What Is The Best Bank To Get A Private Student Loan Through?

Where should i get a student loan, a bank or from school?

• i am a college student and am wondering which is better, taking a loan from a bank or from my school, because i will need money for tuition money as well as money for books also...i am not sure about any thing regarding taking a loan or how the money is given, can someone please explain. (i am enrolled in a CUNY and i am a nyc resident)

• Answer:

  Seema - Start by reading this booklet that I'm attaching. It's a Department of Education publication that explains the entire federal financial aid system. You'll find out all about the various sources of financial aid, and how to apply for them. The only type of loan that a school makes directly is a type of loan called a Perkins Loan. Those loans are only available to students who have what is known as "Extensive Need". The Perkins program is not one of the largest of the federal financial aid program. The most common type of educational loan that undergraduates rely on in is the Stafford Loan. This is a government-guaranteed loan that almost every applicant qualifies for. The Stafford Loan program does not require a credit check or a cosigner, which is why it's a much better loan than any form of non-governmental "private" loan. The Stafford Loan repayment doesn't begin until 6 to 9 months after you have have finished your college degree (or left school), the interest rates are low and fixed, and you can request a temporary postponement of your payments if you experience economic hardship after you graduate. There is another government loan program called the PLUS loan, which is available only to the parents of undergraduate students. This loan also has a low, fixed interest rate, but unlike the Stafford, your parents must be able to satisfy the lender's credit criteria before they can be approved for the loan. Some lenders allow a PLUS borrower to postpone payment until the student has completed school, but the basic PLUS loan requires that monthly payments be made almost immediately after the loan is made. Then there are the "private" loans. These are all variable interest rate loans, and any legitimate version thereof has a credit check and/or income requirement. Very few student applicants are able to qualify for this type of loan on their own, so they must provide a cosigner. For reasons that you can read about all over this Financial Aid topic of Yahoo! Answers, cosigning a loan for another person is NEVER a good idea, so you'll find a lot of people in this area asking how they can get around the cosigner requirement. The answer is "you can't". That's yet another reason why your primary source of financial aid should be the federal government. Private loans should only be considered when you have first determined your maximum eligibility for the much "cheaper" Federal loans. I hope this brief introduction helped you understand this a little bit. The good news for you is that the State of New York has some nice state financial aid that you may qualify for, on top of your federal aid. Don't forget to read through this booklet, and share it with your parents, too. There's a lot of info in there for them. By the way - financial aid is something that you apply for several months before school starts - not a week or two. Good luck to you!