Student Loans interest increase July 1st

OK, so I'm a complete idiot about this kind of stuff. I just have one student loan and it's one of the gov't ones (Stafford or something like that), can I still consolidate? How does it work?

Unfortunately I am not a Financial Aid officer, but I work for a university and got this information today. I think you may have one type of loan (Stafford, they could be subsidized or unsubsidized) but usually you get one separate loan per term or academic year. You may have one account and several loans the same type under your one account. Some people have several loans from several lendors (same Stafford type from Citibank, Key Bank, etc). You could consolidate all those loans into one loan at a fixed rate. Call your financial Institution and find out how the increase may affect you. Stafford loan rates for the year were In school/in grace: 2.77% In repayment: 3.37%. After July 1st will increase to In school/in grace: 4.70% In repayment: 5.30% (50%-60% increase)
You can also shop around with other financial institutions and tranfer your loan at a fixed rate.


Edited by clflgrl 2005-06-21 2:04 PM

You can consolidate your government loans once and only once. I locked mine in (stupidly) at 6.25/5.25 and my wife's at 3.25/2.25.

I say if you haven't done it yet you better do it now.

HD

Thanks for the heads up.

I feel like I get poorer every few months. And for all of you who didn't qualify for Stafford loans, but are paying for your own college, have fun with those interest rate increases. They are more frequent. Oh and you can't consolidate them. Yeah for private universities and private loans.

SR-
I am still in school also and know that you can consolidate still. You can download all the info off the net at www.loanconsolidation.ed.gov/ I don't know what this does for your current loan, etc, but as far as I know, everything up until July 1 will be locked in at that interest rate.

Victoria