Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests help with student loans

im having some serious problem with student loans

i owe somewhere between 25-30K and i cannot afford to pay them.

its with like 2 or 3 different loan companies, and one of them has like a 15.9% interest

i was told they cannot be erased by filing bankrupcy like credit card debt can. id do that in a second if i could. theres no possible way to get them erased is there?

is there a way i can consolidate them or get that rediculous interest reduced?

what effect do student loans have on getting a business loan? im getting ready to try to start up a business but i have doubts id be able to get any kind of loan. i dont need massive amounts either...im trying to start my own garage with a friend of mine (he has worse credit than anyone could ever imagine)

going to school was the biggest mistake of my life, it really and truthfully was. i went to a 18 month tech school for computers, graduated with a 3.5 GPA (and i slacked off pretty bad too) i graduated in 14 months cause of the tons of computer expierence i have, and i have an associates degree. the computer field is horrible where i live. the only jobs i could find are $7-8 an hr help desk jobs, not even remotely close to what im looking for. i can honestly say i didnt learn a whole lot in school. alot of the classes i knew the majority of the stuff taught already, and the programming classes are super simple once you know one language well (i can program in 5 different languages) if i could give my degree back and get my money back i would in a second (they should have a return policy on degrees )

im a self-taught mechanic, ive been working in a small garage for about 5 months now. ive learned so much. ive became a good mechanic, and for the most part i can do work at or below flat-rate time, without damaging parts or cutting corners. what i fix never comes back needing to be fixed again. ive been accumulating tools too. id only need a loan to buy some tools (welder, torch, various specility tools, scanner) and to pay for a few months rent and utilities. i know i could succeed at running my own shop. ive also learned how to run a business. my friend has his own shop which is currently going under because his dad *tries* to run it, and is horrible at it. thats why me and him are trying to start our own.

i appreciate any help and i really need it

thanks,
Russell

First off are these education/student loans or are they personal loans that you took out to pay for school? I've never heard of an education loan with a rate that high; or even half that high.

IF they are education loans, then yes, you can consolidate them. I use Citibank but anyone should be able to do it for you. A Google should bring up billions. Fannie Mae is also a popular choice.

If you'd have done this a month ago you could have saved yourself even more, as I believe the interest rates on student loans went up 2 points this month. But you should still be able to save yourself a lot of money.

I pay $89/month for $34,000 in outstanding loans. So that should tell you something. You won't get that low anymore, but you should be able to pay well below $150/month on $30K in loans.

As far as getting a business loan, as long as your credit is good, you should be fine. Student loans generally don't count against your credit score unless you've been missing payments or the payments are so high that they overburden you.

Bankruptcy, you're joking right? You're in your early 20's. Bankruptcy will pretty much kick you in the ass for the next 7+ years, avoid it like the plague!

Who did you go through for your student loans? I'm currently going through the whole financial aid thing, and I've never heard of anyone having a problem getting a low interest rate.

What expenses do you have that you can't pay the bill? If you're living at home, I'd keep it that way until you can pay off some debt.

As for your degree, you may think it's a waste of money, but for the most part, employers don't want to see ONLY what you know, they want to see that little piece of paper that shows you sat through 2-4+ years to get where you are now.

Opening up a garage is going to be a pretty big headache, as there's a lot more to it than just proving you can turn a wrench. There are some pretty big expenses when it comes to owning your own business, such as insurance, advertising, renting, utilities, etc.., depending on the type/location of said business.

Give it some more time with the job hunt, you're still young and need to build up experience. Try to broaden your horizons and get your foot in the door with a company you'd like to work for, and go from there.

Hopefully this helps.

Mark

I'm really sorry to tell you this, but you JUST missed the opportunity to consolidate. I know 15% is really high but it just took affect at the end of June! I guess really the only thing I can say is good luck with everything, usually your school will work with you. I'm only a junior and my pops is payin for everything, so I guess just for all other people watch the news cause this consolidation thing was all over.

sallie may is the company thats giving me 15% interest, all combined, about $350 a month is what my payments are...i keep using forbearances cause $350 is too much for me to pay

Sigma, I have a 10% interest rate from Sallie Mae also. Actually, Citibank was who I took the loan out with and Sallie Mae bought it from them. I have really good credit so I can see how someone can have 15%

I am also pretty sure that you cannot consolodate private loans. All the consolodation things you see are for government loans, and yes for those you missed out.

Also, Being a tech school I am not sure if the government will give loans for that, but as you stated Russel, you have these loans through private companies.

One more thing. If these were STUDENT loans (not personal taken out for school) they wont affect your credit as bad as if they are just straight up loans (car loan etc) Even if bankruptcy would clear a student loan, which again I dont think it will, you would be screwed for 7 years so forget about a loan then.

EDIT: Another word of advice for you would be to get in touch with Sallie Man and get them to extend the term of the loan. For the ammount you have loaned, even with a 15% interest, if you stretch them out as long as they can go (30-40 years) that would decrease your payment substantially. If not, ask them what can be done if anything. Unfortunatly private loans are not very forgiving in my experiance. Once your interest rate is locked in when they distribute the loan that is usually pretty much it.

stop putting money into your car too
maybe even sell off some mods to pay the bills.

10%?! And this is normal now?

God Damn. I only pay 1.9% on my student loans.

It's not normal. And there isn't a consolidation "cutoff".

I'm in the process of consolidating my student loans and my wife's and the interest rate through Citibank is 3.5% for consolidation. The deal with the June 30th cut off date was to have it even lower than that...After June 30th, the rates were raised (I actually got the form several months ago and they told me this. Life just sometimes takes away time for filling out a consolidation form (like three pages, DOH!!)

Straight off their website...

Originally posted by CITIBANK STUDENT LOANS:

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Current Interest Rates
Stafford ........................ 5.30%*
PLUS ............................. 6.10%*
Loan Consolidation ....... 3.50%*

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