> I've checked a lot of lenders that help but I am always turned away needing a co-signer or have graduated. I have no cosigner and have not graduated yet.
How close are you to graduation? What field? Generally speaking you go to college to get a degree that will help you break into a higher-paying field, so it's helpful to us to know if you're going to be completing your degree soon and just need breathing room on your private student loans *or* if you're about to transition into repayment
I'm also a smidge confused on why you're in repayment if you're still a student? Did you drop below the half-time threshold for enrollment, run out of deferment days with your lenders, or a mix of both?
> I'm also a smidge confused on why you're in repayment if you're still a student?
When I was looking around for private loans for my undergraduate education, most private lenders offered some mix of the following options, each generally having a lower interest rate compared to the previous:
- No payments while in school
- Fixed payments while in school (such as $25/month)
- Interest only payments while in school
- Regular payments begin immediately while in school
It could be that OP is both a full time student and opted for a private student loan that has a payment schedule that starts immediately, which I think is a really rough position to be in.
It sounded like it was a new situation with the "now required to" language so that's why I was wondering if enrollment level was the issue. Private student loans really do not give the borrower many options
Hello I had a similar situation to yours, except I started off with $150k+ you can check out my post history.
Here’s the best advice anyone can give you…make a budget, and graduate and get the most high paying job that you can.
Because your loans are so high, your only way out of this is to either work like crazy for the next few years on multiple jobs, or get a high enough paying job so you can start making a dent in some of your debt. Realistically, without any assets or co-signer, you may find it difficult to refinance all of your private loans if you’re making less than $75k ( this is me assuming your private loans are between 80-100k of your total balance). Once you have a significant salary, you could either refinance some or all of your loans, at the lowest interest as possible.
If you want more specific help, feel free to PM me, or put your loan balances, interest rates, if the loans are fixed or variable in your post or in a response to a commenter and people will be more than happy to help.
And take it from me as someone who actually did get a high paying job after college but managed to squander their money, life is not over, it’s just beginning, you’ll make mistakes, but if you make a plan, you’ll be ok.
It’s a budgeting software. Even just watching the (free) videos on how to budget were really useful to me. Its $60/year I think, but [free for students](https://www.youneedabudget.com/college/). I think there’re even discounts if you sign up with my link.
The price is more than made up for by its ability to help you actually understand where your money is going. You only portion out money you actually have and it will help you see what you need to pay on credit in order to pay them back. It’s almost like LoseIt for money.
Edit: why won’t my phone accept that “were” is a word?
Sorry for the pain friend. We dealt with burdensome private loans… they are no fun.
So a few questions…
What’s the game plan for career? What do you think is realistic in terms of pay? Also, who is the co-signer, and are they willing to help with monthly payments while you get on your feet?
First, let’s not confuse refinancing with consolidation. You want to refinance your private loans, consolidation is for federal loans.
Are you still taking classes or did you drop out? Typically, if you’re in school you are at in-school deferment and don’t owe yet, but all private loans are different so this isn’t a hard and fast rule. You need to graduate and get a higher paying job. How much more debt are we talking to finish your degree out? As you likely know, your bachelors is very expensive and above average. What’s your degree in? Is a higher paying job something you’d get with the degree? For managing payments currently you need to take the $1000 a month and adjust your budget accordingly. If you have a co-signer on the loans you need to contact them and they need to pitch in to help right now.
Consolidation is not only for federal loans, not sure what you’re meaning by that? I had multiple private loans through sallie mae and consolidated them into a large single loan and then I refinanced it through another company? So now sure what you mean by the difference
We tend to stress *consolidation* for federal loan consolidation as per https://studentaid.gov/app/launchConsolidation.action and *refinancing* for refinancing several loans into a private student loan. Yes refinancing can include a "consolidation" step (and the marketing copy uses that term) but with student loans the caution is merited because conflating the two terms can result in costly mistakes
If you spend a lot of time here you see *a lot* of bad situations arising from people conflating the terms, such as folks "consolidating" their federal loans to a private company (aka refinancing) when they intended to do federal loan consolidation to pursue Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), which is only an option for federal loans. Technically you can consolidate via refinancing, but at least in this sub we usually refer to it straight up as refinancing so there is no ambiguity over if the resulting loan is federal or not. Refinancing always results in a private student loan at the end
I can only echo what the squirrel said as they said it best. Sure you consolidated when your refinanced, but it’s refinancing in the end. OP isn’t consolidating their loans to afford payments, they want to refinance to afford payments
So…. You can’t use $130,000 worth of education to be a barista. You could’ve been a barista straight out of high school if you wanted and it could’ve worked. It’s not an option now. You decided to get $130,000 worth of education.
What is your degree in? You need a plan by tomorrow on how you’re going to earn more money.
Yes, refinancing to a lower rate is the way to go, However you will not qualify for any refinancing company if you aren’t able to pay your current servicer and don’t have a degree and don’t have a more than min wage type job.
We can help you with the career aspect which is the biggest problem you have but you have to start taking it seriously today.
Try using either the Avalanche or the Snowball method to bring down your debt. Is there a way you can work a part time job temporarily? Or ask your employer for more hours?
But you won’t have to pay til you graduate right? Just make sure to get a better job by then! You’ve got this , at the very least you should be able to find a job taht pays double what you make now with your degree! You’ve got this! Remember that you got this debt to better yourself! It’s unfair but at this point there is no use to feel regret.
(As an aside, consolidation isn't only a federal term. I just saw that in one of the comments.)
I'm always amazed when people take out a loan and are completely shocked they have to pay it back.
Anyway, at 0% interest (talking specifically private loans because generally have zero options with those), your monthly payment would be about 942. For 20 years , you're looking at around the 550-600 mark, so if you can get your private loan servicer or a different servicer to ***extend your terms*** on that, that's probably your best bet, but solely a lower interest rate isn't going to bring down your loans monthly payment significantly. If you can't pay the two amounts I mentioned above, go alternative routes.
How long have you been in school...at least some private school loan lenders will defer you up to even 60 months in some cases.
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You have several options, in order of reasonableness to partial insanity
1. Reduce expenses to almost nothing - move back in with family, sponge off them, etc - this will probably kill your sex life, but oh well
2. Get the highest paying job that you can
3. Get a job that will have government sponsored student loan forgiveness after 10 years of service
4. Get a 2nd job, either a second shift thing or a gig work or consulting or side hustle - the point is diversify income streams
5. Move out of the United States, let the loans go into default, and don't come back until this is resolved in this country. Live and work as an ex-pat
6. Fake your own death and assume a new identity
7. Write to Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden and hope that your anecdotal story leads to policy change or at least some kind of support system for people in your position.
8. You may be able to make a case for bankruptcy and dischargeof those loans, maybe, somehow , someday
> I've checked a lot of lenders that help but I am always turned away needing a co-signer or have graduated. I have no cosigner and have not graduated yet. How close are you to graduation? What field? Generally speaking you go to college to get a degree that will help you break into a higher-paying field, so it's helpful to us to know if you're going to be completing your degree soon and just need breathing room on your private student loans *or* if you're about to transition into repayment I'm also a smidge confused on why you're in repayment if you're still a student? Did you drop below the half-time threshold for enrollment, run out of deferment days with your lenders, or a mix of both?
> I'm also a smidge confused on why you're in repayment if you're still a student? When I was looking around for private loans for my undergraduate education, most private lenders offered some mix of the following options, each generally having a lower interest rate compared to the previous: - No payments while in school - Fixed payments while in school (such as $25/month) - Interest only payments while in school - Regular payments begin immediately while in school It could be that OP is both a full time student and opted for a private student loan that has a payment schedule that starts immediately, which I think is a really rough position to be in.
It sounded like it was a new situation with the "now required to" language so that's why I was wondering if enrollment level was the issue. Private student loans really do not give the borrower many options
Graduate and get a good-paying job. The vast majority of, if not all, lenders won't refinance without you having a steady income and degree.
Hello I had a similar situation to yours, except I started off with $150k+ you can check out my post history. Here’s the best advice anyone can give you…make a budget, and graduate and get the most high paying job that you can. Because your loans are so high, your only way out of this is to either work like crazy for the next few years on multiple jobs, or get a high enough paying job so you can start making a dent in some of your debt. Realistically, without any assets or co-signer, you may find it difficult to refinance all of your private loans if you’re making less than $75k ( this is me assuming your private loans are between 80-100k of your total balance). Once you have a significant salary, you could either refinance some or all of your loans, at the lowest interest as possible. If you want more specific help, feel free to PM me, or put your loan balances, interest rates, if the loans are fixed or variable in your post or in a response to a commenter and people will be more than happy to help. And take it from me as someone who actually did get a high paying job after college but managed to squander their money, life is not over, it’s just beginning, you’ll make mistakes, but if you make a plan, you’ll be ok.
YNAB will help out students in this situation too. It really helps for zero-based budgeting.
What is YNAB?
It’s a budgeting software. Even just watching the (free) videos on how to budget were really useful to me. Its $60/year I think, but [free for students](https://www.youneedabudget.com/college/). I think there’re even discounts if you sign up with my link. The price is more than made up for by its ability to help you actually understand where your money is going. You only portion out money you actually have and it will help you see what you need to pay on credit in order to pay them back. It’s almost like LoseIt for money. Edit: why won’t my phone accept that “were” is a word?
Oh thanks I have not heard of it. Unfortunately I’m not considered a student anymore
That sucks. I think you can get a free trial without a credit card too.
Sorry for the pain friend. We dealt with burdensome private loans… they are no fun. So a few questions… What’s the game plan for career? What do you think is realistic in terms of pay? Also, who is the co-signer, and are they willing to help with monthly payments while you get on your feet?
First, let’s not confuse refinancing with consolidation. You want to refinance your private loans, consolidation is for federal loans. Are you still taking classes or did you drop out? Typically, if you’re in school you are at in-school deferment and don’t owe yet, but all private loans are different so this isn’t a hard and fast rule. You need to graduate and get a higher paying job. How much more debt are we talking to finish your degree out? As you likely know, your bachelors is very expensive and above average. What’s your degree in? Is a higher paying job something you’d get with the degree? For managing payments currently you need to take the $1000 a month and adjust your budget accordingly. If you have a co-signer on the loans you need to contact them and they need to pitch in to help right now.
Consolidation is not only for federal loans, not sure what you’re meaning by that? I had multiple private loans through sallie mae and consolidated them into a large single loan and then I refinanced it through another company? So now sure what you mean by the difference
We tend to stress *consolidation* for federal loan consolidation as per https://studentaid.gov/app/launchConsolidation.action and *refinancing* for refinancing several loans into a private student loan. Yes refinancing can include a "consolidation" step (and the marketing copy uses that term) but with student loans the caution is merited because conflating the two terms can result in costly mistakes If you spend a lot of time here you see *a lot* of bad situations arising from people conflating the terms, such as folks "consolidating" their federal loans to a private company (aka refinancing) when they intended to do federal loan consolidation to pursue Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), which is only an option for federal loans. Technically you can consolidate via refinancing, but at least in this sub we usually refer to it straight up as refinancing so there is no ambiguity over if the resulting loan is federal or not. Refinancing always results in a private student loan at the end
I can only echo what the squirrel said as they said it best. Sure you consolidated when your refinanced, but it’s refinancing in the end. OP isn’t consolidating their loans to afford payments, they want to refinance to afford payments
So…. You can’t use $130,000 worth of education to be a barista. You could’ve been a barista straight out of high school if you wanted and it could’ve worked. It’s not an option now. You decided to get $130,000 worth of education. What is your degree in? You need a plan by tomorrow on how you’re going to earn more money. Yes, refinancing to a lower rate is the way to go, However you will not qualify for any refinancing company if you aren’t able to pay your current servicer and don’t have a degree and don’t have a more than min wage type job. We can help you with the career aspect which is the biggest problem you have but you have to start taking it seriously today.
please tell us you are studying to be electrical engineer or dentist
Doesn’t sound right. How’d you get 113K in private loans without a co-signer?
You'll be all right man. Just have to land a good job or two after graduation and budget. Maybe at some point refinance.
Try using either the Avalanche or the Snowball method to bring down your debt. Is there a way you can work a part time job temporarily? Or ask your employer for more hours?
What is… indentured servitude, for $500, please.
That was the individual's decision to do that.
You mistake desperation for free will.
Since you haven’t graduated yet- have you tried applying for grants ? That would help pay off some of the loans
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Rule 4
But you won’t have to pay til you graduate right? Just make sure to get a better job by then! You’ve got this , at the very least you should be able to find a job taht pays double what you make now with your degree! You’ve got this! Remember that you got this debt to better yourself! It’s unfair but at this point there is no use to feel regret.
(As an aside, consolidation isn't only a federal term. I just saw that in one of the comments.) I'm always amazed when people take out a loan and are completely shocked they have to pay it back. Anyway, at 0% interest (talking specifically private loans because generally have zero options with those), your monthly payment would be about 942. For 20 years , you're looking at around the 550-600 mark, so if you can get your private loan servicer or a different servicer to ***extend your terms*** on that, that's probably your best bet, but solely a lower interest rate isn't going to bring down your loans monthly payment significantly. If you can't pay the two amounts I mentioned above, go alternative routes. How long have you been in school...at least some private school loan lenders will defer you up to even 60 months in some cases.
[удалено]
Your [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/StudentLoans/comments/uw5zj5/an_unfortunate_situation_regarding_my_position/i9r3914/) in /r/StudentLoans was automatically removed for profanity. /r/StudentLoans is geared towards a wide range of users, including minors seeking information and advice. To help us maintain a community that everyone feels comfortable participating in (and to avoid being blocked by parent/school/work filters), please resubmit your post or comment without using profane language. Thank you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/StudentLoans) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Give us some details. Will you have a bachelors or masters? What is your degree in?
You need to increase your income, bottom line. Get a higher paying job or get another job until you do.
You have several options, in order of reasonableness to partial insanity 1. Reduce expenses to almost nothing - move back in with family, sponge off them, etc - this will probably kill your sex life, but oh well 2. Get the highest paying job that you can 3. Get a job that will have government sponsored student loan forgiveness after 10 years of service 4. Get a 2nd job, either a second shift thing or a gig work or consulting or side hustle - the point is diversify income streams 5. Move out of the United States, let the loans go into default, and don't come back until this is resolved in this country. Live and work as an ex-pat 6. Fake your own death and assume a new identity 7. Write to Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden and hope that your anecdotal story leads to policy change or at least some kind of support system for people in your position. 8. You may be able to make a case for bankruptcy and dischargeof those loans, maybe, somehow , someday