@Anonymous wrote:
Good morning everyone.
As you can all tell, I'm new here and I'd love to learn more about all this stuff to make sure I won't be in bad shape later down the road.
Anyways, I've been pulling out student loans with Chase for the past 3 semesters ($5k for 2 semesters and $8k for another). My mom always co-signed with me because I basically had no credit. Apparently, my Experian score is 718, which is pretty good for a 21-year old student imo. I only have a Bank of America Student Platinum Plus card with a $1k CL and a Movado credit card with a $1.5k CL. My mom's credit on the other hand is taking a hit because my younger sister just went to college also. I need to pull out another loan for next semester which leads me to this question. Which would be better of the two: 1)Get a SL with no co-signer (could that lower my score?) 2)Should I still use my mom as the co-signer? (which I'm guessing would still impact her score negatively; I don't want her score to get any lower).
Plus, is Chase a good lender for private student loans? I am really lost on where to start looking or what to look for. I will continue to read and search the forums to see if I can find more answers. Thanks in advance!
I originated and collected private student loans for years, so I can give you good advice on this one.
First, your credit score is decent for you to get a private loan on your own. However, if your Mom has a higher FICO than you (or even compatible), it would benefit you to have her as a cosigner again.
From a bank's perspective, when you have a cosigner, it reduces universal default. Meaning, the bank has two people to go after to collect the loan, rather than one, if the student defaults.
Chase is one of the best companies to go with for a private loan. However, it's best to avoid a private loan, unless you absolutely have no other options (always exhaust federal loans first).
And so you know, Chase only uses Equifax for their scorecard (they will tell you this when you apply, if asked), so pull your Equifax credit rather than Experian.
