Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Money & Business

Alpha Consumer by Kimberly Palmer

Paying for Free Money

January 08, 2008 04:33 PM ET | Kimberly Palmer | Permanent Link

Reader Comments

Free Money

"Free" money -- your troubles are over (or just beginning). What's the saying "A sucker and their money are soon parted". IF they are offering you $300 dollars then, it will probably cost you far more in the loan consolidation and fees. Watch out for the fine print!.

Free Money

Very cool article! Thanks for the link! I didn't realize that about the Attorney General investigation.

offer is real....

lets all get one thing straight.. federal studentloan consolidation

is regualated by the department of education, so interest rates

are the same , wether you choose ncli or department of education,

there are no fees , its against the law! and $300 has nothing to due

with the repayment of your loan....... so this offer is for real.... we cannot pay you for consolidation , but we can pay you for advertising

and take your comment and post ot on our website, all we ask is

if your eligiable you orginate an application for consolidation , you

get a discloser letter telling you the exact figures of your consolidation

and you have the wright to cancell , so if you wanted to you could defraud the company, now who is herting who.......???

This is a good offer!

Wow, what a bunch of misinformation. This company is giving $300 and that's a bad deal? How? The rate is the same if you consolidate federal loans so why not take advantage? Talk about bashing the little guy. The government doesn't give you anything, that's why they have these stupid anti-consumer "inducement" laws. Already costs my college-age son plenty!

watch out ... grammar ahead

I'm going to repeat something that has often been noted by my blog readers when they see comments like this (and there have been many) from people who seem to be connected with a loan consolidation company.

Why would I want to consolidate my college loans with people who can't construct a sentence using proper grammar, spelling, and word choice?

That's about all I have to say about that.

Better deal vs. better grammar.

OK, so Jedijawa from west Virginia wants good grammar from his lender. I just want the best deal, which usually comes from smaller companies like this willing to give back a little of there profit for my business.

To each their own!

Re: Offer is real:

Although consolidation rates are regulated by the federal government, the rate on a federal consolidation loan is fixed--set at the time of loan disbursement. If the offer receipient consolidated, say, three years ago when student loan interest rates were at an all time low, the rate on the new consolidation loan would be definitely be higher today.

And while providing $300 for a comment upon originating a consolidation loan is technically not an inducement under the terms of the Higher Education Act, let's face it--it is. The debit card is a carrot to choose to apply via NCLI vs. other companys, which (by the way) are much, much more likely to offer better borrower benefits saving customers alot more than $300 over the life of the average federal consolidation loan.

NCLI and other consolidation aggregators will have no luck convincing NYAG Cuomo that they're doing anything other than offering inducements--and other business engaging in these decpetive business practicess will have to pay huge attorney's fees or settle with the NYAG. Either way, they'll lose big.

a good company ncli

to the industry expert. yes the rate would be higer, but again if you

consolidated three years ago and now have new loans , you choose

to consolidate those loans , also thanks to our goverment and ny

lenders donot offer the same reductions they use to as of oct 1st

wich by the way where phantom offers, we use to offer 1.25% reduction for ontime payments with this offer but are unable to due

so since the reduction act of oct1 2007, remember consolidation is good for some bad for others and are company will not consolidate

a loan if its not in the best interest of the borrower.....

customer service vs 4th grade spelling

While I agree that reconsolidating through one of these "free gift card companies" would probably be a bad decision, I can't help but wonder how much worse they could be compared to Sallie Mae's total lack of customer service, despite whether or not NCLI can reliably spell simple words.

NCLI FFELPC

Sure the rate is the same, but NCLI offers no other deductions, which most of the major non-shades of gray lenders do.

Check out www.northstar.org to see what an above-board lender offers people. It's a hell of a lot more than $300.

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About Alpha Consumer

Send an E-mail to alphaconsumer@usnews.com.

Kimberly Palmer, senior editor for U.S. News & World Report, writes about how to save money, avoid scams, manage debt, and be a savvy shopper. Share with her your own money issues by sending questions to alphaconsumer@usnews.com.

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