Student Loans Rate

[steve dave]

Anyone with Federal Student Loans you will want to def. lock in rates by consolidating in July when they adjust.  You can consolidate through the Direct Loan Servicing portion of the federal loan site for free.  The rates may come in at the 2s which will be redic. low.  The inflation rate being what it is you will basically be earning interest on your student loan debt (not really obv. but I choose to think of it this way). 

https://www.dl.ed.gov/borrower/BorrowerWelcomePage.jsp

[Saulbadguy]

That was kind of confusing when I did that.  I still have no idea if I got them all or not. 

[steve dave]

That was kind of confusing when I did that.  I still have no idea if I got them all or not. 

Do you make one student loan payment a month?  If so they are probably consolidated. 

Another thing you can do is have an automatic deduction each month and they give you an additional .25% off your rate.  If you make so many payments on time for the beginning of your loan you will get an additional .25% off your rate.  Really rediculously low interest rates ensue. 

[Pete]

Here is another little gem....

If you consoldiate them through the feds, you can take a "forebearance" anytime you like.  You can request it online, and it takes zero paper work.  The forebearance allows you to cease making payments for up to a year with no penalty, but the interest still accumulates.  If you have a rate in the 2s, I'd take a forbearance if you aren't making much money or have a "life issue."

You can request them back to back as well. 

[Rick Daris]

Technically you could do a forebearance and invest said money in a cd or something and probably come out on top. Jokes on you government.

[steve dave]

Technically you could do a forebearance and invest said money in a cd or something and probably come out on top. Jokes on you government.

Also, paying early is pretty dumb.  I think it is much better to put money aside in an emergency fund as you can get money market accounts that pay in excess of 4% that are 100% safe.  Stretch it out for 20 years.