what's a good lender for your stafford loan?

[matthew0126]

hey guys,

does anyone have an opinion on what is a good lender? i was just filling out my ucsd financial aid app (procrastinator! i have to fedex it tomorrow), and i bumped into this quesiton asking what lender i wanted....

anyways, they have a little list of of preferred lenders that they have had good experiences with...

bank of america, chase, educaid, washington mutual, access group, medsolutions, medloans, and t.h.e.

a lot of those have 3% origination fees.... the only ones that don't are access group, medsolutions, and t.h.e.; the first 2 of those seems to have better repayment incentives

so anyways, medsolutions and access group sound pretty good, i went to the websites, seem okay. i don't know much about this loans stuff since i got through college with scholarship/work

any feedback would be appreciated

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[KyGrlDr2B]

I'm in the same boat as you. I have no idea what's going on with loans. Medloans does sound good to me, too, but I'm still unsure. Also, what about getting the loan directly from the government? Are there no incentives with that or something?

 

[lilycat]

I used T.H.E. I hesitate to say they are the "best" lender, but nearly all the med students I know (both in real life and on this site) seem to use it. They have no origination fee and they have different repayment plan incentives -- lower interest rates for automatic payment, lower interest rates for on-time payment after the first 48 mos., etc. I can't remember what site it was -- it actually might have been the T.H.E. site itself, but they had a repayment calculator that compared some of the most popular lenders, and T.H.E. seemed to be the best.

 

[LoanGrl]

Hi everybody! You are on the right track when you are looking for loans with no fees. Some have no origination fees, but still have guarantee fees, so you have to read carefully. I am with NOWLoans, and we have no origination or guarantee fees on our Stafford loans. You can find out more information at <a href="http://www.nowloans.org" target="_blank">nowloans</a>.
While we offer great repayment benefits like everyone else, it's in your best bet not to make a lender decision based on repayment benefits alone. Look at what you're getting NOW as your primary decisionmaker. Our Stafford loans come directly from the government, and the government sets the interest rate. But each lender will offer their own advantages to sell their loans, and loans are very competitive right now. You can always use your financial aid office as a resource for advice.
Good luck with your programs!

 

[kd]

I have to agree with the above poster on T.H.E. They're my school's preferred lender and are 0% guarantee and 0% origination. Their web site is <a href="http://www.northstar.org/" target="_blank">http://www.northstar.org/</a>
Be careful, when picking your lenders: some of them may trick you into thinking that they only capitalize interest once, when in fact they do it TWICE. My school had this come up with Wells-Fargo. This can make a huge difference in your repayment amount, because in the latter case you end up paying even more interest on deferred interest.