CONSOLIDATE YOUR STUDENT LOANS. NOW.
So, I’ve been hearing about how student loan percentages were going to go up, but I didn’t pay much attention until NPR talked about it on Sound Money. Turns out to be quite true, APR’s are supposed to go up 2% starting July 1st. This could mean an awful lot of money on a 20 year
loan, it seems. I talked ti over with my mom and she talked it over with her bank.
So I called up Great Lakes and they literally told me absolutely everything I needed to fill out for their consolidation form at my.greatlakes.com , and I sent it in. I get to keep my grace period, and my percentage went from 2.77 to …. 2.87. That’s much better than 4.77.
I still don’t have to worry about it until October, though if I can afford it, I’d like to start paying early. (fat chance, but still.)
Anyway, those of you who are burdened with student loan debt like myself (I paid for my college entirely by my own loans and scholarships, and that adds up in a private school), figure out what’s going on with your loans and consolidate them now if you can.
PS: Go through a bank, preferably one you’re already working with. If you receive ANYTHING in the mail about consolidation, THROW IT OUT. Any bastard that’s willing to pretend to be representing the company that owns your loans is NOT HONEST ENOUGH FOR YOUR BUSINESS.
Add: I called them, because I was interested in the wording of the consolidation, which said they’d put off processing my consol until the end of my grace period if I entered one in. As it turns out, it won’t affect my ultimate percentage (they’ll go by the percentage I put down right now), but because of the delay, my rate will go up from july until the grace period ends. What that means is that I’m out less than 100 bucks, so… no huge deal. It’s worth it to not have to pay until October, methinks.
Yeah, first thing I did out of college was consolidate my loans.
Although I should probably look at what I have, and see if I can’t drop my rate any….
And there are some federal loan consolidation companies that are actually worthwhile.
The ones that amuse me are the ones that mail me telling me it’s my last chance to consolidate, when my loans have been consolidated for over a year now.
I went with Sallie Mae, they already owned a fast majority of my debt already and it give me a 3.6 interest rate, but it drops one full point if I make on-time payments for a year. So, that’s good :)
According to the person I spoke with, mine has the capacity to drop a full point if I make all my payments for three years. It’ll also go down a quarter point if I let them automatically withdraw it.
woot!