Chase Student Loans

[rduell]

Does anyone know anything about the student loans that Chase offers? Our daughter has applied for one and supposedly has been accepted. I told her before she signed the papers to let me check and see if anyone has had any experience with them and to see if I can find anything about their interest rate.

[ThriftoRama]

I would steer clear of any private student loans unless she has already borrowed the max from the gov't direct loan program > Chase loans, like all private loans have high, variable interest rates. Not only are they much more expensive than direct loan program loans, they are virtually impossible to refinance. Many people I know are trapped with mounds of private loans and are really suffering. Just my two cents...

[jIM_Ohio]

Look up the following loans:

Stafford loans
Perkins loans
Plus loans

and then learn about subsidized (gov't pays the interest) and unsubsidized (interest added into loan).

The FAFSA (financial aid application) will qualify you for subsidized loans. In order to get a subsidized loan you must send the FAFSA form to school (to prove enrollment).

If you qualify and use subsidized, it may limit how much unsubsidized loans you can get.

Unsubsized are not a bad deal- I went to school my last 2 years with a high amount of unsubsidized loans. The unsubsized were a better deal than private loans.

[disneynutt]

I consolidated both my student loans and my husband's a couple of years ago and they were recently purchased by Chase. I've had no problems dealing with them at all.

I definitely think you should check out whatever government loans are available before accepting their private loans though. Because of my consolidation, I have a low rate, but I can only imagine what their standard rate is for new loans.

[rduell]

Thanks for the info. I talked to DD last night and she'd already signed the papers. At least she borrowed only a tiny bit above what she actually needed (rounded off to the nearest thousand).