College Loan Question

[Crazy Hakim]

Does anybody know of any company that is still helping college graduates with College Loan Consolidation? Seems like a lot of the loaners no longer do this.
Any help would be appreciated!

 

[trip]

Here is another site with loads of school loan info.

http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showforum=19

 

[Free4Life11]

If they are federal loans, Direct Loans.

If they are private loans, good luck. I doubt anyone will do a private student loan consolidation anymore.

 

[Ashley Kees]

Private loans cannot be consolidated anymore. Federal loans can (and probably should) be consolidated through Direct Services. It takes about 2 months to get all the ducks lined up, but totally worth it! Our payments went down $80 a month and we are saving hundreds in interest payments.

Incidentally, if both husband and wife have federal loans, they can be consolidated together into one giant loan through direct.

 

[Nie0214]

Federal loans can (and probably should) be consolidated through Direct Services. It takes about 2 months to get all the ducks lined up, but totally worth it! Our payments went down $80 a month and we are saving hundreds in interest payments.

How did your payments go down but saving hundreds in interest? Did you have a bunch of $2k loans at 4% and then a $40k at 7% or something?

The Calculator on Direct Loans is interesting, it defaults to a 20 year loan, so my $20K in loans would be charged $13k in interest!

 

[tinkerbell615]

I have to be very honest. My DS just graduated last week and he has quite a bit of loan debt. DH and myself do not even have a clue where to start with this. We look and look and read and read and still don't understand any of it. I know if we make the wrong move... it could cost DS quite a bit. I don't want to hijack this thread, but is there anyone we can call and talk to. DS doesn't have a clue either, so we need to help him as much as we can.

 

[Ashley Kees]

How did your payments go down but saving hundreds in interest? Did you have a bunch of $2k loans at 4% and then a $40k at 7% or something?

The Calculator on Direct Loans is interesting, it defaults to a 20 year loan, so my $20K in loans would be charged $13k in interest!

DH had 8 separate loans, all of them under $4k, half subsidized and half un-subsidized. Since there was is a minimum monthly payment for each loan, the total minimum for all was $230 a month. After consolidation, our interest rate dropped a half a point, and the minimum payment is now $150 a month. We signed up for automatic monthly payments and they dropped the interest rate 1/4 point again.

There is also no pre-payment penalty, so when I send an extra payment in, or a little extra on each payment, it will cost me less interest in the long run.

 

[disneymarie]

If they are federal loans, Direct Loans.

If they are private loans, good luck. I doubt anyone will do a private student loan consolidation anymore.

I did my federal laons, dropped the interest in half and the payments by 1/4.
Directloan.com
I was contacted as I had fallen behind and no way on $688 a months could I pay $500 in a loan.

They helped me greatly with a new program that became available a few months ago. Before that I did not have the oppertunity to help myself.

 

[surfergirl602]

I'm still looking for a place to consolidate my husbands private loans.