| Student loan refinancing was not something I thought | | | | that although I didn't have great credit (mostly |
| of upon receiving my master's degree. I thought only, | | | | because I never had a credit card), I didn't have bad |
| "Finally I'm finished with 50-page papers!" However, at | | | | credit either. I was in good shape to get a fairly |
| age 29, I wanted to move permanently to Estes | | | | decent, low rate. |
| Park, Colorado. Enamored with Rocky Mountain | | | | The next step I took was finding a lender that |
| National Park and with the high desert climate, I | | | | specialized in student loan refinancing. recommends a |
| wanted to buy a cabin in the woods. | | | | number of sites. I ended up with the National |
| Unfortunately, I owed money, a lot of it. After | | | | Education Loan Network (a.k.a. Nelnet), which I used |
| graduate school my loans totaled $24,000, which | | | | to reduce my monthly payment in three ways: I got |
| doesn't seem like a lot to folks who go to med | | | | a lower interest rate to lower my long-term student |
| school, but to someone such as me, who was used | | | | debt, I consolidated two school loans that I had, and |
| to living on the road, making less than $20,000 per | | | | I extended the duration of my loan. I also took |
| year, $24,000 seemed astronomical. To make | | | | advantage of a special offer to have the money |
| matters worse, my loan payments were hundreds | | | | taken directly out of my checking account, which |
| and hundreds of dollars. There was no way I could | | | | lowered my interest rate even further. |
| pay a mortgage with my monthly payments. | | | | Although it took a few months to get everything in |
| So I did some research, talked with a bunch of | | | | order, the outcome worked to my advantage. I |
| people, and found out that I actually could do | | | | ended up with $123.50-per-month payments, which is |
| something about my situation. These words came up | | | | entirely reasonable. These low payments enabled me |
| over and over again: student loan refinance. Why not | | | | to save quite a bit of money each month. I'll be |
| try it at least? It couldn't be that difficult. | | | | paying my loans off for longer---about 20 years; I've |
| It wasn't that difficult, although it was definitely time | | | | got 17 left---but I finally was able to save enough |
| consuming, and I had to do extensive research to | | | | money up to buy a home and not worry too much |
| really find out the good deals. I found a number of | | | | about my mortgage payments. |
| websites, including which notified me that "the main | | | | Granted, I did get lucky. I consolidated my loans |
| goal of refinancing is usually to reduce your monthly | | | | before July, 2006, at which time the consolidation |
| student loan payments." Exactly what I needed. | | | | rates jumped a few percentage points to match the |
| As the site states, it's always better to start with | | | | current market rates (which rose significantly and |
| good credit, so if you don't have good credit, work | | | | steadily last year). However, it's still very possible to |
| on that first. I checked with the credit bureaus, | | | | lower your loan payments. |
| TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian and discovered | | | | |