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The Big Rhino
Jan 29, 2007
To Boldly Go, Where No Rhino Has Gone Before....
Wiggy Marie:

Apologies if I've missed this statistic,

but I'd like to know the percentage of defaults on SLs, and if they've increased since the economic downturn which started in earnest in September, 2008.

By 'default' perhaps I mean, "behind" or delinquent.

Or, what are the numbers on both (differentiated)/


TIA.

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Wiggy Marie
Jan 16, 2006

Meep!
Groda, welcome back! I remember you :) I 'm glad you were able to get your loans. It sounds like the servicer (that's right!) slapped you onto a forbearance for a year. If they had you fill out any paperwork, then it's likely a deferment. Either way you aren't in any trouble and won't have any penalties. Those are federally provided programs which allow you to pause you payments for up to a year at a time.

If you want to double check on everything, why not try giving ACS a call and asking them to clarify what they've done on your account? You can also log in to your account online and look at the status. If it's on a deferment/forbearance, it will say in their online system.

One Space Jump, really the only benefits are 1. you can build up your credit if needed, and 2. you can claim interest you pay on your annual taxes. Frankly, though, if you have to option of paying them off - just do it! You'll save thousands and be student loan debt-free. Always a good thing!

If you want to take advantage of interest/credit building, though, you can always pay off a portion and then pay off the rest over time. I do recommend paying off at least some, if only for the sake of having less debt.

GFBeach, if it makes you feel any better I saw an account with over $200,000 the other day. You're not doing so bad!

You should actually be able to call the servicer and get a matching grace period on your GradPLUS loans without any problem. Even parent PLUS loans are given a grace period now. Give them a call ASAP and tell them what you need.

You can indeed change your repayment plan if you'd like, but there's no real need. If you can start paying above the monthly payment, go ahead! There's no penalty for paying above the monthly total and you'll save thousands in interest. Consolidation can be beneficial on a case by case basis, so if the difference for you wouldn't be that much and the interest rate you'd get isn't that low, it sounds like your best option is to use an extended plan instead. If you do decide to go for the consolidation, though, you can actually specify on the application that you want them to wait until your grace is up before processing the consolidation.

The Big Rhino, I have no idea what the statistics are but I can tell you that my company's default claims have increased substantially this year, not to mention outgoing collections calls volume increase. With student loans you generally don't see a huge crisis like you would with something like mortgages, though, because they do have deferments/forbearances available to their borrowers.

Vigilantly Vigorous
Jun 23, 2007
How delightful...
I'm about to transfer to a university from a community college for Spring 2009 semester but I only received for enough for the school year by FAFSA. What is my best option for taking out a loan for my spring semester which will cost me much more than what I already have been granted?

cobramullet
Apr 29, 2006
jesus wore a mullet
Good day,

I'm taking a semester break from college; I'll graduate in Spring '10 with a bachelors. Anyway, I received an email from the Department of Education - my grace period away from college is almost up (6 months) and I'll need to start repayment soon.


Bad news: I need to start making payments on my ~$16.5k loans. I'm financially strained, and the prospect of making 1 or two payments on these loans at this time terrifies me.

Good news: Spring semester starts in mid / late Jan '10, and I expect to receive financial aid - it also will defer my repayments until 6 mo. after I graduate.


Anyway advice? I know that in the email, it was suggested I consolidate my loans under a new low rate. These things I don't understand very well, and the language used is very confusing. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Groda
Mar 17, 2005

Hair Elf

Wiggy Marie posted:

If you want to double check on everything, why not try giving ACS a call and asking them to clarify what they've done on your account?
Yeah, I should do that.

I really hate to be this way, but thanks to time zones and my schedule, I'd really have to be a responsible adult to get a hold of them, so my next question goes here. :) I'm not making a ton of money, so I can't pay this off in a matter of months, but I'd at least like to take a big bite out of it right now to lower my monthly payments to something livable.

Right now, they plan to charge me a flat rate of $220/month for 10 years. I'd like to pay off maybe half of my $18000 this coming year, and then start saving for my future mortgage (because I'm a big impatient gorilla) while paying some lower monthly fee. What is your lingo for renegotiating this minimum monthly payment? Is the monthly minimum "renegotiated" automatically? What should I know before I do that?

Wiggy Marie
Jan 16, 2006

Meep!
Sorry about not replying sooner everyone, I've been sick. Colds are super fun!

Vigilantly Vigorous, you will need to cancel the remaining portion of your current Fall/Spring loans and has FAFSA forward your information to the new university. Once the new place has your info they can process for your funding. One thing to mention - these will be separate loans from the first ones you took out.

cobramullet, consolidation may or may not be the best idea for you. I suggest you give Direct a call and explain that even though your grace is about to expire, you still need more deferment time until the January semester starts. Ask them what, specifically, a consolidation could do for you. Since you're still going, I'm thinking you might want to hold off for now.

Groda, if you pay off a big chunk you should ask for your payment schedule to be "redisclosed." This will reflect a lower monthly installment as well as a shorter repayment term. Also, congrats on anticipating that much payoff! That's really impressive to po' folk like me :)

Groda
Mar 17, 2005

Hair Elf

Wiggy Marie posted:

Groda, if you pay off a big chunk you should ask for your payment schedule to be "redisclosed." This will reflect a lower monthly installment as well as a shorter repayment term. Also, congrats on anticipating that much payoff! That's really impressive to po' folk like me :)

What if I want the same term (10 years, I assume), but with the new, lower balance?

Wiggy Marie
Jan 16, 2006

Meep!
If they redisclose for a lower payment term than ten years (which they may not, depending on the principal balance left), you can ask them to extend it back to 10 years. When you first request the redisclosure you can just make sure they know you still want it at 10 years.

Sheep
Jul 24, 2003
I live abroad, and have had my father handling forwarding bills and stuff along to me. Apparently, he doesn't read them too well, because I kept getting letters from some company called "Campus Partners" talking about how I should send them money to pay for student loans I took out through my university, and he said it looked kind of shady. To the best of my knowledge, I only ever dealt with my university and Direct Lending, so I figured them for a scam and told him to toss the letters in a box and I'd look at them whenever I got around to repatriating.

Turns out, it wasn't a scam :v: On a whim I decided to bust out Skype and call the financial aid office this morning (since they never replied to my emails about the situation and recently my credit card limit got slashed by 70% out of nowhere, so I was kind of like "what?" since I never use it) and apparently I have $5300 in loans through them, which they said they contract out to Campus Partners to handle (and apparently they don't have to notify me of this?), which have defaulted. These loans were then sold to a collections agency called "NCO", it appears.

Now, $5300 isn't a ton of money and I can pay the entirety back in like six months flat, but I'd really rather not deal with a collections agency here. Is there any way to get the loan transferred back to CP in some manner? Is it worth noting that they didn't even make a cursory attempt to contact me aside from just sending bills to my primary address (DL has my overseas address, the university has three of my email accounts, etc, and none of these avenues were ever used to contact me regarding repayment)

I'm living abroad, like I said, so I want to keep poo poo as simple as possible: no third parties, just paying poo poo off. Haven't missed a beat on my DL loans (in fact I'm prepaid until ~2013 last I checked) so I'm clearly good for the money, but I'm not about to give some shady collections agency my bank account information so they can do direct withdrawals, which is how I pay off my Direct Lending loans, and I'm kind of worried that they may somehow be able to yoink money out of my checking account back in America that is put into that account specifically to pay off my DL loans. If they somehow managed to get at that money (~2000 at the moment), that would gently caress me royally.

What should I do in this situation? Also, is the money in my checking account safe? I have no assets at all in America that can be hosed with aside from a broken Nissan Altima that they can have if they want, and that checking account, so it's not like they can garnish my wages or take my tax refund (2 year tax exemption treaty) or anything.

Edit: by my estimation, as the loans went into repayment this may, at most I'd owe like $600, which is chump change and I could cut CP a money order for that entire amount twice over tomorrow morning. If I could get the debt transferred back to them, at any rate!

Groda
Mar 17, 2005

Hair Elf

Wiggy Marie posted:

If they redisclose for a lower payment term than ten years (which they may not, depending on the principal balance left), you can ask them to extend it back to 10 years. When you first request the redisclosure you can just make sure they know you still want it at 10 years.
Finally got a hold of ACS, and, as expected, you're completely right. No fees or redisclosure limits what so ever.

The only other thing is, according to them, you absolutely have to double check to make sure they understood you'd paid ahead. Apparently there have been problems.

Kramden
Aug 11, 2007

by Tiny Fistpump
Do total aggregate limits apply across graduate degrees?

Specifically, I am in my second year of a Master's program. When I graduate this Spring, I will have taken out 20k in Federal loans.

In the Fall, I am going to law school, for which I will probably need about $180,000 over three years.

Will the 20k that I took out during my MA count against my law school limit?

Thank you.

Wiggy Marie
Jan 16, 2006

Meep!
Still sick and now in the midst of a coughing fit! Aren't you guys jealous?!

Sheep, at this point it sounds like your loans have defaulted and been transferred to the guarantor. You have to call them to arrange a payment plan. There's still no penalty for paying it off early, but you have to follow the guarantor's rules.

Your money otherwise is safe. A guarantor can garnish wages (if employed with a US company) and take your tax return, but they can't touch anything else. Call the collections company ASAP and tell them about your situation. They may not be too nice about it, but their job is to "rehabilitate" the loan(s) so they'll have payment plans available. They can't transfer you back to a regular servicing agency until you go through rehabilitation.

One thing you could do to make sure everything is ok is created your account at the NSLDS and look at the status of these particular loans. If they're Pell grants/some other kind of federal loan, they'll be in that website.

http://www.nslds.ed.gov/nslds_SA/

Groda, I'm glad to hear there's nothing weird involved! Paid ahead status has messed up many an account in our system so I'm glad they got that straightened out for you.

Kramden, aggregate limit is indeed per student, not per degree. So that 20 grand will be counted as part of your total limit.

Wiggy Marie
Jan 16, 2006

Meep!
Hey everyone, guess what! I've been accepted to a local university and will be starting on my second Bachelor's degree this upcoming Summer.

What this means for the thread is:

1. I'll be filing the FAFSA and going through the financial aid awards process personally, which will hopefully give me more insight into advice for you all.

2. You know those long delays between posts? Well they will probably get longer. Sorry about that :( But I will still be here and will still be answering questions!

If anyone is curious, the FFELP industry is still awaiting our fate. As of right now there is a bill before Congress to "save" FFELP. Please, I beg of anyone who reads this thread, contact your Congress representatives in the Senate and tell them your opinion on this. It will affects millions of students in the years to come as well as anyone currently attending, so your voice is the most important!

Morbleu
Jun 13, 2006
This semester I need 2-3,000 dollars for my tution and books, but since my grandpa died my grandma doesn't have enough income to cosign for me, and I have no one else to cosign for me. Is there any place I can find a loan for this amount?

LittlePea
Jan 22, 2007
extra yum!
Congratulations Wiggy Marie on your acceptance!!!

I barely know where to start, and I've been skimming through a couple of posts..so I apologize if this question has been answered multiple times already...

I want to get a Bachelor's degree and most likely even more than that -- as of now, I have a high school diploma as well as an Associate's Degree.

I have about 12,000 in student loans (aes) and a couple thousand in personal debt. I am currently 23 and work a full time job and can't afford to quit or reduce hours. Due to the nature of my job, I travel to various project sites in the U.S. so I'm aiming for an accredited online college/program.

I've looked over the first post but where exactly do I start looking if I want to go back to school as far as financial aid goes? I've gone through fastweb before but I feel like I never receive results that are applicable to me. I guess really I don't know what I should be doing about my existing loans and how I would go about getting new ones. I apologize if my post sounds uninformed and vague, it's because I don't know what I'm doing :( . I appreciate any feedback/help you have to offer :)

LittlePea fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Dec 16, 2009

Wiggy Marie
Jan 16, 2006

Meep!
Nigulus Rex, can you give me more information? How old are you? Are you an undergraduate or graduate student? Is your grandmother your legal guardian? Have you looked into PLUS loans, or GradPLUS loans if you're not an undergraduate?

If your only option is private loans, I recommend checking https://www.simpletuition.com to shop for private loans. My biggest warning right now is that all private loans have insane requirements in order to qualify, so if you had to have a cosigner before, you must have one now too.

LittlePea, thank you :) As far as going back to school, your first stop is going to be the FAFSA and, regrettably, fastweb.com. You can try modifying your personal details/major you're pursuing for more relevant results. Put as much info as you can because they use all criteria for matches.

Next, contact the college you've been admitted to. Not the overall university, but the specific college you'll be studying in. Ask them about the grants and scholarships they might offer and how to apply. Next step is the financial aid office, again to ask for grants/scholarships.

Your existing loans will go back onto an in-school deferment once you're attending again. You can look into consolidation if you want, but depending on your situation this may not be necessary. If you take out additional FFELP loans then you can consolidate those with any current ones you have once you have graduated.

Good luck in your hunting!

Black Noise
Jan 23, 2008

WHAT UP

I'm pretty dense in the matter but you take out loans once a semester not all at once right because that interest . . . dear god

celestial teapot
Sep 9, 2003

He asked my religion and I replied "agnostic." He asked how to spell it, and remarked with a sigh: "Well, there are many religions, but I suppose they all worship the same God."
After spending five years in college borrowing money willy-nilly like it grew on trees and I'd never have to deal with this poo poo, I'm now in the predicament to which such behavior inevitably leads.

Namely, my loans are going into repayment and I'm finding out one at a time to whom I owe money and how much as they go past due and they contact me. Apparently I have loans serviced by Sallie Mae, AES, and now Direct Loans (whoever that is). I'm employed and able to make loan payments (barely), but I'm bothered by the fact that I don't know to whom I owe money and how much until they come out of the woodwork to ask me to pay up.

Since my financial situation is pretty much a big question mark and I did absolutely nothing to keep track of my loans or how much money I was borrowing that whole time, and I now want to be more responsible and try to undo the damage: Is there anything else I can do to piece together who, exactly, I owe money to and how much, so that I can budget my money? Or am I destined to find out only after they send me to collections and these people track me down?

Like a dumbass, I never saved any of the correspondence they sent me so I don't have a paper trail to go on. Does anyone have advice on where I could start to piece this history together and figure out the sum of my debts?

Skycks
Jan 6, 2008

celestial teapot posted:

After spending five years in college borrowing money willy-nilly like it grew on trees and I'd never have to deal with this poo poo, I'm now in the predicament to which such behavior inevitably leads.

Namely, my loans are going into repayment and I'm finding out one at a time to whom I owe money and how much as they go past due and they contact me. Apparently I have loans serviced by Sallie Mae, AES, and now Direct Loans (whoever that is). I'm employed and able to make loan payments (barely), but I'm bothered by the fact that I don't know to whom I owe money and how much until they come out of the woodwork to ask me to pay up.

Since my financial situation is pretty much a big question mark and I did absolutely nothing to keep track of my loans or how much money I was borrowing that whole time, and I now want to be more responsible and try to undo the damage: Is there anything else I can do to piece together who, exactly, I owe money to and how much, so that I can budget my money? Or am I destined to find out only after they send me to collections and these people track me down?

Like a dumbass, I never saved any of the correspondence they sent me so I don't have a paper trail to go on. Does anyone have advice on where I could start to piece this history together and figure out the sum of my debts?

Your credit report? I mean, if you are paying on any of them or are getting notices that they are past due, there is a 99.9999% chance they are reporting that to the credit agencies, so a quick look at your credit report will show you all of them.

Skycks fucked around with this message at 04:45 on Dec 24, 2009

celestial teapot
Sep 9, 2003

He asked my religion and I replied "agnostic." He asked how to spell it, and remarked with a sigh: "Well, there are many religions, but I suppose they all worship the same God."

Skycks posted:

Your credit report? I mean, if you are paying on any of them or are getting notices that they are past due, there is a 99.9999% chance they are reporting that to the credit agencies, so a quick look at your credit report will show you all of them.
Right, I know about the ones that I'm getting notices on. My question is about how I can go about discovering any other loans that haven't gone into repayment yet, and hence I wouldn't have received any communication about.

Skycks
Jan 6, 2008
My private loans started getting reported right away as open lines of credit while I was still in school, so have you actually checked your credit report? For government loans (like stafford and such) you can go to http://www.nslds.ed.gov/nslds_SA/

Wiggy Marie
Jan 16, 2006

Meep!
wigtrade.cc, if you take out a loan for the full school year (Fall and Spring) it is most often separated into two disbursements - one in the Fall and one in the Spring. You only accrue interest on what's actually been disbursed to the school, so until the loan is fully disbursed you only accrue interest on the balance that's been disbursed.

celestial teapot, first thing you need to do is register your account at https://www.nslds.ed.gov . This will show you all federal loans you have and where they are. The second thing you might want to do is contact Direct about consolidating your debts together. That way everything is in one place and you don't have to worry about multiple servicers.

The only drawback is that if you ever took out private loans, these will not show up on the NSLDS. You can always try calling the school and asking if they can tell you who your lenders are. (Yes, they would have record of this!)

Thank you Skycks for your help!

thenoodleincident
Apr 13, 2007
Great Thread!

So here is my situation. I graduated from law school a few years ago. Consolidated my $60,000 or so in Stafford Loans, getting some amazing 2% interest rate or something. However, I left my $7,500.00 Perkins loan as it was, thinking that I'd pay it off in the near future.

I'm at that point where I'm ready to pay off the $7,500.00 Perkins Loan (which is now down to $5,500 or so), but when I spent the time to actually look at the paperwork, it shows a $7,500.00 Perkins Loan, which I expected, and also a $2,000.00 Perkins Loan, which was unexpected. The $2,000.00 Perkins Loan still had me down as "Enrolled" on the system. So I asked about it, as in WTF is this $2,000 Loan that says I am "Enrolled", at which time they went, "oh ha", yeah your school never told us you were separated from them and you owe $800 in payments and fill out this exit interview.

I have no memory of this $2k loan and while I may have taken it out, I don't have any paperwork on it. What is the appropriate manner to confirm whether I did in fact take out this loan? What kind of documentation would they have to confirm this? If I did take it out, cool, I'll pay it off when I pay off the other Perkins Loan, but the whole situation is kind of iffy . . . I honestly don't know if I actually took out this 2k loan or not. Looking at my bank accounts from the period its hard to tell, there was a $3,500.00 deposit during the corresponding period, but I now (4 years later) have no idea where that $3,500.00, or if $2k of it was from this Perkins Loan where the other $1,500 could have come from.

TLDR: How can I confirm that I actually took out this 2k Perkins Loan I've never heard of before. Also I have requested a breakdown of the $800 in payments they want from me on 2/1/2010, but I have no received it yet, is there any way I can successfully argue I shouldn't have to pay interest that would have otherwise accrued because they didn't bill me for it (assuming the debt is valid).

Thanks!

Wiggy Marie
Jan 16, 2006

Meep!
First step is to contact the school and ask them about that loan. Where did it come from? Do they have any paperwork about it? Perkins loans come from the school, not a private lender, so the school is who would have record. Start with financial aid and work your way to the bursar's office if necessary.

yuming
Feb 26, 2008

dance dance dance
I'm in the process of loan shopping and could use some advice.

This spring I'll be taking prereq classes for a graduate program in Speech-Language Pathology - I am $3000 short on tuition. I already have my bachelors degree from the same school so I am not eligible for their aid. I need a private loan and have been looking on FinAid and Simple Tuition. However, I am officially a "non-degree" student so I'm worried that I don't actually qualify for anything. I have recently been laid-off from my full-time job and, while my parents agreed to cosign for me, I don't know how much credit/how good of a loan I can qualify for. I have enough open credit in plastic to pay what I need five times over. Not that I want to use that. :j:

I thought Wells Fargo was the only place offering private loans now, or did I imagine that?

Anyways, what do you recommend?

Wiggy Marie
Jan 16, 2006

Meep!
Wells Fargo is the only one I know of who was offering private loan consolidation. There are a few private loan programs out there, and I can't really recommend one over the other because they're all terrible.

Just kidding! They serve their purpose, but each private loan is its own beast. What I can tell you is that the requirements to get one these days are kind of ridiculous; I know the one my company deals with requires a minimum credit score of 750, for instance. With a cosigner was still an obscenely high number. The only place I can recommend to help is https://www.simpletuition.com.

I believe a couple of people in this thread have used Wells Fargo in the past and didn't have horrible experiences.

However! Have you looked into the GradPLUS loan at all? It's a federal loan that can eventually be consolidated with your other Staffords. It does have a higher interest rate, but the rate is fixed and all federal loan benefits are in place.

yuming
Feb 26, 2008

dance dance dance
I don't think I can get a GradPLUS since I am not admitted to the graduate school - isn't that how it works?

I hope my credit score is good enough to qualify! Are there any other alternatives to private student loans that might be a better option? I anticipate being able to pay the loan off by the end of the semester - it is just that I won't get my tax refund until after tuition is due. I guess I shouldn't count on money I don't have though, heh.

Man Yam
Aug 31, 2004
Pickle. No! You pickle!
My wife has a student loan from over 10 years ago (probably 1996-ish) that started out as $4500 but now is somewhere near $50k due to interest and penalties. Other than contacting the lender and going into forebearance/deferrment loop is there anything that she can do to get this reduced or a more reasonable payment plan?

Wiggy Marie
Jan 16, 2006

Meep!
Ah ha! Yes, I misunderstood then. I thought you were in the program taking some prerequisites. Hurf durf. There is always a PLUS loan, however you need to still be a dependent student for that to apply. Beyond that, you do need to look at private loans, sadly :(

Man Yam, that sucks balls. The only thing I can think is that she can ask to have her loan put onto the income based repayment plan - income based repayment, not income contingent or any of the other programs the lender might offer. If she has a lower income this will lower her monthly payment to something manageable, and after 20 years the remaining balance is forgiven as long as she's consistently made payments. 20 years is a pretty long time yes, but at least forgiveness would eventually come on the total. One thing to check is whether deferment/forbearance time counts toward the 20 year total.

If she has no income she'll need to ask the lender if they can still apply IBR. If not she can ask for other repayment options, there are graduated, extended, etc. Pretty much she just needs to contact the lender. First ask about IBR, then after that anything else they might have if IBR isn't applicable for some reason.

zynga dot com
Nov 11, 2001

wtf jill im not a bear!!!

A dossier and a state of melted brains: The Jess campaign has it all.
Apologies if this has been asked already. I'm in an unusual situation where I have a law degree but am looking to go back to school for a MS. However, to ensure admission to the program I need to finish some pre-reqs at the undergrad level. The problem comes that I'm not actually admitted to the MS program yet (although I'm almost certain I will be). As a result, my school has refused to certify any Stafford loans because I've passed my undergrad aggregate limits. I have enough eligibility left for graduate school, however, under the graduate aggregate limits.

Can finishing pre-reqs for a MS program admission count in any way for getting around the undergrad ceiling? Or will I have to take out a private loan to bridge the gap until admission?

Wiggy Marie
Jan 16, 2006

Meep!
Unfortunately no, since you're not actually in the graduate program yet you can't qualify for graduate-level aid. You'll need to look into private loans :(

zynga dot com
Nov 11, 2001

wtf jill im not a bear!!!

A dossier and a state of melted brains: The Jess campaign has it all.
That's what I was afraid of - ok, fingers crossed for the credit check. Thanks for the prompt response.

amethystbliss
Jan 17, 2006

Apologies if this has already been answered. I've taken out a number of Stafford loans over my undergraduate career and will defer them while I'm in grad school. Thing is, I plan to move to the UK once I've finished my Master's (2-3 years) and there's no way I'll pay off my debt in that amount of time. How does this typically work? Do I just put someone at home in charge of it? I can't think of anyone I'd want to give that responsibility to for over a decade.

Also, I looked over the OP and thought it might be worth mentioning that you can also qualify as an independent student if you have a legal guardian that isn't your parent. It was such a pain in the rear end for me before they added a section on this to the FAFSA.

Thanks in advance!

Miranda
Dec 24, 2004

Not a cuttlefish.
I'm an Australian citizen applying for university in the US (Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, GA) for Fall (or Summer) 2010. Part of the reason I'm moving to study there is because of my boyfriend who is from Savannah and who i'll be living with. I've been in contact with the international adviser at the Uni who has been very helpful. I'm taking the SATs on Jan 23 so fingers crossed that goes well. I'm in the process of doing the application form including immunisations, past education history and finally financial fun!

At this stage my plan is to obtain a loan from my bank here in Australia for about $10000, so that along with my own money and parent's money will prove I can pay for the first year of study. Then I will be able to have my US citizen boyfriend (who i'll be living with) co-sign for an international student loan for subsequent years.

Does my plan for finances make sense or is it all over a bad idea? I can't find any loan for international students without a co-signer and my boyfriend can't co-sign for the first year because he has no credit history (he's been in the Peace Corps for the past 2 year.)

Black Noise
Jan 23, 2008

WHAT UP

My dad is trying to talk me out of getting my mom to cosign for my loans so he can get an apartment in the future.

His credit is shot due to being overambitious and bad business plans and now I pay for it :smith:

for the actual question just curious how much of a percentage increase is the interest rate for some one with no credit when getting a loan?

zynga dot com
Nov 11, 2001

wtf jill im not a bear!!!

A dossier and a state of melted brains: The Jess campaign has it all.

wigtrade.cc posted:

My dad is trying to talk me out of getting my mom to cosign for my loans so he can get an apartment in the future.

His credit is shot due to being overambitious and bad business plans and now I pay for it :smith:

for the actual question just curious how much of a percentage increase is the interest rate for some one with no credit when getting a loan?

Assuming you actually get the loan but just barely, you can expect as high as 12% right now, and more once the LIBOR rebounds since private loans are generally tied to it. A decent credit score will put you more in the 8-10 range.

Wiggy Marie
Jan 16, 2006

Meep!
Miranda, honestly it seems like you're doing great! You seem very organized and are going in with a plan. Never a bad idea. The only other suggestion I can add to your list is to contact the office of international student affairs at Armstrong Atlantic and get a working repertoire with them. They will be your source of all education-related information for the next while. (They might have some suggestions for other private loans as well, if you haven't already contacted and asked them!)

wigtrade.cc, I'm not sure I follow about the mom cosigning thing. Why would cosigning with her affect his ability to get an apartment? Does he want to cosign so that he can build up credit? If his credit is shot then he wouldn't be able to take it out with you anyway...

As for getting a private loan with no credit, as of right now, you kind of can't. Every private loan lender has increased their minimum requirements by a hell of a lot and the student must have a minimum credit score to even qualify for a cosigner. That's not to say there aren't any private loan programs out there which will take you (and would also have insanely high rates), but personally I don't know of any.

Wiggy Marie
Jan 16, 2006

Meep!
Motherf-

amethystbliss, I completely overlooked you! I'm sorry about that!

First off, thank you for the head's up. It's true there are a TON of new qualifications for independent students. Anyone who's having trouble with their amount of aid must contact their financial aid office and ask if they might qualify for more based on the new criteria. I still need to update the OP, alas.

As for overseas payments, there's two options. First you can give someone else power of attorney in your name to manage your account(s). Blech, right? Well your other option is to keep one account open domestically and use that to make your payments for your loan. You can manage your account online/through email. Big point here is that you MUST have a US account to make payments - student lenders cannot run conversions to accept payments from other currencies.

You could open one of those online bank accounts through ING or HSBC, for instance. This is what the majority of our borrowers in a similar situation do.

Prefect Six
Mar 27, 2009

My wife and I got married in last year. She is still in college, not working, and I graduated in 08. I make a fair living but between mortgage and other stuff we'd like to take out a student loan to get her through the rest of her undergrad as opposed to continuing to put it on a credit card and slowly paying it off.

She filled out the fasfa but was denied any federal aid.

Is there anything we should know before contacting our bank about getting one? Since she was denied any federal aid should we even bother trying to get subsidized Stafford loans?

Thanks.

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Wiggy Marie
Jan 16, 2006

Meep!
Number one step, if she hasn't already, is to contact the financial office ASAP and explain her situation. They might be able to grant her federal aid based on her personal situation.

Stafford loans *are* federal aid, so contacting a bank would only get you private loans, which you want to avoid if at all possible.

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