Wilmington-based College Ave Student Loans announced the launch of its graduate student loan, a new choice for graduate students paying for college.
College Ave Student Loans offers a “lower fixed interest rate than the Federal Direct PLUS loan and will not charge customers an origination fee.
According to The College Board’s “Trends in Student Aid 2015” annual report, in 2014-15, 355,000 college students borrowed $7.8 billion from the Grad PLUS program, at an average cos of nearly $22,000 per student.
With a lower fixed rate and no origination fee, that means grad students could save more than $1,200 on the average loan with the College Ave Student Loans product over PLUS, the company estimated.
“We’re excited to offer grad students with great credit history a competitive alternative to Grad PLUS loans as they decide how to pay for their higher education,” said Joe DePaulo, co-founder, and CEO of College Ave Student Loans. “Grad students who’ve established strong credit deserve choices that recognize and reward that history. We’re delivering with a loan that has no fees to apply, repayment flexibility, and a lower rate than they can get a PLUS loan. Our new product is a continuation on our commitment to making paying for college more affordable and the loan process less complicated.”
The loan offers multiple in-school repayment options and a choice of how many years the student wants to take to repay the loan.
Grad students who would rather have a lower starting rate can also opt for a variable rate (3.78%-5.78% rate with 0.25% auto-pay discount).
College Ave is offering a tailored grad student calculator where shoppers can compare the College Ave Student Loans offer to the Federal Direct PLUS program. Consumers can confirm if their credit scores qualify, and what rates they can expect from College Ave Student Loans, with a free credit-pre-qualification tool on the site.
College Ave Student Loans also announced today that it is offering families variable and fixed rates on both undergraduate and graduate loans. For more information visit: https://www.collegeavestudentloans.com/.
