Still in school. Want to refinance a Sallie Mar private loan for $4,500

[MACFRME]

Hi:

I am still in school, and will be graduating next May. I have my federal loans under control ($28,000 for my entire Bachelor's), but I am continuing on to go to law school. I have a private loan from Sallie Mae (opened in May 2012) that has an 8% interest rate. It has since accrued almost $500 in interest. I have rehabbed my personal credit so that I may qualify to refinance the debt in some other way. Could I go to another lender and refinance the loan (and subsequently relieve my cosigner) at a lower rate? I am open to the option of starting to make payments on it right now, as they wouldn't be too much to handle for me. 

I even considered doing a personal loan from a credit union to pay it off. I am not sure if I will be able to find a personal, unsecured loan with a lower rate than 8%, however.

My credit situation:

EQ

723 FICO

AAoA 9 months

Age: nearly 6 years

5 inquiries

7 new accounts this year

TU

764 FICO

AAoA: 1 year

Age: 9 years

4 inquiries

7 new accounts this year

EX

658 FICO

AAoA: 1 year

Age: nearly 6 years

5 inquiries

7 new accounts this year

I am a member of Alliant Credit Union and Randolph Brooks FCU. Am able to consider another for this loan. Please tell me what you think.

[Luscher]

Most lenders will require you to have a certain amount borrowed like around 7500 before you can refinance. that is not always the case so make sure you find out before applying for any refinancing. Try to find a financier that pulls transition since your score is much higher on that. They base their interest rate you get off your score. Good luck and try not to ever take out private student loans in the future.

[MACFRME]

I didn't even want this one. Went on study abroad, and the school would not extend my Stafford loans to pay for the trip. My grandmother cosigned (think 40-year perfect history, with 800+ scores) and they still gave me this crappy APR.

[Luscher]

nobody wants private loans, they always give 8 percent and up rates. it sucks

[MACFRME]

So my Compass Bank credit card sent me no fee, 0% for 1 year convenience checks (11.24% thereafter). I wrote mysellf out one for the balance the Sallie Mae loan and am going to pay it off completely with that. Over this next year, I'm going to chip away at the $4,000, and will hopefully be done before the promo period ends. 

[Luscher]

let me know how that works out for you

[MACFRME]

There is something else I just figured out.

When I have been denied for credit and pulled my FICO scores, I kept getting this phrase "installment loan balances in relation to original loan amounts is too high." For example, on my Wally TU FICO report it says that and a short hitory are keeping me at 766. I looked at my credit report today and it appears that Sallie Mae was reporting a "credit limit" (as seen on the EX back door) of $4,000, while the loan balance was almost $4,500. I compared it with my other student loan, and sure enough, that one says it has a credit limit of "$28,732" and a balance of "$28,732." This must mean that Sallie Mae reporting a balance over the original loan amount/"credit limit" has been hurting my credit score too. Wow.

I am curious now as to how it will affect my score, since it will be paid/closed/never late/under the "credit limit."

[Luscher]

non of my student loans report a credit limit. but nice score^^^^