student loan consolidation

[Momto5RN]

a little background first

my oldest graduated college this spring with quite a bit of student loan debt . i think about 80,000 .
His choice- he could have done community college for free for 2 years but choose to go to a state university all 4 - he also choose to live away rathar then commute - so he was well aware what his loan situation would be coming out of it - no woe is me etc etc he is ready to get gazelle about paying them off.



he has a stafford for each year and one through sallie mae for each year ( or 4 years each )

the sallie mae were signature loans except for the last which they no longer had the "signature" available only one where you paid the interest during the school year - we paid the interest while he was in school his senior year because he had alot of tough courses and was only working 1 day a week in an internship .

as soon as he graduated he took over the interest payment on year # 4 loan and has paid it early ever since.

i guess it will be in december or january we will be at the 6 month post graduation mark that alll will need to be paid on.

his main issue is not so much getting a lower payment as it is for many -he would just like to pay one place- one time each month .


right now he goes on sallie mae sight and we see 4 of the big loans and 2 of the 4 staffords- all will be due different dates etc.
we still have to locate what happened to the 2 other staffords that arent showing up.

he had a job waitimg for him right out of college making 33,000 a year - its pretty secure as my dh has worked for same company for 10 years -dh managed the office for this area - ds works in the neighboring office considered the home office ( so no nepotism etc ) he interned there - they hired him based on his knowledge - job abilities and work ethic ( other peoples kids who interned were not hired FT in the past ) - he is being trained this fall in an area that is specialized in the accounting filed just as dh was but dh was when he was 30.

anyway anything i came upon if i google consolidating student loans looks like spam / scam- you can call sallie mae and get a different answer every time he has not recieved any info in the mail regarding doing this - i know there is a certain type you can refi at a lower interest but i do not think that is what he has.

so a few questions
any idea how to best go abaout it - where to go etc
pros for refi- one payment and the 2 loans we co-signed for so he had a lower rate will be paid off and in the new loan in his name .

cons - i am guessing he cant file for a forebearance if he has any unexpected issues while paying it back .

OR

do we encourage him to just pay them back as is
pay off the 4 stafford first as they are lowest $ and then start working on the ones we are co-signed on next .

which i know he just wants to pay one place one time and not need to juggle all that stuff so even if thats what i encourage i am not sure he will do it .

He currently is putting alot of his pay in savings/ leaving it in his checking until we figure this all out
he lives at home so not alot of bills other than car insurance and when his plan runs out on our group plan he will pay for his own cell.

he has no other debts no CCs a paid for 2007 Honda civic.
his work expenses are lunch if he decides to eat out which is maybe 3-4$ or he brown bags it - he carpools with dh unless dh is traveling -so little car expenses - a little dry cleaning but my boy is frugal - almost cheap at times so he is careful about what he sends there and how often .

he is hopinng to have them paid off in 7 years or less .

[Momto5RN]

oh and he has worked since he was 14 - ran his own lawn mowing business - worked for our church/ school every summer as maintainance / handyman and on college break too- , he also worked FT every summer since he was 16 . bought his own car when he was 17. Worked his junior year PT at a bank.

car was a gift from us =-selling it is not an opotion - if he does need to drive to work its 40 miles each way on highways in philly- dependable car is a must and its paid for and i am hoping if he maintains it well he will have it for many years .

car explanation- my dh has to upgrade every 3-4 years for work - they give dh a transportation allowance that covers his car payment and insurance as part of his salary ( although they tax it too - booo)
so rather then lease as they expect - we buy in a -5-6 year loan and pay off early or at least have something to trade in - so we paid off the 07 ( alot of my working extra dh bonus put towards it etc we paid it off 3 years early )

and we gave it to him as a graduation present. ( his car he bought was totalled this spring in an accident that was not all his fault but the other guy who had no lights on and whose car was fine took off and we didnt have it fully insured since it was only worth about 1000)

Being the oldest, i wasnt wrking when he was a teen and going into college so we had no money to do a few things we can do for the other kids so he always paid for everything himself ( class trip school ring - prom etc ) so we decided to do this for him .

[ladykemma2]

he needs to do this homework, not you. back off helicopter mom! not your problem....

[Momto5RN]

since most 22 yo men do not beling to frugal lists i am only asking here if anyone has been through this and might have an idea.


he has called and got 3 different answers each time he has spoken to a CS at Sallie Mae. They are idiots . WE have googled and not found answers we were happy with .


not sure what a helicopter mom is but can guess - actually i am not a hoverer if that is what it means - having 5 kids and 2 PT jobs and a disability makes it impossible even if i wanted to and my kids are actually much more independent than their counterparts .

Nothing wrong with trying to help someone in the right direction - why make someone spend hours being frustrated if one doesnt need to be - i guess some may find that entertaining i dont .

He has already spent quite a bit of time trying to get an answer since before graduation - he isnt sitting in a bar or playing videogames while i research for him .

[Luckybustert]

Here's where he should go to consolidate his student loans: https://loanconsolidation.ed.gov/App...e/appindex.jsp Consolidating student loans is an extremely easy process. I got my degree in January 2009 and consolidated my student loans a few months later. It reduced my monthly payments by half and, more importantly, IT GOT ME AWAY FROM SALLIE MAE!!!!! I hated dealing with them. I would pay the amount they said I needed to pay, when they said it was due, and they would continually say I was delinquent. Sorry, but if pay the amount they say is due, shouldn't that have put me in a current status? I never could figure out what the heck they were doing, but it didn't feel right and I'm so very glad not to be dealing with them anymore.

[Momto5RN]

thank you so very much !!!! will forward that link to my son to look into !!!

[Luckybustert]

thank you so very much !!!! will forward that link to my son to look into !!!

Glad I could help. Please also send him the following link: https://www.nslds.ed.gov/nslds_SA/ This site will give him detailed information on all of his loans. He'll need this information when completing the application to consolidate.

[JoJoBean8]

I consolidated my student loans through American Education Services.