Student loans

[michael_s]

My son is about to head off to college and it looks like he'll need to get a Stafford loan.
Looks like we have three options.
Sallie Mae
Nel Net
U.S. Department of Education, which redirects to Chase Bank.
Anyone here have any experience or recommendations?

[Michael]

My kid is going to law school and is doing Stafford loans. She chose Citibank because the deal is slightly better with them. My understanding is that you can use any lender who participates, although your son's school may have a "preferred" lender.

Here's what the fed's say: http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/s...tloans.jsp

[wurm]

I'm pretty sure we used Direct Loans for the Stafford loans. Now we're in the process of looking for the best private loans to make up the difference.

[AAA]

just make sure they get a degree. Secondly, get a degree they can get a job with. Get a job they can pay back their loans with.

If you don't think they are responsible for any of the above, let your adult children figure out how they will fund their own higher education.

Agreeing to co-sign or other will only put you in the responsibility should they not be able to pay back their loans. Through ineptitude, laziness, downturn in market, illness, disability or death. Student loans can not be disposed of through bankruptcies. At least not yet.

[mattkime]

I don't think it matters much

[Numo]

Here is another option that I just heard about today, so I don't know enough yet to recommend it or not:

http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/s...tloans.jsp

It sounds like it's a federal loan program for parents who need money to cover the difference between their undergraduate child's financial aid and the cost of college. If I understand it correctly, you can also apply for a loan deferment, which will postpone payments until after graduation. The financial aid person I spoke with said the interest rate is 6% fixed, but that doesn't agree with the info on the web site.

[pinion]

I'm with you wurm. Me and the wife did the same thing. And yes AAA, All that is very important. I wouldn't cosign on any loan though. My parents didn't cosign for me and I was still able to get the loan... of ocurse this was three years ago when I first started taking them out.

[mattkime]

>>I wouldn't cosign on any loan though. My parents didn't cosign for me

Eh, you should check to see what the costs are for _not_ cosigning. Some parents might have good reason to trust their kid to repay. Would seem silly to pay some large percentage more due to lack of trust.

[JoeH]

mattkime wrote:
>>I wouldn't cosign on any loan though. My parents didn't cosign for me

Eh, you should check to see what the costs are for _not_ cosigning. Some parents might have good reason to trust their kid to repay. Would seem silly to pay some large percentage more due to lack of trust.

:agree:

Today's student loan rules are not the ones many of us went through school with years ago. In the last decade they also especially relaxed the rules on so-called private loans and the interest rates that can be charged. A student may not need a co-signer on the government sponsored direct and indirect student loan programs to get the good interest rate. But on the private loans the interest rate is based on the student's credit rating (usually non-existent) and can be over 13%. With a co-signer, they can get a lower rate because it will be partly based on that person's credit rating. For example, last year one son needed private loan money to pay for his school. Through SallieMae by himself the rate would have been just over 12.6%. With me as a co-signer, the rate he got was about 10.5%.

Hunting around this year, there are some lenders who do better than SallieMae on private loans. For the Stafford Program subsidized and unsubsidized loans the interest rates are set by the government. But some lenders waive some of the fees they are allowed to charge.

[wurm]

I just discovered this site. Might be worth looking into just to see our options.