Consolidating student loans

[MRX]

Story: Forced to drop out of college halfway into sophomore year, expensive college, took out many loans, grace period over, want apartment, 3 student loan payments totaling $200+ a month ($21,000 total).

I'm thinking about getting the loans consolidated to not only keep track of them instead of having to pay 3 different companies every month, but to also lower the rate and amount i have to pay per month. But, i know that theres always a downside to any decision but searching online is only gonna get me the "apply now to become free" b.s. I want to know if anybody else here knows about consolidating, a good consolidater, can give me advise, or can help me to decide what i want to do about the stack money i owe. I do plan to take classes again at a different college but in order to afford an apartment and school i have to cut down some of my current bills...this CERTAINLY being the biggest pain in my ass especially with the interest rates.

[i'm the girl]

--

--if you have any that are government see if you can apply for forbearance/deferrment on the basis of economic hardship (i.e. you don't have they money to pay) -- my stafford loan is on forebearance right now -- basically i don't have to pay for a year, but i do accrue intrest (all of like $6) that i don't have to front if i don't want to

Who are your lenders - are they all 3 private or are they public/government

[MRX]

lenders are:
William D. Ford/U.S. Department of Education
American Education Services (AES)
Educational Computer Systems, Inc. ( ECSI) - Might be able to defer that one

all are public/government as far as i know

[AccordWarrior]

My question for you...I'm not very educated in the loan part yet, usually student loans come in 6 months after you're no longer a full time student. If you were able to re-enroll in a local community college so you get full time student status back, would that defer your payments again?

[MRX]

My question for you...I'm not very educated in the loan part yet, usually student loans come in 6 months after you're no longer a full time student. If you were able to re-enroll in a local community college so you get full time student status back, would that defer your payments again?

i think so...i did this over the summer in 2003 but problem is i don't have enough money to afford an apartment, the loan payments, other bills and then buy books and pay for tuition. My plan is to cut the other bills out, cut the loan payments in half and i might have enough to afford college and maintain an apartment but i'd still have to work full-time.
See my dilemna? Can't defer the loans if i don't have enough money to get back into college ya know?

[Maple50175]

Textbooks you can get so damn cheap online. A book i needed was 140$ new a macro/micro economic book. I got it used for 45$

Also some book thats going USED in the bookstore for 75$ i got for 15 shipped online

Yeah the loan thing is messed. I have too many but im just going to worrie about that when i get out. I need to somehow get money or a loan for a new car. Im going to try and work at the UPS store in the daytime and UPS main hub all night and get no sleep for like 3 weeks

Hell Then some dreams might come true

Goodluck man. Maybe if you go to your financial services they can help you with it. Have you tryed that?

[MRX]

I don't get off work in time to get to the nearest college, but i'll give em' a call. Just trying to find out the little talked about ways someone can get screwed by consolidation

[i'm the girl]

This one should definitely help you

lenders are:
William D. Ford/U.S. Department of Education
American Education Services (AES)
Educational Computer Systems, Inc. ( ECSI) - Might be able to defer that one

all are public/government as far as i know

ALRIGHT!! AES is my lender also -- log onto AES Online or call them (800)446-8210 and request paperwork for forbearnce on the basis of economic hardship -- that you don't make enough money to pay your loans right now -- AES can offer you up to three years deferment/forebearance, one year at a time (you could use all 3 in a row, you just have to re-up)

during this time ur gonna accrue intrest which you may or may not choose to pay, you don't have to during the forebearance time period
also - if you're already late, you can make your deferment retroactive to the point where you first went, say 60 days overdue (60 days is when AES send a notice to credit bureaus) to help your credit and to not default

and, if i understand correctly, if you go back to school, AES shouldn't make you pay anything while you're registered full time (you'll have to take a deferment if you're only PT)

anyway, that's how it worked with my stafford loan, which is federal, and its through AES

You might also ask them about consolidation - they'll prob have better resources - but that forebearance/deferment is great to help you get on your feet and its free (aside from interest accrued)

and to everybody:

deferment - putting loans on hold with no other justification needed
forebearance - you have a reason (in most cases, economic hardship - i.e. no cash)

and loan companies don't come after you until you've been out for 6 months - you can start to defer after that, usually

~*~ok now im tired -- hope that helped

[i'm the girl]

P.s.

on the AES website under the first heading, top left "manage your student loan account" you'll see a link for 'deferment & forbearance'

[MRX]

thank you very much sir, learn somethin new everyday. I'm not behind at all its just the overall payment that would slow my entrance back into college so yea i may defer it and consolidate the other two loans.

[i'm the girl]

thank you very much sir, learn somethin new everyday. I'm not behind at all its just the overall payment that would slow my entrance back into college so yea i may defer it and consolidate the other two loans.

i'm not a sir and you're older than me anyway : ) but you're too welcome

[dwf137]

I worked at a student loan company all summer, my dad's worked at one for over 6 years now, i'm pretty knowledgeable when it comes to student loans and credit and whatnot now.

You want to find out which loans you have are federal loans(unsubsidized/subsidized stafford and there's tons of others) and which ones are private. Depending on the school you're going to and your income and whatnot, you generaly do not get enough money in federal funds to pay completely for school, so you might have a few private loans.
Federal loans: If you have one lender for these, contact that lender and find out what your benifits are, it's a very good idea to consolidate them. If you have two or more lenders, you can go anywhere that offers federal consolidation loans, you don't even need to have any outstanding loans with them. Just ask where ever you want to consolidate for the form, fill it out, send it to them, and they'll send all of the paperwork to the current holders of your loans and they have to sell them by federal regulations.


Generally the terms are exactly what the federal government has layed out for the federal consolidation loans. Federal consolidation loans can be defered as well as fedral stafford loans. If you've already entered back into re-payment, you're losing some of the benifits of consolidating, but it'll still be somewhat benificial. Right now, the intrest rates are relativly low, and you'll lock in at an intrest rate for the life of the loan. The reason you'd lose some of the benifits is because they take the intrest rate that you currently have and lock that in for the life of the loan. The in school, before repayment rate is .6% lower then when you get out of school, so consolidating before you enter repayment is a huge bonus.



Private loans:
There's no federal regulations as far as being able to move them back and forth between lenders, some places will, some places wont. Generally consolidation loans are good because they will enable you to lower your payments, while increasing the time you're paying them.




Granted, if you do consolitate them and choose to pay a lower payment each month and take it over a longer period of time, you're going to pay more in the long run, but it can make it easier on you when you're dealing with financial hardships. Some companys allow you to make payments over and above what is required without penalties, some will charge you penatlies, make sure you ask if they do or not. Access Group did not, and the benifit to that is, if you happen to make more money in a different job and want to pay off your loans quicker, you can do it wihtout having to pay a penalty at each payment...

[uncle_el]

dwf posted some very good stuff.

make sure you aren't going back to school, because you generally can only consolidate once. $21,000 really isn't a lot of student loan debt, but then again you didn't finish. if you know you're done with school, at least for the next few years, then consolidate. if you think you may go back in a year or two, i would encourage you to come up with the $200/month and consolidate at a later date.

if you consolidate now, and then return to school, you end up in the same situation... more than one loan payment... and when you try to consolidate the 2nd time, you'll likely get shut down.

as far as deferment goes... you accrue interest while in deferment. the more money you have in loans, the more interest accrues. and as the interest accrues onto the loan, the total amount owed increases... thus it behooves you to get out of loan deferment at some point.

[MRX]

loads of info here thanks guys. I had no idea i could only consolidate once. Thats definately that bad side of consolidating i was looking for. I will be going back to school but i'm gonna be trying to get grants and such. Hopefully things will work out and i won't need to consolidate or defer any payments

[i'm the girl]

good luck : )