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Carlton Banks posted:Neither. Think of EFC as a tool to figure out who is in the greatest need of grants or other need-based awards. Someone with an EFC closer to 0 will get more in grants/subsidized loans than someone with a high EFC. A 2500 EFC is on the low end, so you might get lucky and get some need-based awards. Don't sweat it. My EFC is 0 (because both of my parents died before I turned 18), and they STILL don't give me enough money to be able to make ends meet. If they don't approve me for more Federal loan money this month, I might have to learn how to dance on a pole. 
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Jul 12, 2008 06:54
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Sorry I've been so quiet, I've been ill. Will answer when able to. THANK YOU to the people helping in my absence!!!
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Jul 15, 2008 04:23
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Okay so I finally got my financial aid package, I received. $3981 pell grant $4500 Stafford subsidized loan $2000 unsubsidized loan If I take all of that I will have enough until the second semester where I would need to borrow ~$1500(for rent) I am wondering if I should take the $2000 unsubsidized loan from the government or look for $3500 which would be in $1500 increments over the two semesters.
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Jul 15, 2008 19:06
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mmmjstone, that's for one year at a time. It sounds like you should be more than covered, huzzah! Congrats  Akaikami, since we chatted, just let me know if you need anything else! very sparkly, welcome to Tennessee Where in Texas? I lived in San Antonio and then Austin. The cities were nice but I admit I hated that drat state...Anyway, I'm really not sure what to tell you. Your options, loan-wise, are: 1. Staffords (through the FAFSA), 2. PLUS loans (taken out in a parent's name on your behalf, another type of federal loan), and then 3. private loans. If you can't use any of those three options, there's not another loan option available unless you want to try and take out a personal loan through a bank, which would have NO benefits associated with education-related loans (like a deferment while you're in school) and is still credit-based - hence no guarantee you could even get it. Nerve, I'm really sorry for the delay. Forgive me  If you want to build credit in your own name(s) the loans have to be in your name(s). While your grandparent's plan sounds like a good one (lower interest rate plus the benefit of family members who will likely be WAY nicer than a lender to you), it won't have anything to do with your credit and so wouldn't help you with that goal. Honestly, though, in your position, if they're willing to do that and financially you guys can afford it, go for it. You can take out a credit card to build up your credit; with student loans, to me, your primary goal should be saving money and nothing else. A 5% rate will save you oodles over the life of the loan, plus your grandparents are your grandparents! Carlton Banks pretty much covered anything I could say, but I figured I'd drop in my two cents on that one. THANK YOU CB!!! The Ginger Ninja, I wish I could do more. The only other thing I could think is to hit up friends or anything else to see if they'd be willing to co-sign a loan with you. Your co-signer can be anyone, anyone at all. On that note, situations like yours have made me wonder if it would be possible to create a company that acts as a co-signer for kids in your type of position. I have no idea if that's something that's even remotely possible, but there's clearly a need for something like that to exist. Anyone have any ideas? DholmbladRU, take absolutely everything you can in Staffords before touching any other kind of loan. Yes, take that 2000.00 and then get the remaining 1500 in private loans. Private loans are to be considered a last option! Never take a private loan over a federal loan unless the interest rate is fixed lower than the federal!!!
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Jul 15, 2008 21:49
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Thanks she wasn't comfortable accepting help at first but we're going to go through our grandparents. Just wanted to hear it wasn't a bad idea.
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Jul 15, 2008 22:20
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Wiggy Marie posted:Private loans are to be considered a last option! Never take a private loan over a federal loan unless the interest rate is fixed lower than the federal!!! But federal loans only cover 5000$, while annual costs run up to 25000$.
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Jul 15, 2008 22:38
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Catenoid posted:But federal loans only cover 5000$, while annual costs run up to 25000$. for dependent students - independent students can borrow up to 10500.
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Jul 16, 2008 00:31
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Yippee, I got the full amount of Subsidized Stafford, plus Unsubsidized to the tune of 8500 sub/12000 unsub = 20500 total. I can also tack on up to 37,000 in PLUS loans (but drat I don't want to). My tuition is going to be rocking out around 35,500, and I should be working enough to pay my rent/living expenses (I hope). Is it possible to wait until, for example, January, to take out the PLUS loans so that I am not paying interest for the next 6 months when I don't need the money yet (I pay my school one semester at a time)? As far as companies go, so far it looks like both Citi and Wells Fargo will do .50% repayment interest reduction + .25% auto-debit reduction, at least for Stafford. Anyone else know any interest-rate-reducing places? Sallie Mae can eat some dongs.
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Jul 16, 2008 11:47
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Is there a maximum number of loans I can take over the course of, well, my lifetime, even if I've payed them off? I took loans for vocational schools when I was younger, but now I'd like to get into a community college. But due to the number of loans and grants I've received, I wonder if I'll get accepted again.
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Jul 16, 2008 19:07
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kaishek, yes. You can actually take out a PLUS for just one semester if you need to. DarthJeebus, there is in fact an aggregate limit to how much you can take out. However, if you already have a degree that you took out loans for, you can't take out additional loans for a new degree. The government will help pay for your education once. The best thing to do is call the school you're considering, tell them your situation, and see what they say. They would have access to the NSLDS and so would be able to see what you've already had and if you're eligible for more funds.
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Jul 17, 2008 12:33
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If I'm understanding this correctly, the undergraduate aggregate limit is 23,000. I've only had about 4k total in loans, and I have not received a degree.
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Jul 17, 2008 19:03
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Let's say I have $5,250 in student loans (2x $2,625 sub-Stafford loans) from different lenders. 1) Is it worth it to consolidate both of these loans, or just pay each institution separately? 2) If I start paying these off as SOON as I graduate (during my 6-month grace period) will the interest automatically start to accrue our could I be paying the loan off without interest accruing?
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Jul 17, 2008 19:35
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Hi wiggy, this is exactly the type of thread that I needed. My situation is actually a combination of Ginger Ninja's and Akaikami in that I have an efc of 0 from my fathers death awhile ago, and I am attending the same exact mindblowingly expensive school as Akaikami. My problem is that my mothers credit score is completely horrible ever since my fathers death (she had to default on the medical bills of when my dad was in the hospital). Because of this it is impossible to have her cosign on any loan and since I have midrange/new credit (680 and only had a card since January) I have been denied for every loan I've applied for (Chase and Wachovia, and I'm applying for myrichuncle as we speak). There is a small possibility that I could get my grandfather to cosign but the main problem is he lives in North Carolina, I live in New Jersey. Almost every loan application is only online, and has to have you enter the cosigners info all online, which would be impossible. So I guess my question is, do you know of any companies that still have loan applications you can fill out offline, so I could mail that half to my grandfather, and have him send them in completed, so I could have a chance at getting a loan. Getting a loan has seriously been the biggest pain in the rear end I've ever dealt with.
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Jul 18, 2008 01:16
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Trintintin posted:So I guess my question is, do you know of any companies that still have loan applications you can fill out offline, so I could mail that half to my grandfather, and have him send them in completed, so I could have a chance at getting a loan. Getting a loan has seriously been the biggest pain in the rear end I've ever dealt with. Wells Fargo lets you do things the old-fashioned way. I called to apply for a loan over the phone and then my cosigner (who is also my grandfather who lives far away) called to apply to cosign. We're doing the promissory note and everything else by mail.
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Jul 18, 2008 01:24
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I recently had some trouble in school and went under half time during my last semester. Sure enough I get a letter from my lender stating payments begin in November. Luckily, this is only the first year of loans so it isn't that much. I could probably call my lender up and explain what happened and possibly get the loan deferred until after graduation, but I'm thinking this might not be such a bad thing. Looking at the payments, I could probably start paying on the loan every month without any problems, possibly even more than is listed as minimum. If I can go ahead and start paying this year off now, would there be anything that would come back to bite me in the future? Once I graduate I will end up having two loans/payments basically, but other than that, I can't really think of anything negative about doing it this way other than me having to start paying a bit earlier than I expected. I guess what I'm asking is will I end up paying more in the long run doing this? Is there something I'm not thinking about here?
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Jul 18, 2008 18:59
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DarthJeebus, then you should be fine war spoon, your interest will not accrue until they are actually in repayment - once the grace has expired. If you can pay as much as possible during deferment and grace you are only helping yourself. I am honestly not sure if you CAN consolidate them. I know you couldn't through a FFELP lender - most balance minimums are around 20000.00 now. But Direct might be able to do it. Honestly, though, on such a low balance, I'm not sure it would help you. The primary incentive to consolidate is to lower your monthly payments, so if you're able to handle around 100.00 a month for those two, you'll pay them off faster regardless. Trintintin, if I'm not mistaken private loan companies have physical applications across the board. They just don't advertise this fact to save them on paper. What you could do is just contact a company for one. However, it would probably be easier for both of you (and safer, in the long run) to apply over the phone like banana allergy is talking about. That way your personal info isn't being mailed back and forth and you'll know a LOT sooner whether you've been denied or approved. Then you can just do the MPN through the mail and not have to wonder if you'll even get the loan. Sacofjoea, there is no prepayment penalty on student loans. You can start paying them off at any time without repercussions. However, if you're going to go back to school, be aware that schools notify lenders when a student is at least half-time again, so there's a possibility you'll be placed back onto your deferment. But you can still keep right on paying
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Jul 19, 2008 12:31
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I currently have around $50k in loans, about 50/50 split between federal and private. My grace period will run out and I will have to start paying them back in December. I have a job lined up starting in August, and I will be prepared to start paying back my loans by the time I need to. However, I am told that interest rates are changing or something, and that I need to consolidate ASAP so I can get a lower rate, but if I do that, I lose my grace period, and I won't be able to pay the loans back. So question 1 is, what is going on with interest rates soon exactly? And question 2, is there a way I will be able to consolidate for a lower interest rate AND still keep my loans deferred until December (or whenever)?
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Jul 19, 2008 17:47
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Carlton Banks posted:It cannot be repeated enough that you should try to avoid private loans if you can, and if you have to get one, try to keep the amount you borrow as low as possible. Private loans tend to have higher interest rates and do not have the benefits of federal loans (deductible interest, etc). EdFed claims that you can deduct interest on private loans as long as you submit a W-9S form certifying that the loan was used exclusively for qualifying educational expenses. The IRS page seems to support this, although some of the info on the EdFed page regarding the caps and phaseout seems to be out of date. My question is: I have a bunch of private loans and my wife has some federal and some private loans. We were just married this year, so 2008 will be the first tax year we'll file jointly. Does the $2500 cap on deductible student loan interest increase to $5k when you file jointly? If so, does it matter if, say, $4k of the interest was to my loans and $1k was to hers? Maybe this would be better off in a tax questions thread.
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Jul 19, 2008 18:24
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I have a few questions I hope you guys can help me out with. I'm going to Cooper Union and the expected amount I'll have to pay for a year while living on campus is about $18k. I'm not eligible for any need based loans because my parents make too much, but they don't make enough to actually pay it, so I'm going to need to take out loans. I'm guessing I should be taking out the largest unsubsidized Stafford loan I can (it seems to be $5,500 from what SimpleTuition.com is telling me), then the rest in a private education loan through Discover (again, this is the best one I found through SimpleTuition) here http://tinyurl.com/5uhchy. It'd be for $12,500. Assuming everything goes well and I get the loan, what I don't understand is the way they're paid out. They say the funds go directly to the school, but what does that mean? If I need to buy a textbook or something, do I have to ask the school for the money? Since I'm living in their dorms, would I have to write a check for that, or would it get paid automatically? Also, I plan on talking to their financial aid office sometime to see if there's anything better I can get, but I'd like to know what's going on better first. Edit: Also it would be really helpful if anybody could recommend a good bank to get a student account with. Also a good credit card for a student to get, not to rack up a $10,000 debt, but just to start building credit. Lemming fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Jul 20, 2008 |
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Jul 19, 2008 21:54
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This might have been asked before, but I didn't see anything skimming the thread. How long does it usually take for a loan to go through? I requested $3500 at https://www.studentloanonline.com/StudentLoanOnline/ using US Bank about two weeks ago and I've yet to hear anything back. Is this normal?
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Jul 20, 2008 15:31
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Wiggy Marie posted:Sacofjoea, there is no prepayment penalty on student loans. You can start paying them off at any time without repercussions. However, if you're going to go back to school, be aware that schools notify lenders when a student is at least half-time again, so there's a possibility you'll be placed back onto your deferment. Oh ok, I didn't realize it would possibly go back into deferment without me even doing anything. That works - thanks!
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Jul 21, 2008 02:34
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signalnoise, the interest rates on federal loans have already changed. That change happened on July 1st. They're now around 3 points lower than they were before. You should be able to consolidate without losing your grace period (at least, you used to be able to). The only place offering steady consolidations right now is Direct. Private loans are their own animals and I would not be surprised if you lost your grace when you consolidated them. How their interest rates will change is, unfortunately, mostly unpredictable, but right now predictions are that they are moving downward. Smackbilly, I have no earthly idea. You should definitely ask your question in the tax thread. Lemming, the school will tell you how much you can receive in federal aid. Hope for the best but don't make plans around it until you have the awards package telling you how much you'll get. These loans are sent directly to the school who then funnels them to the students. Most schools will send their students a check of some sort. This is physical money that you can deposit and then use wherever you would like. If you're shopping for a bank, I would suggest a local credit union. Many universities are actually affiliated with credit unions in one way or another. I have been told that Discover is putting out good interest rates lately (no clue if this is true or not). I recommend avoiding Chase because they tend to have high rates and fees with little or no incentives. ep!c, that's too long for my comfort level. Call them immediately and ask what's up with your application. Sacofjoea, no problem. I hope it all works out for you! Also, never hesitate to call them and verify that you're on a deferment again once you're in school. Sometimes schools are slow to report, to it never hurts to check.
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Jul 22, 2008 01:15
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Wiggy -- remember my situation from before? I got a friend who'd sign up as a co-borrower, and Sallie Mae and My Rich Uncle both outright denied me. The latter gave me this message: "Unfortunately at this time we are unable to arrange credit for you, regardless of your Co-borrower. For more detailed information about this decision please refer to the status email that was sent to you." My credit score is currently 620. I think I've exhausted my Federal options. I really, really need a private loan right now. What do I do?!
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Jul 23, 2008 02:36
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Well...gently caress. There is a minimum credit score you must have in order to be eligible for a co-signer. Unfortunately it sounds like your score is below their standards. At this point the only other idea I have is to try and find a credit card that you can charge things to. You can try for a personal loan if you'd like, though I wouldn't bank on it. There are peer-to-peer lending sites popping up too, which means you would take out a loan directly from a person. http://www.springwise.com/financial_services/peertopeer_student_loans/ Other than that, I'm out of rabbits to pull from my hat. I'm so sorry One final idea is to start your own ask/tell thread and see if anyone at all can recommend a lender for your situation. Not everyone reads this thread, so it might give you something to work with that you and I haven't thought of?
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Jul 23, 2008 02:51
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Thank you for this thread, Wiggy Marie, it has helped my confidence in undertaking an independent loan dearly! As a graduate student that has been awarded Stafford bling, I'm chewing my fingernails trying to determine with whom to sign a MPN . I'm running out of time, because I heard a really great "tip" to wait until after July 1st 2008 for secret level codes/invincibility and I naively supposed the rumors of new consolidation rates would somehow translate into saving money when I signed a new loan (?). Sigh(!). Via this thread, I now realize I lost a lot of valuable time, as I'm nowhere nearer to my goal of selling my soul to a corporation to fund coal plants and/or military tanks(http://ran.org/campaigns/global_finance/). drat! I seem now to be pathologically self-repressed because I can't get over some strange internal myth that I've been recommended MyRichUncle for a Stafford, and thus they give Stafford loans. But I'm confounded about why I can't seem to find any option for Stafford loans from MyRichUncle. IS THERE A SECRET PAGE?!??! No, of course not, though I keep encountering literature that suggests they do do Federal/Stafford loans (http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS151345+21-Feb-2008+PRN20080221 , the 60 minutes article on Sallie Mae, my school's sent list of vendors used by students in the past year). I'm delusional, I'm feeling stupid, and I'm fearful I don't have the energy to pull this off successfully in the next four days before my school's deadline. Do you have any advice, Marie? I am going to make a lot of phone calls tomorrow. and more on SallieMae: http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/418561 [edit] Got a loan 
Vespa fucked around with this message at 05:23 on Jul 24, 2008 |
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Jul 23, 2008 07:46
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So I finally received my financial aid package and I got around $11,700 in grants alone. I took out a $3000 subsidized loan as well. Tuition for both semesters is $4406, and books for both will be around $900. My question is, will they bill me for both semesters or just for this one? Also, if they only bill me for this semester, do I hold on to the remaining amount or do they set some aside? I'm asking mainly because I need some of this money for living expenses (off-campus) and I need to know how much will be available. My school debit card should arrive in a few days, will those funds be available immediately?
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Jul 24, 2008 03:52
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Vespa, I'm sorry I didn't respond to you quickly, but I'm glad you got your loan! All that I would have really said is don't worry about time, it takes a VERY short amount of time for a lender to set up your information and have everything ready to go (normally a few days at the most, once your MPN is on file). Fatty Patty, those are all questions you will need to ask your bursar's office, since they handle billing. Congratulations on your aid package!
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Jul 24, 2008 12:19
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Hey guys! Just wanted to let you know that I made some small updates to the OP. Included are: The current interest rate for new federal loans is 6% on subsidized loans, 6.8% on unsubsidized loans. No, I don't know why they didn't make it 6% for both. New Aggregate Limits Year One: Subsidized - 3500.00 Unsubsidized - 6000.00 Total Eligibility: 9500.00 Year Two Sub - 4500.00 Unsub - 6000.00 Total: 10500.00 Year Three-Five Sub - 5500.00 Unsub - 7000.00 Total: 12500.00 Graduate & Professional Sub - 8500.00 Unsub - 12000.00 Total: 20500.00 Total Aggregate Limits for a: Undergraduate Dependant Student - $31,000.00 (maximum of 23000 in subsidized) Undergraduate Independent Student: - $57,500.00 (maximum of 23000 in subsidized) Graduate/Professional Student: $138,500.00 (maximum of $65,500 in subsidized) Due to new federal policy, while you the student are attending classes at least half-time or more your parents are automatically eligible for a PLUS in-school deferment!!!. This works roughly the same way as your own in-school deferment. If you can provide the lender with a verification of enrollment showing your status, they can slap a deferment on your parent's account and pause the payments for you. The PLUS loan has also gained a grace period. Details of this are still being worked out, but it would mirror the Stafford 6-month grace period. Because of policy changes, many consolidation companies have dropped incentives or shut down altogether. You can still shop around, but all of the fringe companies have pretty much gone away. You'll likely end up consolidating with a federal lender, such as Sallie Mae or Bank of America. Direct is the only consistent company at the moment - that's the federal government, specifically.
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Jul 24, 2008 22:41
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I'm consolidating with Federal Direct and applied July 5th and they sent a letter to my lender July 9th asking for my loan information. So far they apparently haven't heard anything. How long does it normally take for a lender to give that information to Federal Direct so they can process the rest of my loan? Considering I can pull my loan amounts up in seconds online I wouldn't think it would take so long.
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Jul 24, 2008 22:56
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Yikes, that is WAY too long. Call your lender immediately and ask them what's up.
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Jul 25, 2008 01:45
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I am out of school and in repayment. My loan balances look like this: $8500 @ 6.8% fixed (post 7/1/06 Stafford) $1600 @ 6.8% fixed (post 7/1/06 Stafford) $5100 @ 4.21% variable (pre-7/1/06 Stafford loan in repayment) Plus a federal consolidation loan: $14000 @ 4.25% fixed (formerly all variable rate Stafford loans) At the rate I am throwing money at my loans I will have the $8500 and $1600 loans paid off by the end of the year. What I would like to do is re-consolidate the $5100 and $14000 into one loan while rates are nice and low and lock it in at 4.25% fixed. Then I can take my time to pay that loan down and start saving for a down payment on a bigger house instead. According to what I see from Direct Loans, you can't consolidate with Uncle Sam unless you failed to get a consolidation from anyone else. Does the fact that there are just no companies left doing consolidation count for that?
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Jul 25, 2008 21:54
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Any idea why I would go from being offered a subsidized loan one year to unsubsidized the next? Everything on my FAFSA was essentially the same.
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Jul 25, 2008 22:41
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Can my parents get a cosigner on a PLUS loan? They don't have good credit at all, but there is someone we know with excellent credit who is willing to cosign.
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Jul 25, 2008 22:42
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borrowedladder, potentially yes. You would need to contact them and ask them directly. Sarren, you will need to ask the school that question. They handle the FAFSA information and process to see what you will be eligible for, so if they feel that something has changed from last year they would be the one to tell you what it might be. NRC, there is an option for a PLUS loan co-signer, but I only ever saw one school that participated in that option. Which is to say "maybe." Your school and the lender will be the ones to tell you the truth.
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Jul 27, 2008 03:39
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I'm about to start law school and have ~$65k in loans already. I haven't consolidated yet, should I do that before starting law school?
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Jul 27, 2008 05:51
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This isn't directly in the means of loans, but is there anywhere else but fastweb to look for scholarships? A good number of them look questionable, i.e., put down your university, GPA, name, address, and social security number... 
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Jul 27, 2008 11:32
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Fastweb is the most comprehensive and dependable that I'm aware of. It's backed by tons of universities across the nation, and I've never heard of someone being scammed by a program listed there. They take their reputation pretty seriously. I'm sure there's other searches out there, but fastweb is the best one I'm aware of.
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Jul 27, 2008 14:02
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This might be a pretty dumb question, but I just wanted to make sure: I moved earlier this week and updated my address with every place of importance, including FAFSA/private loans. This will not affect my student loan disbursement that was scheduled for early August, will it? I didn't know if the various loan companies would just update their records, or if it would somehow delay disbursement because of processing the new address and sending any changes to the school, etc.
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Jul 27, 2008 14:31
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Newp, it shouldn't affect it at all. The only delay that could possibly happen is if the school didn't update their records and sends your funds to the wrong address, but it sounds like you got everything taken care of
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Jul 27, 2008 14:45
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Thanks a bunch for your help, Wiggy. I just have one more question. Do you have any idea what kind of credit card would be good to get? I'm not going to use it as free money, I just want to start building up credit, like making a purchase and then immediately paying it off. I tried doing some research but there's so much stuff and I just don't know what the hell. Thanks.
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Jul 27, 2008 23:05
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