I have bad credit and need a private student loan

merlinjones · 05-03-2006, 05:08 PM

Hello,

I am an independent undergraduate student who has bad credit and needs a private student loan. I will, more than likely, be needing a private student loan because I have almost reached my stafford student loan limits for undergraduate students. Unfortunately, when I was a younger gal, I was not very good with my credit and have really bad credit as a result. It is my goal to one day resolve my credit issues, but I have unfortunately been living in Memphis, Tn. for a while now and we have a horrible unemployment rate (2nd worse in the nation) so I have been up a creek with a fair amount of my finances with regards to credit and have had mad trouble with obtaining fair paying empolyment and have even done tutoring to fill in the blanks with that.

There are people in my family who would co sign a loan as long as I prove that I would pay it back myself, because I am too old for a parent plus loan. Are there any private student loans that only take the co signers credit information into consideration? I do not know what to do about this and am trying to look for scholarships, but I really need something more definate than a scholarship because those are all shot in the dark types of opportunities. I am determined to finish my schooling and I just do not know what to do because I do not live in an area of the country where I can obtain a second job or anything like that.

I take full responsibility for my credit rating, but I really think I was duped with regards to stafford loans. I qualify for grants and whatnot, but I am worried about what to do for the fall semester and all of that because I would hate to not be able to finish my schooling because of finances.

marielblewis · 05-03-2006, 06:48 PM

You should get with the local branch of Consumer Credit Couseling. If you start working on doing what you can to improve your credit now perhaps you will have a few more options when the time comes to look for a loan. Saying "Oh, I know I will fix my credit someday." will not help you. Even if you have very little money, CCC (or any other similar non-profit) will help you make the most of what you have. The key is to work on it now, not later.

merlinjones · 05-03-2006, 08:04 PM

I understand where you are coming from and I appreciate your post, but I still am trying to obtain information on how to obtain a private studen loan if one has bad credit. I have a fair amount of family members who will co sign for me if need be. And, that is why I am wondering about this because my own credit is bad.

Also, I am a honest person and due to the economy of my city, I am actually hoping to obtain really nice employment in Miss. or Arkansas when I actually earn an undergraduate degree and it is then that I will try to work on my bad credit. However, I am still trying to learn about these private loans and how they work if one is an independent student and has bad credit.

I thank you all the same, though. Hopefully, someone knows of something.

UB-Vinny77 · 05-21-2006, 11:46 PM

is this person talking to theselves.

lol

merlinjones · 05-22-2006, 10:21 AM

UB-Vinny77, I was responding to marielblewis' response to my original post.

ophiolite · 05-22-2006, 03:22 PM

If your parents are willing to co-sign (and they likely will have to in order to get a good rate or to be approved at all) you have a lot of options out there for you. I personally have been using CitiAssist (www.citiassist.com) for my private education loans and have had no problems with them yet (knock on wood). I found another site that may be of use as well (http://www.onesimpleloan.com/private_loans.asp), I haven't checked it out thoroughly, but it looks ok. I'd avoid using SallyMae, they have a track record on not being forgiving at all for late payments (from a recent 60 minutes episode).

As for your poor credit, when the time comes, you will probably need to look into a program where you have to pay a monthly "membership" fee. My fiance is going through the same problem right now he let his accounts go into default for too long a period for the typical credit counseling to work with him (it was over 6 months in default). He just started up with Freedom Point (the people who do the CareFree credit counseling ads) and after three months of payments to your accounts, your credit rating begins to increase. It may be worthwile to look into what your montly payments would be in this program, they tend to string out the payments over an extended period of time...so you may be able to afford this option right now and see an increase in your credit rating in a few months.

Hope this helps a little...

jefferson987 · 05-25-2006, 11:13 PM

Hi, like it says in the title, I need a loan. And I need it bad. If I dont get the loan I need, I wont be able to go to college. And I NEED to go. The problem is my parents credit. My parents have horrible credit so they cant really co-sign anything for me. I've applyed for a ton of loans on my own and was denied for every one of them. I dont know why, because I have really good credit. But I guess its almost an unspoken rule that you need a cosigner to get the loan. Does anyone have any ideas? Im sooooo worried.

NikkiiL · 03-14-2007, 09:55 PM

I don't have access to my financial aid information right now...but we have one private loan lender who offers the ability to remove the co-signer from the debt after the student has made a certain number of on-time payments. When I get to work tomorrow, I will retrieve my list of private lenders and post a new reply.

NikkiiL · 03-15-2007, 07:05 PM

I apologize for not getting this posted sooner...but today was a very CRAAZY day in financial aid...at least in my office.

While this is not the only lender with this option...it is the one our office uses as our primary private loan because of the reputation of the lender. I cannot guarantee that the college you will be attending will accept EdAmerica....as some places try hard to stick only to their preferred list of lenders. But the link is: http://loans.edamerica.net/loans/pri...ourschool.aspx

If you look for other private loans similar to this, be sure that the lender offers "Co-borrower release option". And do pay attention to ALL of the fine print...especially the terms and conditions which would allow the co-borrower to be released from the loan.