I’ll keep this short and sweet (or bitter rather).
As the title states, Sallie Mae recently raised my interest rate to 10.75%, my loan amount is 28k. I have called them multiple times and have tried to get it lowered to no avail.
What are my options? Currently I’m paying $250 in interest alone every month and my total monthly payment is around $360. I’ve been paying around $500 each month to try and chip away at it faster but I realize that it would be a lot faster if I also reconsolidated this loan and also paid 500 every month.
What are some good loan reconsolidating options? I’ve tried my bank but they don’t offer student loan reconsolidating options anymore. I’ve gone to my parents since they have excellent credit and asked them if they could reconsolidate it for me by taking a personal loan (they could probably get a rate of 3-4% with their credit) and I would just pay them every month instead of Sallie Mae but they shut that idea down and are not willing to help.
What can I do? Any help/criticism would be greatly appreciated and I can provide some additional info if needed.
Edit: To further clarify, I know I signed up for variable rate but was told as long as I make the monthly payments on time they wouldn’t raise the rate on me (if that’s wrong I understand, that’s just what I had been told)
For the past 1.5 years I have been making the minimum plus an extra 150-200 dollars, but my interest rate has increased by 3.5 points.
Edit 2 from what I’ve learned before I go to sleep:
- Always choose fixed rate over variable
- Shop around for rates instead of sticking to one financial institution
- Interest rates can fluctuate for various external reasons (hence always choosing fixed rate)
- The people of Reddit are very helpful!
Thanks everyone!