So I will be needing loans for grad school. I know you can borrow from the feds for about 8.5k subsidized and 10k unsubsidized. This will cover tuition for my first year, and I will need an extra 18k for living.

I been shopping and researching loans, and currently the prime rate is about 7.5 and the libor is somewhere in the high 4's. It seems as though the lenders offer loans that are either prime or libor PLUS an extra fixed percentage, making prime rates extremely high and libor rates over 7 percent.

Now, I looked loans from banks and the rates are around high 4's during school and 5.3 after school. This seems like a better deal. However, people keep saying to avoid bank loans as the interest rates are higher.

Am I missing something here? Also, I noticed banks have cushy repayment periods, i.e. 10,15,20 year repayment periods. Is there a penalty to select a 20 year repayment play and then paying more than the minimum payment? I would suspect this would piss them off because they wont be raping interest off me?

Help, please.

 

I receive loans from Sallie Mae. I think the max each year is $18K also. A part of it is subsidized and about $10k isn't.

Once its all said and done I should be about $60K in debt which makes me just wanna . Once payments become due, i plan to consolidate and find the lowest overall interest rate and get the loan amortized over 20+ years if possible. If you go through a bank, payments will be due immediately upon receiving your loan, which really sucks.

My payments through Sallie Mae become payalbe 6-months after graduation.

I hope this helps. My real goal is to get my work, which happens to be a bank, to pay the tuition for me. *fingers crossed*

 

Sallie Mae is a good choice.

Also, make sure that you remember to consolidate down the road.

 

Sallie Mae is the federal loan that he's talking about, so that's already covered.

Try CitiAssist, which is Citibank's student loan program. Most of my friends in b-school use CitiAssist, and I plan on using them when I start b-school in August.

Here's the link: CitiAssist

 

Thanks. Yeah, I did end up applying a loan from there instead of Access and THE. I got the best rate which is prime plus .375 for my school, which still kinda sucks since the prime is so high.

Sallie Mae I think charges some fees that the other lenders waive so I am going to pass on them. I would have used THE but they dont offer private loans for the school I am going to.

 

Sallie Mae scares me ...
http://money.cnn.com/2005/12/14/news/fortu...22605/index.htmMay I ask what school you are going to and what are you going to be studying?

 

Alabama school of law