Should I take out Sallie Mae loans? If not, what should I do?

August 15, 2019 2:11 PM

I’m an American graduate student living overseas. I’m starting my new program for a lucrative and exciting career in a few days. I was just informed that I have an unexpected 5 week gap before my student loans arrive, which I didn’t budget for. How bad is it really to take out Sallie Mae loans to cover this month+? Can I avoid the notorious Sallie Mae difficulties if I pay it back once get the other aid? Are there any other providers or services that would be good for this short period?

I just need about $1k, but I need it immediately and my job won’t be able to pay me that quickly. Already tried asking family and they responded with insults (history of abuse). So please, don’t pile on criticism about my situation — I just want to know what potential financial options people might recommend for this 5 week period.

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (8 answers total)

I'm reading this as you being an American citizen who is an international graduate student, studying outside of the US at a non-US institution. If that's the case, I encourage you to reach out to your university's office for international students. They might be able to help you with a temporary, short-term loan. (In the US, the dean of students office can sometimes help with that sort of thing.)

When I was in grad school in the US, loans were distributed via the financial aid office after classes began. Are you certain you can get money from the US government and have it sooner? Is your institution in the US? If not, is your program such that you can get a US government loan?

I'm very sorry you are in this situation, and I have no criticism of you! This sounds super stressful. My only other suggestion is to ask an older family friend for whom $1000 might not be a huge amount of money. Good luck.
posted by bluedaisy at 2:23 PM on August 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

Is there some reason you can't rely primarily on credit cards, as you expect to be able to repay almost immediately from your aid? Private student loans are a bear.
posted by praemunire at 2:40 PM on August 15, 2019 [7 favorites]

For such a small amount, I wouldn't go with a Sallie Mae loan. I would open a low- or no-interest credit card and go that route. Nerdwallet has a list of cards that have no-interest introductory periods.
posted by assenav at 2:58 PM on August 15, 2019 [4 favorites]

I got American federal student loan money as an American graduate student studying outside of the US. There was also a delay.
Are you trying to get a private student loan dispersed via Sallie Mae? If so, it might take some time to get your enrollment status verified and the funds transfered.
If you only need $1000 to get buy, you're better off using a credit card that you already have access to.
posted by k8t at 2:59 PM on August 15, 2019

Echoing bluedaisy's suggestion to reach out to some kind of office for international students.
posted by unknowncommand at 4:24 PM on August 15, 2019

If this is based in on notices and you have not spoken to a live human being, follow up with the phone call or office visit, especially if it’s university-based. If it’s expenses that are external to university life, see what you can work out. $1000 is still a lot of money on a grad student budget, and many people understand about this delay. Go to orientation activities and network as well. Attend some university events that include food, and stretch your budget further.
posted by childofTethys at 6:13 PM on August 15, 2019

For super short term student loans, it might be worth investigating the Discover student loans option. Not radically better from an interest perspective, but much more likely to be available to you more quickly than a Sallie Mae loan would be. You might even be able to reach out to whichever bank you currently use about a short term personal loan, which might have slightly better terms than a student loan.

I'm with others though--if your outstanding costs can be covered by a credit card in the short term and you're confident you'll be able to pay it off relatively quickly, opening a new card with 0% interest for the first year or something like that might be the quickest/least stressful option.

I promise I'm not a shill for Discover, but I do know that they have an intro offer where the first year is 0% interest, plus they double whatever rewards points/airline miles/whatever you've racked up at the end of the first year. I opened up one of their cards the year I started grad school and needed to buy a new laptop and it worked out nicely. IDK how popular Discover is overseas though, depending on where you are, so YMMV.

Good luck!
posted by helloimjennsco at 8:05 AM on August 16, 2019

I'm sorry, I think there are two problems that may mean you can't use a Sallie Mae loan.

If you already have federal loans that will cover your educational expenses, then you don't have any eligibility for an additional private loan.

Or, if you do have some unmet expenses, the private loan may disburse to your school on the same schedule as the federal loan, so you would not receive the funds any sooner.

You should contact your financial aid office regarding eligibility, or contact the office that handles student accounts (bursar, financial services, etc) to see about the timing of refund checks.
posted by saffry at 10:46 AM on August 16, 2019