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Just a warning for all ya'll going to get a college loan
13 years ago
General
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/this-.....ent-loans.html
Reading this story really made my blood boil because basically it nearly happened to me. Back in 2005 I was eager to start mortuary school and I went to Fannie Mae to take out the a federal school loan. The loan amount I was looking for was enough to cover 3 months rent and pay tuition and for books came to 17K not to bad for getting a AAS degree in Funeral Directing and Embalming. I was told by the Sallie Mae loan officer that the loan was going to have a interest rate at 6% and it wouldn't be due until I graduated and I could get it differed for a year if I wanted to till I had a job and was able to repay it.
Fast forward to about 6 months before graduating there was a class I was expected to take that the state required you to take if you had a federal student loan. I found it odd that I wasn't on the list and went to the financial aid director and asked why. She pulled my file and 20 minutes later told me my loan wasn't a federal loan but a private loan which was the first red flag. I called Sallie Mae and after almost 2 hours 3 dropped calls later I finally got a hold of someone and they assured me everything was ok interest rate was the same don't worry you can pay when schools out.
Three months before graduating I get a letter saying I was 90 days over on my student loan and I owed over 300 dollars after that each month I had a bill for 250 adding the 650 I paid for rent and car payment of 280 plus food I had built up over 1000 in debt before I even graduated. After I got a job back in Longview I immediately went into protecting my credit and canceled my cards and consolidated the debit so I could get a handle on repaying the school loan. After 6 months of paying double the min. payment and asking them to apply most of it to the principle I find that I barely made a dent in the amount and the 17k loan crept up to 20k then finally after 2yrs at 22k and finding the interest rate was at 19% and most what I was paying over just covered the interest and "future interest". Thankfully my grandparents where able to help me pay the loan off in full even though they slapped me with an penalty for paying off the loan early and I still after 7 years haven't received a 300 over payment.
So I will warn ya'll read the fine print be blunt and ask that you want just a federal school loan, don't get suckered in by all the sweet talk take someone with you and ask for hard copies of everything. If they say you can't have that then walk away.
Reading this story really made my blood boil because basically it nearly happened to me. Back in 2005 I was eager to start mortuary school and I went to Fannie Mae to take out the a federal school loan. The loan amount I was looking for was enough to cover 3 months rent and pay tuition and for books came to 17K not to bad for getting a AAS degree in Funeral Directing and Embalming. I was told by the Sallie Mae loan officer that the loan was going to have a interest rate at 6% and it wouldn't be due until I graduated and I could get it differed for a year if I wanted to till I had a job and was able to repay it.
Fast forward to about 6 months before graduating there was a class I was expected to take that the state required you to take if you had a federal student loan. I found it odd that I wasn't on the list and went to the financial aid director and asked why. She pulled my file and 20 minutes later told me my loan wasn't a federal loan but a private loan which was the first red flag. I called Sallie Mae and after almost 2 hours 3 dropped calls later I finally got a hold of someone and they assured me everything was ok interest rate was the same don't worry you can pay when schools out.
Three months before graduating I get a letter saying I was 90 days over on my student loan and I owed over 300 dollars after that each month I had a bill for 250 adding the 650 I paid for rent and car payment of 280 plus food I had built up over 1000 in debt before I even graduated. After I got a job back in Longview I immediately went into protecting my credit and canceled my cards and consolidated the debit so I could get a handle on repaying the school loan. After 6 months of paying double the min. payment and asking them to apply most of it to the principle I find that I barely made a dent in the amount and the 17k loan crept up to 20k then finally after 2yrs at 22k and finding the interest rate was at 19% and most what I was paying over just covered the interest and "future interest". Thankfully my grandparents where able to help me pay the loan off in full even though they slapped me with an penalty for paying off the loan early and I still after 7 years haven't received a 300 over payment.
So I will warn ya'll read the fine print be blunt and ask that you want just a federal school loan, don't get suckered in by all the sweet talk take someone with you and ask for hard copies of everything. If they say you can't have that then walk away.
They were fuckin you with a whole box full of dicks and yet they had the NERVE, the absolute GALL to charge you a PENALTY for stopping them from doing it?! OMFG what the hell is up with these people? Are they really such souless bastards as to try to grind hoepful students into the ground before they even graduate?