Question by Sarah: I am about to max out my credit card, my interest rate is ridiculus and im a broke college student! help!!?
So I only have 80 dollars left on this card. I have or well had a 4100 dollar limit and througout the years thathas dissapeared. Now my minimum payment each month is 300 dollars and there is NO WAY i can pay that!! I live in an extremely expensive town and that on top of everything else i have to pay is nearly impossible. I have no idea what to do. Take out a loan?? What do i do?? Someone please please hep me!! My others cards have no where near that amount to do a balance transfer and the interest is eating me alive.

Can I get some kind of loan to pay this and then have lower interest on that? Or cant you do a consolidation loan and pull them all into one payment? If so how do i do that? I am not .000 in debt of credit card bills like a lot of them say you have to be…so im stuck.And i already caled my credit card company to try and get my interest rate lowered again and i cant so im just screwed!

SOMEONE PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME!

Best answer:

Answer by mr pickle
Ask to speak to a Supervisor of the card company. Do not give up.

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Question by G: Should I consolidate my 18,000 student loan to lock in an interest rate of 5.07%?
I’m actually like 3 seconds away from completing my consolidation application but decided I would ask Y/A first, just to make sure. My student loan totals about ,000 and was broken up into 6 dispersements. 2 of them have a fixed interest rate of 6.8 and the other 4 have a variable interest rate which used to be over 7% but since July 1st has dropped to 4.2%. If I consolidate my loan now, my entire ,000 loan will have an interest rate of about 5% for the life of the loan, and I will pay about 0 a month for 15 years. Currently I am paying 0 a month. This seems like something I should definitely do, and I was wondering if everyone agreed. The only thing I’m afraid of is if 5 years from now interest rates go done to like 1.5% and I can’t consolidate them again!

Best answer:

Answer by Reg V
Sounds like you are in the USA. I’m in the UK, but I’ve had some finance industry experience. Like you, I’d be tempted to consolidate but I’d want to check on the penalties that might be imposed if at some stage in the future long-term fixed interest rates come down significantly more and you have an opportunity to re-fix your total borrowing at an even lower rate. To do that you would have to re-finance your loan and your existing lender might want to penalise you for their loss of income. You need to suss out the terms and conditions in the proposed loan agreement and look for penalty clauses for early redemption. And, very importantly, you need to do this for your existing loan agreements too, for the same reason. You should really check out your options with a Financial Adviser but that might not be free advice.
0/month for 15 years is going to be easier to afford than 0/month for 15 years, so if it looks good after you’ve checked out possible penalties, go for it.
One more thing. I came across a problem today where someone had failed to pay a monthly instalment on a credit agreement. Because they were in default, the lender had a clause in the agreement allowing him to charge a very high rate of interest PER DAY, EACH DAY on the amount not paid, until the account was back on track – it went like this. Payment of 0 should be made on 1st of month, if it isn’t then a charge of say 20% is levied. So on day 2 the client now owes 0 for that month. On day 3 another 20% is added (it could be on the cumulative, i.e. 20% of 0, or it could be simple – another , making the total 0. If your lender has a scheme like that hidden in the small print, you’d better be careful about missing a payment. After 30 days of that sort of arithmetic you’d owe ,373 if compound interest had been applied on the cumulative balance, or maybe about 0 if it was just per day. Watch out. In this life you never get something for nothing. If it looks too good to be true it’s probably because it is.

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Question by jwarner72: My student loans have already been consolidated, but I want to reduce my interest rate? Any options?
My student loan was consolidated in 1998-1999. They are stafford loans, used to pay for my law school education. My interest rate is at 8.25%, and apart from decreasing the interest rate by .25% with online payment, Sallie Mae/Bank One has offered me no other options, since my loans are already consolidated. Any options, other than to take out a new private loan for consolidation?

Best answer:

Answer by Alex P
You could get a regular bank Loan to pay them off, However your student Loan Interest is deductible from your Federal Income taxes, and a Bank Loan would not be, also the default rules are better for a student loan, you can also postpone student loans.

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Question by Stephie: My credit card companies refuse to raise my limit or lower my interest rates…loan options?
I have three credit cards with low limits (0-0 each) and the balances are pretty much at the max. I haven’t been late with any of them in over a year, and I make more than my minimum payments, but with the monthly fees and annual fees and interest, I can’t seem to get the balance down. I haven’t used the cards for any purchases in 6-9 months at all.

I called each CC company today to see about lowering the interest or raising the balance and they all refused. I’m now looking for other loan options to consolidate these. I filed a BK7 in 2007 and opened these cards to help improve my credit, and now my credit scores are 534, 591, 648. All I want to do is pay off these cards so I can put the money into my savings, but these companies are making it difficult, and between my own bills and my savings I can’t afford more than what I pay.

Anyone have any experience or ideas? I did a “bad credit credit card consolidation” google search and just got Pay Day loans – NO way. I can take out extra money from my student loan, but I don’t start until September, and I’m trying NOT to be repaying so much money per month when I’m going to school, too. I live in Las Vegas, NV, if that gives anyone any local company considerations.

These are my cards and rates as of now.

Capital One: 0 limit, 1 balance, 17% interest, no annual/monthly fee, /month payment
Orchard Bank: 0 limit, 1 balance, 20% interest, no annual/monthly fee, /month payment
First Premier: 0 limit, 0 balance, 20% interest, month/ annual free, /month payment
First Premier: 0 limit, 8 balance, 20% interest, month/ annual free, /month payment

I have a very tight budget already, and REALLY don’t want to dip into my savings. I just need to figure out how to get out of this debt (albiet small, but it’s still driving me NUTS) so I can start saving more money.
I’ve now realized that this was a REALLY bad question to post – I never thought I would get so many Nigerian scams from it…ugh!

Best answer:

Answer by Common Sense
Sorry, but there’s no way to “get out of it”.

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Question by Graft: Should I consolidate my private student loans before the June 31st interest rate deadline?
I know that the Federal interest rates will be going up to 7.25%, but are the private rates expected to follow suit?

Also, is it possible to consolidate federal loans together with private loans in a private loan consolidation loan?

Best answer:

Answer by questionqueen20
You need to call your loan company to find out what the deal is with the varying interest rates. On the surface it sounds ideal.

As for both loans, you’ll need to have good credit or home equity to qualify for a personal loan to cover debts. It is a good idea if the length and interest rate arent too high.

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Question by sky: Old Student Loan; Old Consolidation; High Interest; High Payment; No OUT?
I consolidated my student loans through sallie mae several years ago (before the great interest rate reduction). i can’t reconsolidate. is there anything else i can do to lower my payments?

Best answer:

Answer by Jdub
You can’t really do anything about the interest rate unless you consolidate a second batch of loans (say from a grad program). As for reducing your payments, you should contact the lender to see if there any plans for which you may qualify that will reduce your payments. Most lenders offer income sensitive payment plans that increase as you make more money.

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Question by nockmdead: Nextstudent gave me a different interest rate on student loan than I was quoted!?
I consolidated my loans with Nextstudent on 03/21/06 before I graduated on 05/01/06. I’m supposed to get a .6% reduction on my interest rate for consolidating before the end of my grace period. Well, apparently, my loan consolidation just went through and my payments are higher than I was orginally quoted. I was first told I would have payment of 7 per month, and an interest rate of 4.5% but when I got my repayment schedule, my payments are 8 a month and the interest rate 6.5%!!!! I don’t think nextstudent takes credit scores into account, but my credit score is 793 and I would have thought they could have given me a better interest rate. Plus, my intention was to consolidate before the 07/01/06 deadline when interest rates could no longer be locked in after that date. Nextstudent isn’t open until tomorrow and I just want to what my options are. I’m supposed to make my first payment by 10/14/06 (even though the disbursement didn’t happen until 09/20 and I’m not even g
This is a consolidation loan and the purpose of signing and completing a consolidation loan was to lock in my interest rate and not have a variable interest rate. I believe nextstudent duped me by having the sign the application again after the 07/01/06 deadline; had I realized what was going on, I never would have signed the application a second time. (So much for being financially savvy.) I think I am pretty much screwed.

Best answer:

Answer by sunnyday11
It sounds like you may have a variable interest rate loan?

Here are some aspects to consider for anyone wanting to consolidate student loans.

Student loan consolidation has a lot to offer. That is what many experts often say. To find out what consolidation has to offer, let’s read on.

Overall Interest Savings

Over time, the student loans you have borrowed have been assigned with different variable interest rates. Note that the key word here is variable. While the loan you received may have offered, say, 3.5 percent at first, the rate will actually go up as the interest rates go up. So, if you have two or more of these loans, there is a great possibility that you may have owed amounts at different rates, and these rates can rise and fall yearly. Considering that the interest rates have nowhere else to go but up, it is no doubt a safe bet that the debt you have accumulated will mount faster than it would if you consider a student loan consolidation.

By considering consolidation and remaining on your 10 years payment plan, it is possible that you can lock your interest at today’s current loan rates and save some bucks over the long haul. Aside from that, all of those loans that may have come from different lending companies or banks can be a burden to deal with. So, if you consolidate, it means that you only deal with one single company and one payment rather than several. Other than that, you have the great chance to receive added bonuses like payment and interest rate reductions in case you pay your debts on time over a period of months. These benefits are also possible to come if you have automatically withdrawn your monthly payment from a checking or savings account.

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