be borrowing quite a bit, so I'll be paying off this debt for a long time (probably maximum timed allowed).

ninersfan said:I've been kinda getting lost with all these loans. I thought the GradPLUS loan was a good option for me, but my school is actually offering what seems to be a pretty decent alternative. It's a private loan through Bank of America:

Loan terms

Variable Interest Rate: The LIBOR Index** + a margin of 2.60%
Origination Fee: 0%
Interest Rate as of 3rd Quarter 2006: 7.59%

So assuming the intrest rates will drop in the future, I could possible consolidate at a low interest rate and get a fixed rate. With Wachovia GradPLUS loan, the best interest rate would be about 7.9%

Anyone have any good input on my situation. I'll be borrowing quite a bit, so I'll be paying off this debt for a long time (probably maximum timed allowed).

It's also worth pointing out that you CANNOT consolidate the private loans through your school with Stafford or other Federal loans. While there are "private loan consolidation" services, they only save you money if you have a loan with a bad interest rate to begin with. If you have something decent, private consolidation is useless.

So if you want to gamble on interest rates, go ahead. That's an entirely reasonable thing to do if you think rates are going down. I'm risk-averse, so I'm not going to do it.

S2Kasey said:Since the SLR no longer applies and there is no in-school consolidation any longer, it does not seem as though there are benefits to having loans with 2 different lenders. Am I correct on this?

There's no benefit per se to having loans with 2 different lenders. But other lenders might have better incentives, and in particular Sallie Mae is out to get you where other lenders are both more forgiving and more competent.