student loans - wwyd?

My husband recently graduated and received his first student loan bill for $600 a month!!!! We haven't consolidated anything yet, so he has a few stafford loans unsub. a few sub. a few direct etc. He doesn't have ANY private loans though. He has roughly $50k in loans. He is in the military so the GI bill handled the rest. He just got a job making a small income, and I work part time and we have a son. What is the best advice to do in a situation like this? Consolidate them all? How much can we expect to pay per month if we do consolidate via fedloan. They gave me a number to call but also said that the income based might be a good option. I read about that and I don't want to do it based on extremely high interest rates and the fact that he does already have a job, so I don't see the point.
TIA!

Re: student loans - wwyd?

You need to look at your options (consolidation, forebearance, etc.) and see what's best for you. You may also want to see if the military can provide you with any assistance.

Re: student loans - wwyd?

I think you can get an automatic forbearance for a short period of time. It has been a few years since I went through this and things have changed. You can also do income based repayment.

Your loan provider should be able to walk you through all the options. THat's where I started when I graduated.

Re: student loans - wwyd?

You can also call the loan company and ask to extend the terms, so your payments/month aren't so large. I did this and was told there is no penalty to pay more per month once I got on my feet.

Re: student loans - wwyd?

Ask them about income contingent payments. This is where they base what you pay off of what you are making, therefore making it more manageable.

Re: student loans - wwyd?

You can only consoliddate through the the dept of Ed right now.

This it their website. You can do everything online.

http://www.loanconsolidation.ed.gov/

this is their calculator to see how much your payments will be with their various repayment options.
Calculator

I consolidated my loans last year and it was a big help! It was very easy but just know that it takes a few months to go through. I applied in August 11. they paid off my other loans in October and my first payment was due in December.

HTH!

ETA
as for the interest rate they will give you the average of the rates on all of the loans you are consolidating.

if you sign up for auto payments the reduce your interest rate by .25 right away.

my rate was 6.25% but now it is 6% because I signed up for the auto pay.

Message edited 7/13/2012 12:45:41 PM.

student loans - wwyd?

Whatever you do, don't default. The DOE doesn't need to use the judicial system to obtain a judgement in order to garnish your wages and doesn't follow the same rules.

If you can't make the payments, defer/forebearance or go to consolidation/income based repayments. Even if you defer you can still make payments.

Get any arrangements you make in writing.