Student Loan Question

**cyclonenum1** · 01-10-2010, 10:41 AM

Is it possible for a student that is still declared a dependent to his parents and only has small part-time income to get a student loan on their own with no co-signer?

If so, what lending institutions do these type of loans and, generally speaking, what are the terms?

Any insight anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

**burn587** · 01-10-2010, 10:47 AM

How much are you looking for in terms of loans? I'm guessing if it's a whole lot then you'll need a cosigner.

**cyclonenum1** · 01-10-2010, 10:56 AM

Originally Posted by burn587

How much are you looking for in terms of loans? I'm guessing if it's a whole lot then you'll need a cosigner.

What do you consider "a whole lot"?

**CycloneDaelenn** · 01-10-2010, 12:27 PM

I was in this exact situation, and being an out-of-state student, the amount was a lot. It was very tricky, but possible. The interest rates are awful, though. Some of mine are up to 14%. I think I got one of them through Discover (the credit card). Others came from now defunct loan companies - though of course I still have to pay them back. Pretty much just apply everywhere, see what you can get. Good luck!

Cyclone42 · 01-10-2010, 12:42 PM

Originally Posted by CycloneDaelenn

I was in this exact situation, and being an out-of-state student, the amount was a lot. It was very tricky, but possible. The interest rates are awful, though. Some of mine are up to 14%. I think I got one of them through Discover (the credit card). Others came from now defunct loan companies - though of course I still have to pay them back. Pretty much just apply everywhere, see what you can get. Good luck!

I never needed a co-signer when I was attending ISU back in the early 90s. The interest rate is fairly irrelevant, though. It is really easy to refinance a student loan. Just hope the long-term interest rates are low when you graduate!

A couple of tips for when you graduate in a few years:
First and foremost, right away get a federal consolidation loan. You will likely have lots of smaller loans (I had something like 8 or 9). Group them all into one big loan. Then, refinance that loan from a variable rate to a fixed rate. I did both of these, and converted my 8 or 9 loans at variable rates to a single loan with a fixed rate of 4%. Saved a TON of money long-term.

**cytech** · 01-10-2010, 12:47 PM

I have not consolidated my federal loans yet mainly because the variable rate is 3.2% right now. I can't get a better fixed rate than that. So I am just going to wait till it gets to a point where it makes since. I did refinance my loans I had through Iowa student loan recently though(if they are still doing loans that is where I got a majority of mine w/o my parents cosigning) They were fixed at 8.4% and I now have those fixed at 5.63%

**Clonehomer** · 01-10-2010, 12:57 PM

It depends if you can get federal loans or if you need private loans. Federal loans you should be able to get without a cosigner. Private loans you may still be able to get, but you probably don't want to. The interest rates on something like that will be ridiculous. If you get private loans be aware that some of them do not allow you to refinance once you are out of school. I ran into that problem when I got a partnership loan through Iowa Student Loan (studentloan.org). If you do not have a cosigner for these, they will first get you on the origination fee and then later with the interest rates. Make sure that you look through all of the details before you decide on anything.