Consolidating Loans - How To Approach

[Thirteen]

Oh Attending Spouses,
I've done this with my federal undergrad/grad loans, but I think we need to do it for DH's med loans. I want to stay on top of everything, and one monthly payment sounds good: good idea, bad idea? How do I go about finding the best service/rates?
*offers champagne and bon bons to the attending shrine* "Oooooohm."

[Chrisada]

We are still in residency, but consolidated through Direct Loans. They take a nice payment from our checking account automatically each month.

[MissCrabette]

I was under the impression that the rate is the weighted average of your current rates. Or is that only for federal loans?

[Thirteen]

I think it's fed only. He has one that's quite substantial, and private. Blech...

[Thirteen]

*bump*
Help! The loan companies are taking all our money!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Michele]

I haven't looked into this in a long while but my vet school loans are consolidated with UHEAA.

My only suggestion would be to not consolidate both of your's together. If one of you were to die, then the other would still be required to pay for your spouse's loans. If they are separate, they disappear.

[Vanquisher]

I did get a question about this in a PM, and I just wanted to respond so that everyone could see. We consolidated our loans in 2004, so pretty much forever ago in student loan terms because everything has changed since then. The market crashed. Our consolidation loan was sold to Sallie Mae. I don't think that the company we consolidated with even exists anymore (Southwest Student Loan Solutions). Our private loans were not consolidated with our federal loans, and we did not consolidate his loans and my loans together.

I think we just got really lucky with our rates in the market at that time.

Does anyone know what the deal is with Obama's new offer to consolidate loans? I've tried to research it online but I am unclear as to why it's better than regular consolidation. I know it doesn't reset your repayment period so I guess you pay less interest?!?? I'm SO clueless about this crap but with the amount of my loans and the fact that some are at 8.5% makes me feel like I've got to do something to make the payments more manageable... Sorry if this has been asked and answered already!

[Deebs]

The only thing I know is that it doesn't apply to "old borrowers" (people whose first loan originated before 1997, I think), so we basically ignored it because it doesn't apply to us. I wish someone would offer private loan consolidation!!!!

[Thirteen]

Okay, so...
The Dept of Education is the only entity handling federal loan consolidation now. I think the highest it can get is at a fixed 8.25%, UNLESS you qualify for Special Direct Loan Consolidation (existing Dept. of Education FED loans, and another type of FED loan, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF FEDERAL PERKINS loans). DH does not qualify for SPDC, but I do, so I went ahead and did that. I'll still have 3 payments, but one for federal, one for private, and a quarterly for a very small Perkins.

My question is the following: Would you go for Graduated Repayment (ups the monthly amount every 2 years), Extended Repayment (forgiven debt after 25 years if still owing), or Income Based Repayment? My gut says to stay away from IBR, only because the government will see "all the money we roll in" (*cough snort*), and tell us we can afford it. Dude, we can't.
Obviously, you are going to pay more interest with GR and ER, but the monthly payment amount is what's killing us. It's only going to increase next month (hold me!).

[diggitydot]

Does anyone know what the deal is with Obama's new offer to consolidate loans? I've tried to research it online but I am unclear as to why it's better than regular consolidation. I know it doesn't reset your repayment period so I guess you pay less interest?!?? I'm SO clueless about this crap but with the amount of my loans and the fact that some are at 8.5% makes me feel like I've got to do something to make the payments more manageable... Sorry if this has been asked and answered already!

Holy. Shit.

I'm so glad DH consolidated his loans back in 2008 at I think 5%. I thought that was inanely high because mine are locked in at 3%.

$240K @ 8% = my heart attack

[Thirteen]

Holy. Shit.

I'm so glad DH consolidated his loans back in 2008 at I think 5%. I thought that was inanely high because mine are locked in at 3%.

$240K @ 8% = my heart attack

Aaaaaaand THIS is why I am in charge. Don't trust a doctor to "do it" when you know they won't/are too busy.
*facepalm*


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah, I got kinda screwed. I graduated early from law school (2.5 yrs) and by doing that I had to take out grad plus loans during the summer (that and my 2nd master's degree required that I take summer classes...) so I have a BUNCH at 8.5%. It sucks getting penalized for trying to get out into the work force earlier. (Not that there are a ton of jobs out there for law grads right now!) They make me want to throw up every time I look at them. They are actually the only thing DH and I argue about, he doesn't have any loans so he doesn't really get the whole thing. I just wish I understood the whole consolidation thing a little better. UGH, UGH, UGH.

[Vanquisher]

Me too DD. We got so lucky. We consolidated in 2004-5 at 3%. We are on auto payment, so it's 2.75% now. We were able to defer throughout residency. In 18 months from now, our percentage will go to 1.75% for having 36 on time payments.

It's a whole new shit storm now.