Upcoming Student Loans

[braznyc]

Hi All,

I haven't posted in years (smile). I have one more semester and I'll have my MBA. I never had to take loans for undergrad. My loans are strictly grad school stuff. I'm about $60K in the hole on student loans all federal. My question is there are SOOOOO many of them on my credit report and as per myfico this isn't helping. In fact Discover denied me with a 680 on TU saying the loans scare them, seriously. I also haven't done anything with revolving accounts. I'm working on that now - as in using my credit cards (I actually loathe credit, but I've started a new business and it's necessary). Now, that I am moving back into the credit world I wanted to know can I get these loans consolidated? Right now it's the Dept of Ed, Nelnet, and Citbank. I would like to pay one person in a year (you must begin paying six months after we graduate, right?). Either way I need to know what I can start doing now to prepare for when they will begin? I would like to start paying on all the loans but wow at how many lenders. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I plan to visit the school to help me navigate this in the Fall, but I know the members here are awesome from the past. Please let me know all suggestions are welcomed.

[Anonymous]

---

@braznyc wrote:

Hi All,

I haven't posted in years (smile). I have one more semester and I'll have my MBA. I never had to take loans for undergrad. My loans are strictly grad school stuff. I'm about $60K in the hole on student loans all federal. My question is there are SOOOOO many of them on my credit report and as per myfico this isn't helping. In fact Discover denied me with a 680 on TU saying the loans scare them, seriously. I also haven't done anything with revolving accounts. I'm working on that now - as in using my credit cards (I actually loathe credit, but I've started a new business and it's necessary). Now, that I am moving back into the credit world I wanted to know can I get these loans consolidated? Right now it's the Dept of Ed, Nelnet, and Citbank. I would like to pay one person in a year (you must begin paying six months after we graduate, right?) Yes. You get a 6 month grace period after you are no longer a full or part time student.. Either way I need to know what I can start doing now to prepare for when they will begin? I would like to start paying on all the loans but wow at how many lenders. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I plan to visit the school to help me navigate this in the Fall, but I know the members here are awesome from the past. Please let me know all suggestions are welcomed.

---

If you want to get down to one lender, go ahead and consolidate your loans AFTER the grace period. If you consolidate before the grace period is up, you are going to lose it. Check with each of your lenders and see if they offer any extra interest rate discounts for consolidating with them. You might also want to weigh how you can pay (think credit card rewards).

I'm surprised that Discover said it was the number of loans you had rather than the amount. I got a card from them with 11 student loans reporting, but my DTI scares the bejeebies out of them.

Hope that helps!

[SCF]

It sounds like you have a mix of federal and private student loans.  You'll want to do plenty of research before you consolidate them all together.  If you do that, you'll give up the protections and income-driven payment options that are available with Federal loans, but you may wind up with a lower interest rate.  I personally, wouldn't give up the ability to defer and lower my payments in exchange for a lower interest rate, but the option is there.

[braznyc]

Thank you both for your responses. I only have federal loans, no private. I refused private and used savings to pay the difference, etc. I'm so glad I posted this question. I don't think I will consolidate until I feel I need to. I will just set them all up with a credit card/auto pay so I'm not going crazy trying to remember. As far as Discover they were an odd ball denial, but it's fine. I will apply again sometime next year or so. Thanks again.