Private Loans vs GradPLUS for dental school

[rk1229]

Has anyone gone the private loan route for dental school? Or does anyone have any thoughts?

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[Cthuluhoop]

Private loans really only become an option if you have an awesome credit score. The majority of students will get a much lower interest rate on a federal loan.

 

[japes94]

With private loans as cthuluhoop mentioned, you need a strong credit score to get that lower rate. Also, with private loans, I believe you have to make interest-only payments on them during your 4 years of school. I don't think you can defer these loans and if you can it will be super hard to do so. You may also need strong co-signers to be issued these loans if your planning on taking out a large sum. It's prob. not worth taking a lot of private loans but thats my opinion but you should really talk about this stuff with a financial advisor or planner. They could help you a lot more. If your going to an expensive dental school, prob. best to stick with the grad+ loans even though they suck **** cause it will be really hard paying off 450k+ in private loans quickly on a 120k associate salary. At least with grad+ loans you got less terrible options like PAYE or REPAYE.

 

[japes94]

If you are set on getting private loans, try to get multiple offers from banks or other institutions and use that leverage to try and bring the interest rates down. When people refinance their loans for lower percentages, some do that. You hold all the cards.

 

[doktorinprogres]

The flexibility in deferments and repayment options make the federal loans far more attractive. Refi the day you sign a job offer if you wish.

 

[rk1229]

I've been looking at the Sallie Mae dental school loan and it seems like a better option than the fed loans.. Sallie Mae's loan offers 20 years for repayment, deferment while in school, no origination fees, 12 month grace period after graduation, variable or fixed rates.... some other loans offer similar features. All the fed loans seem to be high interest, high origination fees, 6 month grace period, etc. I guess the only benefit to fed loans I'm seeing is the different loan forgiveness programs but it worries me to assume and hope the gov would actually forgive loans or that the program would still be around in 20-25 years. I was just wanting to see if there were any current students on here that have taken private loans instead of fed loans

 

[dentalstar100]

I've maxed on the federal loans. I only needed a couple extra thousand for my expenses, so I went with a private loans. I went with discover student loans. They had no origination fees. I felt it was a better deal than the grad plus. I had my father to cosign it for me. I saw a article somewhere on SDN saying that private loans was a better option than grad plus if your total amount of loans was less than like $300k, correct me if im wrong.

 

[japes94]

Check Commonbond dental loans...
Rates are somewhere in the ballpark of ~5.6%-7.06%

CommonBond

www.commonbond.co

CommonBond Dental Loan:

• Savings: Rates that beat the Federal GradPLUS loan
• Independence: No Cosigner Required – so you can take control of your financial future
• Flexibility: Fully defer payments while in dental school and residency – so you can focus on your studies and career
• Protections: We offer forbearance, which means you can press “pause” on your payments, if needed

Not sure whether those benefits are only for specific cases but take a look at it if interested.

 

[rk1229]

Thanks guys! I’ll take a look!