Loan - Page 4

3.25 is the prime rate, on top of that they add the interest rate as determined by the score of your co-signer, so the rate will be higher then 3.25%.

when you start paying:
As I mentioned, you start paying the loan back a month after the funds are disbursed at the end of the month. In my case the first payment is due on feb. 27, 2011, and its for tuition between january and december of 2011, so basically you start paying ASAP.

prepayments:
You can pay the loan off early, they will not charge any penalty for doing so. However, you are not entitled to a refund of part of the finance charge which is the estimate of how much the credit will cost you, and its basic language found in a lot of different loan applicants. I do have my own concern about that particular piece of language that they used right there, and my research turned up something along the lines of that basically meaning that any interest that you have paid to them may not be refunded even if the variable interest rate decreased while you were paying for the loan.

Refinancing:
I am still reading the agreement, and have yet to find refinancing options, so I take it there is no refinancing as of this moment in the agreement, certainly not mentioned in approval disclosure document I received, which seems like a summary of the terms and conditions.

There is one major concern about this loan, and it is a very major concern. The rate may not increase more then once a month, however, there is no limit as to how much the rate could increase at one time There is furthermore no maximum interest rate for the loan. and if the interest rate is increased the monthly payments are increased.

I believe that it allows you to select the term of the loan at the beginning if I recall correctly (it has been a couple of months) but this one has a 15 year term and you have to finish paying the loan by then (180 monthly payments).

"The variable rate of this loan is based on the Prime Rate as published in the Wall Street Journal."

Fees:
Late charge is 5% of the amount of the past due payment or $28, whichever is greater, there is also a returned check charge of $15.

My APR was not that low, probably because my cosigner has a a house mortage, and other debt all around, however, she has not failed a payment yet and has a very stable and considering our economy a good paying job. As to how I will pay for the loan, well.. right now the monthly payment of the loan is 1/10 to 1/14th of the monthly payment my family has been giving to the school or would be giving to the school considering the yearly increase in tuition, as long as interest rate does not increase to over 100% and actually beyond that I should survive the monthly payments. Furthermore, this gives me the opportunity to be out of school potentially working more and earning more to make payment towards the cost of my education and not have my family pay such a large sum of the cost of my education, and that the other 9/10 or 13/14th of the remainder that would have been appropriated to the cost of my education could go towards paying down higher interest debt that we have been paying down slowly as a result.

That increase in tuition was totally unexpected and this year alone will be approximately 10k more then when I entered 3 years ago, my half scholarship which was fixed and guaranteed now looks more like a third or less then a third of the total tuition cost, its sad, but at least I am close to finishing.

^^^^^^ so if you don't mind me asking how much is your mothly payment??

$180 to the nearest dollar for the current interest rate or $363 if the interest was increased to 25%

Ohh I see have you calculated how many years it will take to pay off? My semester cost 4,500 I'd need a loan close to 20000 just to so a two year degree yikes I'm not going to school due to the fact that I can afford it I'm going to gather more info on what you just posted thank u

does the USC co-signer needs to be my parents or relative? as in is it possible my USC friend co-sponsor me?

milmil, so far I have only heard examples of people using their relatives to co-sign, but I can't see the harm in trying to use a USC friend to co-sign the loan, it is not a very simple request either, you are asking them to put their credit on the line for you, if you fail to pay their credit gets damaged, but if you have a USC friend willing to do this, try it, the worst they can do is say no, and even if they say no at first on the phone, tell them that you know people that have received the loan in similar predicament to yours, the person I talked to started saying I could not get a loan until I mentioned that fact and he went to ask his supervisor and it was smooth sailing from there.

BTW... as of today I have the money in the bank, received a check to deposit which had to be endorsed by both the co-signer and the beneficiary.

Thanks buck for fielding all the questions, I had no idea people had even replied to this thread until I saw it in the first few pages. I'm glad it worked out for you, and yeah, I agree that some of the terms of the loan aren't the most reassuring, especially the interest rate increases. Though I doubt that Wells Fargo will increase it above the prevailing market rates for similar risk loans, well, hopefully.

Also, just a heads up to people who are applying, account for tuition hikes. I got caught with my pants down this semester when my university increased tuition because of budget cuts. We still managed to make ends meet, but had to tap into credit-cards for a couple thousand, which isn't all that great.

Last, check out afford.com. My family pays for my tuition through a combination of the loan, and our own money through the monthly payment plans that Tuition Management Systems provides. They charge you a one time fee to enroll in the plan, but it's not that much at all, and the payments themselves have no interest at all. I highly recommend that you use it in concert with the loan, or not use the loan at all if you can make the monthly payments.

Bumping, since it looks like a lot of people are looking for ways to finance their next (or first) year in college.

Is is loan currently the best one out compared other banks such as Chase, Discover, etc?