Lower Student Loan Rates | Video

Kristin Clouston | 12/28/2012

We have good news for college graduates and parents who are paying off loans for their children, and it`s all thanks to the state.

Kayli Thiel graduated from the University of Mary last spring and is now working as a sales representative for United Printing. "Going to a private school, my parents decided to help me out a little bit more, versus going to a two year school. So what they`re going to do is they are paying for two years of it and then I have to finish off the other two years is what they`re planning."

Since Thiel is no longer in school, she and her parents can apply for a low rate consolidation through the Bank of North Dakota. It`s offering a fixed rate of 4.3 percent and a variable rate of 1.8 percent. "This is a pretty big drop in rates, and we should see very nice savings. Probably the best part about the whole consolidation program is that we`re not going to charge North Dakotans any fee to consolidate those loans," said Bank of North Dakota New Loans Manager Tom Ternes.

You don`t have to be a current customer and you can also use it to pay off federal loans.

"Having the interest rate go down for my parents is going to be awesome, especially with a little brother that`s going to be going to college next year. Any little thing that can help as far as saving money," Thiel said.

Some parents are going to save a lot of money.

"If a parent that had about $20,000 in PLUS loans at 8.5 percent interest rate over a 10 year term and by lowering that rate to 4.31 percent they`re going to save about $5,000 over the life of that loan," Ternes said.

You can apply for the loans January first through March 31. You can find all the details on the Bank of North Dakota`s web page, banknd.nd.gov.

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