Private Student Loan Consolidation

[cyowan]

Hello CFers,

I've been looking into re-consolidating my private loans lately, hoping to lower my monthly payment. Has anyone had any luck with this? I know gov't loans are easier to consolidate, but all of mine are private. Just curious if anyone has tried and succeeded in doing it with private loans. Thanks in advance!

 

[NATEizKING]

Not worth trying from my experience, everywhere I called was at the same rate or higher without collateral. I tried about 8 banks where I live and the best offer I got was 7.9% and required collateral for which I only had my $3000 car. If you're going to borrow against your house, I'm not sure a home equity would be much less than that either and you typically have to have owned it for a couple years before they'll give you one.

The best offer I saw was to convert loan to Discover and pay a 3% fee then have 0% but you'd have to pay off the full amount in 2 years. After calculating how much I'd save in that time compared to the fee, it wasn't worth the hassle.

 

[chuckd4735]

We looked into this with my wife, and it seemed like more work then it was worth in the end. I would love to hear a story of someone who has done this!

 

[ISUME]

You could try https://www.sofi.com/borrow/, I didn't have enough loans to qualify.

If you find a deal under 6% please update the thread.

 

[Rhoadhoused]

I did right out of school for all my loans of similar interest rate. I have loans with Wells Fargo and I called them up and they did it pretty easily. I had a couple really nasty rates though, but they got lowered to 6.4% or something.

I wish I could pay above the minimum more often and try to knock them out a bit faster.

From my experience, private loans are consolidated at the market rate or something and federal loans are an average of your rates.

 

[CarlHungus]

I did right out of school for all my loans of similar interest rate. I have loans with Wells Fargo and I called them up and they did it pretty easily. I had a couple really nasty rates though, but they got lowered to 6.4% or something.

I wish I could pay above the minimum more often and try to knock them out a bit faster.

Wait, they won't let you pay more than the minimum? I thought that was illegal

 

[Rhoadhoused]

Wait, they won't let you pay more than the minimum? I thought that was illegal

I wish I could afford to* haha

 

[CarlHungus]

I wish I could afford to* haha

Ah, gotcha. Bad comprehension on my end

 

[CyFan61]

Can someone explain to me the appeal of private loans over federal? Just curious why you made the choice.

 

[cloneswereall]

Can someone explain to me the appeal of private loans over federal? Just curious why you made the choice.

For me I only qualified for something like $1.5k a year in federal loans. Had to get a private loan to pay the rest of my tuition.

 

[Rhoadhoused]

Can someone explain to me the appeal of private loans over federal? Just curious why you made the choice.

For me, federal loans only cover so much. I had some private loans to basically cover rent and cost of living during college.

 

[CyFan61]

For me I only qualified for something like $1.5k a year in federal loans. Had to get a private loan to pay the rest of my tuition.

For me, federal loans only cover so much. I had some private loans to basically cover rent and cost of living during college.

Gotcha, thanks. I didn't think about the "Estimated Family Contribution" in federal loans as basically a chunk of money that you aren't allowed to borrow from them.

 

[NATEizKING]

You could try https://www.sofi.com/borrow/, I didn't have enough loans to qualify.

If you find a deal under 6% please update the thread.

I'd be shocked if anyone can find that low of rate. I would have done the Discover thing but ended up dealing with my sister to borrow it at 4% instead of the 8.4% Wells Fargo was charging me and my federal is 6.125% or something and didn't figure out to be worth the transfer over. I tried to lower with Wells Fargo but they just sucked to deal with in general so it wasn't worth it. Disappointed when my mortgage got picked up by them but at least they automatically apply extra payments to principal (when I get to that point), for my student loans, I had to call every month to tell them to apply the extra payments to principal or they would just apply it as prepaying your interest, which was stupid.

 

[Rhoadhoused]

Gotcha, thanks. I didn't think about the "Estimated Family Contribution" in federal loans as basically a chunk of money that you aren't allowed to borrow from them.

Yep.

I'd always joke with my parents about the thousands of dollars they put for that and when I was getting that check.

 

[Wesley]

http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/13/news/economy/older-student-debt/index.html?iid=TL_Popular

Here is how one person kicked the repayment can down the road.

 

[ISUCyclones2015]

Hopefully I can consolidate my loans when I graduate. Got a 6.8% and a 7%. My FICO is high 700s according to discover. Trying to get below that 6% hopefully

 

[kilgore_trout]

How do I invest in this student loan racket? The margins seem awesome! Said the ISLLC.

 

[ISUME]

Anyone have any experience with Home Equity Loans? My bank had a radio ad for 2.5% Home Equity Loans, so I was wondering what that entailed.