Are your student loans killing you?

Mine are. I consolidated a few years back with a shady company called ACS--avoid them like the plague. My loan has been sold three times already. Anyway, if you are being screwed like I am, you must know about this loop hole that I have discovered.

Once you consolidate your student loans, you are stuck. Or at least, that used to be the case. But now there is a loop hole that will no longer exist starting in July 2006.

So what is the loop hole?

The loop hole is a two-prong approach that lets you transfer your student loans to the government aka Direct Loans and then to the company of your choice, like Collegiate Funding Services (CFS) or Sallie Mae.

Is it worth it? Hell yeah, it is. Especially if your company is a piece of crap, like mine is. As a result of this magnificent finding, I will save $70,000 and pay off my loans 8 years earlier.

Here's some findings between the top two dogs.

CFS offers you a .25% saving if you sign up for automatic payments and an additional 1% saving after 24 good payments.

Sallie Mae also offers the .25%, but gives the 1% after 36 good payments.

And with both, if you pay more than your minimum, it will go to the principal only.

Remember you must do this soon, it takes 6-8 weeks for the government to process the paperwork. And it goes away indefinitely starting in July.