With student loan rates rising at the end of the week, what's the best way/vendor to consolidate everything?

Question

I can't even keep track of where i'm borrowing money from (gov't, wells fargo, etc), so i was in need of a quick/painless way of locking onto the rates i'm at right now.. thx thx thx in advance!!!!!

Answer 1

You should consolidate now, you are allowed to consolidate if you are in-school.

Currently if you are in-school your stafford loan rate is 4.7%, consolidation would put you at 4.75%, if you are in repayment your current rate is 5.3% and you would consolidate at 5.375%.

July 1st interest rates will increase to 6.54% if you are in-school and 7.514% if you are in repayment. It will definitely pay to consolidate right now because of the amount of dollars you will save in interest over your repayment. (Consolidating will extend repayment out over a longer period of time than what you are currently scheduled to repay, so the lender recoups some of the interest that way.)

Find out who you have loans with at www.nslds.ed.gov under the Financial Aid Review tab. This will tell you more info than you probably ever wanted to know about your loans in one place. (You will need your Dept of Ed PIN to access this information, to have your PIN emailed to you request a duplicate at www.pin.ed.gov)

It is up to you to choose who to consolidate with. Emergency legislation passed earlier this month revoked what was called the Single Holder Rule so you can choose to go with any lender you would like. It is good to find out if you get to keep your grace period, do you get an interest rate or principle reductions for making on-time payments or electronic payments to your account.

This application must be completed by midnight on June 30th, so act quickly.

Answer 2

my financial aid officer at school said to wait until you are just about to graduate before consolidating! talk to yours and see what they say.