Which lender is the BEST? *cough* Total Higher Education *cough*

[Roman815]

There's a lot of good information about lenders on this forum but has anyone come up with a clear winner? I will be attending the University of San Diego this fall and they have 4 main preferred lenders. They are:

1)Access Group
2)EdAmerica
3)Total Higher Education (T.H.E.)
4)Wells Fargo

http://www.sandiego.edu/usdlaw/finadm/finaid/types/loan/lenders.php

The link above gives us all the information we need on each lender. I am leaning towards Total Higher Education because it's a non-profit, is very flexible in terms of missing payments (not harsh), has good customer service from what I hear, and seems to have pretty good rates as well. In college I had federal loans, which I later consolidated with the government, and a private loan from Sallie Mae that I payed off in full. Sallie Mae's rates were insane and their customer service was horrible. Now that I'm going to law school, I am more educated on the importance of selecting a good lender. I would rather go with T.H.E. even if it is a little more just to have better service. Yet I think that they will save me money in the long run as well since T.H.E. has competitive rates and doesn't penalize you like the other companies do for missing a payment. What's the best lender out of these four? If I don't get any responses I'm just going to go with Total Higher Education. Thank you all in advance!

[StudentUVA]

It depends on what school you're going to. At UVA Bank of America gives some incredible incentives to go with them- 2.5% reduction from federal loan interests if you let them deduct payments from your bank account. That is the best deal i've seen. 6.8-2.5=4.3%!  Hopefully there is no small print i'm missing here.

[dcarealsattaker]

It depends on what school you're going to. At UVA Bank of America gives some incredible incentives to go with them- 2.5% reduction from federal loan interests if you let them deduct payments from your bank account. That is the best deal i've seen. 6.8-2.5=4.3%!  Hopefully there is no small print i'm missing here.

I called them to double-check this on Friday, because it seemed too good to be true to me as well.  Confirmed...2.5% reduction.  Crazy good!

[lindenksv]

I went with Academic Finance Corp and for the Grad Plus and stafford loans they offered a 2% reduction as well: .25% reduction on graduation and 1.75% reduction for auto-debiting. This is way better than what you get from so-called preferred lenders, at least for my school.

[One Step Ahead]

It depends on what school you're going to. At UVA Bank of America gives some incredible incentives to go with them- 2.5% reduction from federal loan interests if you let them deduct payments from your bank account. That is the best deal i've seen. 6.8-2.5=4.3%!  Hopefully there is no small print i'm missing here.

I called them to double-check this on Friday, because it seemed too good to be true to me as well.  Confirmed...2.5% reduction.  Crazy good!

wait--is this only in repayment or also during the period while you are in school?