Possible Student Loan Tactic

[HHM]

If you have private student loans that are relatively high interest and cannot consolidate, you might look into this and try it out.

Enroll for one class at an approved university and get a "federal student loan"
After you complete the course, etc. By having that federal loan, you can then qualify to have ALL your student loans consolidated in too a federal program, (or so I am told).

[jonnarocka]

Federal Stafford Loans:
Students can borrow Federal Stafford loans either directly from the government (Federal Direct Loans) or from a private bank under the FFELP program (Federal Family Education Loan Program). Either way, the loan is still a Stafford loan, with exactly the same terms, limits, rights, responsibilities, and consequences of default. The difference is where the money is coming from. Because Stafford loans are Federal loans, the government would make all the loans themselves, but in order to expand the pool of available funds for student lending it created the FFELP program so that private banks could make these Federal loans, too. In fact, since 1965, private banks have provided the majority of funds for education loans.

[Side note: this has become an issue this year with the credit crunch. Lenders have been dropping out like flies and refusing to accept loan renewals on serial MPN's (master promissory notes) that are supposed to be good for 10 years. The government quickly stepped in and passed the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008 whereby, among a few other things, it set up provisions to buy up existing FFELP student loans in order to free up funding for new loans (sounds a bit like a certain other bailout, doesn't it?)]

Private Student Loans:whoppingFederal Consolidation Loans & private consolidation loans:A little story:http://www.nslds.ed.gov/nslds_SA/http://www.pin.ed.gov/PINWebApp/pinindex.jsp

[jonnarocka]

More...

All of the above is not even including Federal Perkins loans or PLUS loans! I don't want to keep y'all here all day

[Mi Bankruptcy]

Good Lord.. that's long. I did the same thing consolidated 30k of sub and unsub student loans to a lower rate and also to make it easier to manage.

[Scream2Death]

This is an EXCELLENT post and should be a STICKY for Student Loans