What are the best student loans to take out?
capturringmoods asked:
I am waiting on my financial aide from my university to come in, but whatever reward money i do not receive i have to pay the rest of in college loans…..and it’s not going to be cheap. I was wondering what is the most dependable source where I can get a student loan that is possibly has a low interest rate and longer payment period so the payments are as big? If you have any suggestions or have knowledge from previous experience it would help so much!
I am waiting on my financial aide from my university to come in, but whatever reward money i do not receive i have to pay the rest of in college loans…..and it’s not going to be cheap. I was wondering what is the most dependable source where I can get a student loan that is possibly has a low interest rate and longer payment period so the payments are as big? If you have any suggestions or have knowledge from previous experience it would help so much!
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:01 pm
If your school offers Federal Perkins loans those should be your first choice, followed by subidized Stafford or Direct loans. Both have 10 year repayment periods, but the more you borrow the higher your payments will be.
April 24th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Capturing:
Part of your financial aid award - or perhaps the entire financial aid award - will consist of an opportunity to borrow from the Federal Student Aid system’s Stafford loan program. The Stafford is undeniably the best student loan that will be available to you.
As a dependent freshman, the maximum amount you can borrow from the Stafford program this year will be $5500. Next year, that amount will increase to $6500, and in your junior and senior years, you will be permitted to borrow up to $7500 each year.
What makes the Stafford loan so good? A whole lot of things. For one thing, you’re already approved. There’s an “application”, but there are no questions about your income, your debt, your assets, or your credit history. The lender won’t even look at a credit report, and you won’t be asked for a cosigner. The interest rate is low and fixed (6.8%), and you’ll have 10 years to repay the loan - with your first payment due 6 months after you leave school.
If the Stafford isn’t going to be sufficient, then the next best option is a companion loan that is offered by the government - the PLUS loan. This one’s not for you - it’s only available to your parents, but again, the interest rate is fixed, and though this loan IS a credit-based loan, it’s easy to qualify, and your parents shouldn’t have any trouble getting approved, unless they have really horrible credit. This one can also be repaid beginning 6 months after you leave school.
If your parents aren’t going to be helping you out, and you’re looking for additional loans in your own name, then the “best” loan is anything you can get from a legitimate lender. This news is filtering down to new students awfully slowly, but the same banking and lending crisis that ruined the home mortgage lending market has destroyed the student loan market as well.
First of all, there are only a handful of lenders who accept student loan applications. We’re talking Citi, Chase, Sallie Mae, Discover, Wells Fargo, and maybe a few more. All of these lenders are applying extremely conservative and rigorous lending criteria to every application - there is almost no chance that you will be approved for one of these “private” student loans unless you provide a very credit-worthy cosigner.
I know this is probably quite a bit different than what you’ve heard about college students doing in the past - and it is. Spend some time reading through some of the older questions in this section, and you’ll see that hundreds of students are looking for a lender who will approve them without a cosigner.
If your school’s financial aid package, including the Stafford loan, is going to leave you well short of what you need for school each year, and your parents aren’t going to help - you’re going to be in a financial bind. You can not anticipate finding a private lender who will approve you for school loan without a cosigner, so you’re going to have to appeal to your parents to help you out. The PLUS is the best option for them.
Good luck!
April 27th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Get federal student loans. Be very careful if you want to take out private student loans because they usually have higher or variable interests. Also you can look into Federal Pell Grant.
A Federal Pell Grant, unlike a loan, does not have to be repaid. Pell Grants are awarded usually only to undergraduate students who have not earned a bachelor’s or a professional degree. (In some cases, however, a student enrolled in a post-baccalaureate teacher certification program might receive a Pell Grant.) Pell Grants are considered a foundation of federal financial aid, to which aid from other federal and nonfederal sources might be added.
April 30th, 2009 at 2:05 am
Dear capturringmoods,
May be this site can help you
Best of luck
May 2nd, 2009 at 3:16 pm
collegefinder.bebto.com- try this site. It has info about different US student loans and scholarships.