Cosigning a college loan???

[NateFollmer]

Well, like I said before Slone - Take a look at how much longer your son has to finish school. Is he doing anything to improve his credit right now? If he is, he may want to look into consolidation of all his loans (I know a have a ton of different loans and will be consolidating so I don't have to pay 8 different people). When he does that, he may be able to get that loan himself and then all of your co-signing will be gone.

As far as this other topic goes, that's just paternal instinct. No matter how much you think or want to treat them equally, it's human nature to care for your own first... Nothing wrong with that, it's just the way we are wired.

[slonezp]

Her blue eyes got the best of me. I signed.

FYI deferrment doesn't matter. The loan shows up as a debt on hers and my credit reports. It does affect debt to income ratios. Good thing is I have all access to the account information and I can make sure the payments are being made on time etc. Also salliemae has a cosigner forgiveness clause. If payments are made on time for 2 years and her credit rating is good, I'm off the hook.  I also promised to break her legs if I get stuck with it

[slonezp]

Nate, When consolidating school loans is there a "special" place to apply for the loans or is it an unsecured loan that can be got from any bank. He has 1 1/2 maybe 2 years left.

[Fishing Rhino]

Sallie Mae?  Don't get me started about them.  They are the most screwed up money handlers in the world.

When our son-in-law passed away, he was past due on one payment.   The phone calls began.

If a payment is past due, they will not speak to you.  Call them, put in the loan number(s) and you automatically get routed to the collections department or a bill collector.  Unless I'm mistaken their "collections" are handled by independent contractors who cannot deal with anything other than send us the money.

They want their money.  They don't give a hoot about resolving issues or answering questions until they get their money.

Even then, when we tried to get a payoff figure, they kept giving us different payoff numbers.

It took months to get clear of them.  That was three years ago, and we still get emails from them about how we can do this or that with our loans to save money by consolidating or doing this or that.

[NateFollmer]

You can get them through the major school loan providers like sallie mae, wells fargo, etc... You can also get them from local banks but they aren't as forgiving I'd wait until he finished and lump all his loans into 1. I worked with a guy once that went to Penn State. He consolidated and his monthly payments went down almost half.

Sallie Mae has been buying my loans from other lenders a lot lately. They do tsy from time to time and usually its a better interest rate. You'll get letters in the mail and a new MPN if that happens.