<p>I'm getting a federal loan and unsure of which lender I should choose. If anyone has any advice about this, it would really help.</p>
<p>Does your school have a list of recommended lenders to choose from?</p>
<p>yeah,
wells fargo, suntrust, citibank, and sallie mae. from what was listed on the website, i preferred citibank, but i don't think the information provided was specific enough since it didn't even mention anything about specific interest rates or anything.</p>
<p>just to provide some facts about the loans</p>
<p>Citibank:
.5% interest rate reduction for on time repayment
.25% interest rate reduction for automatic withdrawal
Suntrust:
.25% interest rate reduction for automatic withdrawal
fixed 6% for subsidized and 6.8% for unsubsidized</p>
<p>Sallie Mae:
.25% interest rate reduction for automatic withdrawal</p>
<p>Wells Fargo:
1% origination fee</p>
<p>The interest rate for subsidized is 6% and for unsubsidized is 6.8% for all Stafford loans whoever the lender. That is not something that varies between lenders. The things to look at are:</p>
<p>Origination fees - these can be 0 -3%. They are deducted up front from the loan. So if you were borrowing $1000 you would actually get $1,000 from a lender that charges no origination fee whereas from a lender that charges 2% you would only receive $980 (but would owe $1,000). So look for a lender that charges 0%.</p>
<p>Then look at what sort of interest breaks they may give you once you start repaying the loan.</p>