Best student loan consolidation. Mine after 5 months just turned me down!?
I used education direct in may and all was well, recieved notification they had received loans and payments to those loan holders then all of a sudden they said no, and that payments had been returned just last Thursday(long after july deadline to lock in good interest rates! Now what do I do?)
Be thankful that your consolidation with this company didn’t go through. There are many reputable lenders out there who offer Federal Consolidation Loans — but I do not count Educational Direct among them. They employ a lot of trickery in their direct marketing; I always hope my students have nothing to do with them…
For your own edification, have you asked why they turned you down? Remember: Federal consolidation loans require no credit check — so no consolidation lender should have turned you down for credit reasons. There are plenty of companies that trick their borrowers into obtaining private consolidation loans. You *don’t* want this — the rates are not set by the federal government and, being private, the loans typically offer none of the protection & benefits of the federal program.
First, go to http://www.nslds.ed.gov and make sure that your loans weren’t, in fact, consolidated. Use this website to determine who holds your loans at this moment (things change — it may not be the same lender that held them 5 months ago). Once you have this information, pick a new lender with whom to consolidate. Sallie Mae and Citibank are the #1 and #2 student loan lenders, respectively. Either one would be a fine choice. They’re well-established companies that offer competitive benefits and are technologically advanced.
If you’re interested in doing some more research, check out this list of Top 50 Lenders: http://finaid.org/loans/biglenders.phtml (note that Educational Direct is no where on this list).
