Question- Does anyone know how I can combine a private student loan with my other Sallie Mae loans ? h
Keisha, I was in that situation just earlier this year. Sallie Mae will only combine traditional student Loans, like Perkins, PLUS & Stafford. Private education loans are excluded. I thought they would make an exception because I had a private education loan through SLM Financial Corp, their subsidiary, but they told me it doesn't count. If you're with SLM, pay it down as often and as quickly as you can. With each partial or full prepayment, SLM will push back your next due date. Alternatively you could get another installment loan @ a lower APR from another source to pay this off, extra payments may not lower or push back your next payment due. Despite SLM's sky high interest rates (17%), I paid off this loan last month, 3 years ahead of schedule. I opted for this method so that in case of a financial emergency, I could put off paying SLM for several months. When I applied for this loan 2 years ago, my FICO was 642, not bad according to most people. But SLM saw fit to charge me a 7% origination fee & 15% APR anyway. Last year when the fed raised interest rates, they raised it to 17% & I decided to get that noose off my neck. Now my scores are EQF 698, EX 695 and TU 725. Get a private education loan, if you must, but only as a last option. Rina -- Conquering through Christ... and Creditnet
