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College of Cash - finding money for college

So the consolidation loan I applied for through Chase, the one I mentioned a few times, yeah didn't happen.

I had emailed them about a week ago, and the email just said I'd have to call. Well, I hate the phone, almost have a phobia of it, and I got kind of busy last week so I didn't get to it. Today I call. The lady on the other end of the line then tries to tell me they tried to contact me, then mailed something that I needed to send back, and then tried to contact me again about the mailing. I'm assuming the "contact" me part meant calling me. I never got a freaking call from them, never got any mail from them except for stupid stuff about my credit cards. I'm so mad. So now I hate them as well.


Since that one wasn't going to happen (they are not doing any more consolidation loans for a while - says so on their website, plus the lady told me that), I decided to try the one my mom had found for me before I had done the chase one. (I did chase first because I thought it would be easier to pay that one online, plus I could pay extra and it would be automatically applied to principle amount). I get to that website, enter everything in, try to do the electonic signature, only it wants me to find something on a PDF that won't come up on my computer. It told me the file was damaged and that I can't see it. WHAT?! Ok, try again.

Same response. By now I'm pissed and wanting to throw things. So I call my mom. Ask her to do it and see if her computer will like her. If all else fails, we could try the printing it off because she has a printer.

For some reason, her computer likes her and it works. I immediately got an email saying that my loan is being processed. Thank goodness. Hopefully this one will actually work.


In some good, related news, checking out Sallie Mae and my private loans, the payments will only be $96 and some change. This is lower than originally planned when the email from them said $138 a month.

Phew. That was more of a rant than anything, but I feel better now.
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I got an email about a link going to "101 Wellness Tips for College Students." And while most of you are about to be getting out for the summer, it is still something to think about. Plus, it's helpful to use next year.

Most of the things on this list are things you all probably already know. Like, wash your hands, don't eat crap food, don't over-eat crap food, etc. haha. But I'm sure you will all like #27!

I will say, I'm not a big fan of #27 myself. I tend to get up afterwards with headaches and a feeling of grossness. But I know many college students love it.

Hope you all have a great rest of the week! A net worth update will be coming soon!
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Consolidation Loan Goes Through?

April 22nd 2008 10:53
I went to check the one student loan I was repaying already, and noticed it didn't have an "amount due" line anymore. I think that means the loan went through. Hopefully it consolidated all of them this time, instead of just doing a few like last time (when it only did one loan).

I'm crossing my fingers that everything works out the way I need it to, and that the minimum payments every month aren't outrageous. When I was playing with the calculator on their website, it had said the payment should be around $110. I had picked the graduated two-year payment plan. I'm hoping that in two years I will be able to pay more to my loans.

Now I just need to hear from Chase who did the consolidation. Hopefully they email, or send something in the mail soon. I'm not a patient person!
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A Less Depressing Update

March 13th 2008 11:12
Yesterday was kind of depressing. But while looking at all this loan consolidation stuff I decided to email one of the sites I looked at and ask if the interest that had already accrued would be included in creating the $20,000 mark. (Plus, I included the loan that was already "consolidated." With that loan and interest on the others I have about $20,300 in federal loans).**

I just did that yesterday after the post. Hopefully they email me back soon. Then I will know for sure. I also emailed Sallie Mae (two days ago actually) to see if they could guestimate how much my minimum payment would be to them. I haven't heard from them yet, but it's only been a day.

IF the interest can be included to make the $20,000 and their little calculator thing is correct (or at least close) my payments for the first two years would be $110. I can handle that. I could even handle Sallie Mae being a minimum of $200 if federal consolidation loans would be $110. Crossing my fingers for good news from the loan people!

Anyway, I just didn't want all the readers to be depressed from reading my post yesterday so I thought I'd give a quick update to it!

Hope you all are having a good week!


**A note on that "consolidated" loan. I didn't want to include that one in the rest because it already has such a low interest rate I thought I could pay it off faster. I've come to the conclusion I should just put it with the rest and make life simple.
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The Near Future is Looking Scary

March 12th 2008 11:15
I wrote that my plan was to pay off my car at the end of April/beginning of May and free up $155 to be able to make student loan payments. I thought I would be able to consolidate the federal student loans I had and then have just one monthly payment that would be less than all the payments combined.

Well, in my searching, most places require at least $20,000 worth of loans to consolidate. I'm $5000 short of that.

What I really don't understand, is that when I tried to consolidate the student loans I had prior to Fall 2006, some site did let me consolidate (either sallie mae or nelnet) but only let me do one of my loans. But now the sallie mae website says I need $30,000 worth of loans. And I can't find it on the nelnet site at all.

The other problem is, if I can't consolidate, and my guestimating is correct, then I will owe more every month than I make. (Only by about $54 if the guesses are correct, if not then it will be worse).

Here are the payments I do know:

$50 - the one in repayment right now
$40.25 - shows up on nelnet site
$69.30 - also shows up on nelnet site

Ones I've guessed:
$70 - this loan is close to the amount of the $69.30 loan above
$30 - this loan is only $1142, so I'm not really sure how much it would be

$100 - this is probably a very low estimate. (Which only makes things look worse). I set this one apart because it is two private loans from sallie mae and I can't consolidate it with the others.

Add all those numbers up and I get $359.55. Almost half of what I bring in each month.

I think I'm screwed.
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Saturday Links for 3/1/08

March 1st 2008 10:42
Somehow I forgot to participate in any of the finance carnivals for the week. I'm not quite sure how that happened, but oh well. I've found plenty of good links this week anyway!

The first one is "Becoming a Marketable English Major" at Mrs. Micah. Of course I like this one because I have a degree in English! haha There is some good stuff in there if you are an English major, and if not, an internship for any major is a good idea


[ Click here to read more ]
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Feeback Needed

February 28th 2008 15:19
Since no one really commented on the post Sunday, I'm visiting it again. I'd really like some feedback on the College List posts.

If you think I should keep them just put "yes" in the comments. If you don't like them on here, just put "no" in the comments. You can even do this anonymously if you'd like. [ Click here to read more ]
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College List Realization and Question

February 24th 2008 19:47
I just realized that I hadn't done one of the college list posts in a very long time. I had started doing them to be helpful to those of you looking for scholarships at particular schools, or to help you find a school you might like to go to.

The question is, should I bring them back? Do the readers out there like those posts? Or should I skip them? Any feedback would be great, thanks!
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A Newbie's Guide to Finance

January 23rd 2008 21:54
money
At first I was just going to include this link with the Saturday Links post. But then I realized it's probably a little more important than a one-liner mixed in with some other posts. So, now it gets its own post.

Stephanie over at Poorer Than You is a current college student, so she writes a lot of similar things to what I do. She made up a list of things that are important to know if you're about the same stage as we are financially - traditional student, or recent graduate stage


[ Click here to read more ]
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Talk About Bills Out of Nowhere

December 24th 2007 15:13
Right after I transferred schools I tried to consolidate my student loans because the rates were going to be going up (or something like that). Well, what happened is they only let me "consolidate" one loan. I don't know how that happens - it pretty much defeats the purpose.

Anyway, when filling out the stuff online it told me I would lose the 6 month deferment after graduation. I decided that was fine with me because this rate would be lower


[ Click here to read more ]
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