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LOCs


Guest sky100

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Guest sky100

Hello.

I was looking for some information on LOCs but I can't find any.

From your experience, which bank do you think offers the best deal for medical students? Any information would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks.

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Guest acropolistica

Best bet is to not get an LOC unless you have no other options. Financially they are the most crippling standard way of obtaining money there is.

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Guest UWOMED2005
Best bet is to not get an LOC unless you have no other options.

 

Very true.

 

But most of us don't want to sell our organs to pay tuition!

 

I went with MD Management. The actual banking is a bit complicated, but overall it seems like the best deal.

 

I now use MD Management for my LOC and credit card, and have set up a no-fee PC chequing account to deal with day to day stuff (WAY more CIBC machines than national bank, particularly in the west.) It's relatively easy to transfer money from the LOC to the chequing account.

 

I was initially with RBC, but found they wouldn't cover my expenses at UWO for all 4 years. That's why I switched to MD Management's plan and found it superior. If you're going to a cheaper school (ie Mac or out of Ontario) RBC might be fine.

 

You should note for BMO, while the LOC looks very good while you're in school, my classmates with BMO noted that their repayment is less than optimal. . . a few points above prime while in residency.

 

Neither CIBC or TD-Canada Trust are really in the Professional student LOC game. Their packages weren't worth looking at last I checked - neither enough money was available nor do I believe they offered prime. Though things may have changed. . .

 

DO NOT SETTLE FOR ANYTHING MORE THAN PRIME INTEREST. THERE IS NO REASON TO.

 

I believe Prime is about 4.25% right now.

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Guest satsumargirl

UWOMED2005

 

Could you please clarify for me....RBC did not cover your 4 years? I beleive they offer 150 000 up front and that MD Management also only offers 150 000 only it's not upfront.

Is this not true?

 

Also, for RBC you mentionned they changed the interest to prime +1 or so while in residency. Do you have any experience with what the rate would be with MD management? Do they guarantee prime even during residency?

 

Thanks

Sats

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Guest CalicoKal

uwomed2005: can you please extrapolate what you mean by RBC not covering your expenses for 4 years at UWO? I'm starting to shop around for LOC options for UWO and am curious as to what you meant by this.

 

Also, does anyone get both OSAP and a LOC? Is this possible?

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Guest TimmyMax

Hey,

 

Doesn't RBC also count any outstanding student loans against the $150K that they are offering? This could be a consideration in those of us who weren't as well off financially as undergraduates.

 

Best of luck!

Timmy

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Guest anatomist

true, myself included.

However MD Management would seem (please correct me if I'm wrong) to also count prior loans toward a maximum fundable limit.

The advantage would *seem* to be that according to their new pamphlet online, their limit is $200k.

Again, please correct me if I'm wrong. I'd very much like to know.

Thanks!

 

Kevin

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Guest wattyjl

i recently aquired an RBC LOC, and also plan on applying for ontario/canada student loans.

 

for those who haven't looked into it, the advantage of using government student loans is that they give you the money but interest does not start to accrue until you are finished school (i *believe* that means undergrad meds, 6mo's after you finish medschool, you have to start paying the loans back and get charged interest (at a high rate, i think prime + 2-4%) on the remaining principle until it's paid off.

 

many people consolidate their student loans with the LOC so they are only paying prime.

 

as for reducing the amount they give you, this might be situation-specific. for example, when i took out my RBC LOC i had about $7500 in mastercard and CIBC LOC accounts outstanding, yet RBC did not count this against the 150K; i have access to the full amount. but perhaps for someone with 50K student loans, they wouldn't be as forgiving...

 

above all, when applying for an LOC through any of the banks, make sure you talk to someone who deals with the professional student LOCs on a regular basis - it will greatly facilitate the process. e.g., i called up RBC and started to apply for their LOC over the phone, and got hassled about prime vs. prime+1% (for mds and maybe dentistry, it's only prime, for law, etc., it's prime + 1%), got hassled about what i was spending the money on, etc. so i bailed on it, and found a guy at a local RBC branch who deals with these things on a regular basis and one pain-free week later i had access to the money.

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Guest NurseNathalie

Thanks! checked it out, and found the threads helpful...

 

yikes.. it seems from one post, that the MD management system is a little more difficult than RBC in terms of accessing the funds? did anyone else find this a problem?

 

banking is sooooo not my forte! what better time to start 'identifying my own learning needs!' lol

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Guest MacHopeful06

As far as RBC counting existing student loans against the LOC they are offering here's what I found out: they don't count outstanding student loans against the amount they're going to give but they will count other outstanding LOCs you might have had in undergrad. Also I need to add that the student loans I'm talking about are OSAP type loans, bank student loans count.

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Guest anatomist

whoa!

are you certain that's the case?

THat's fabulous, helps me out considerably - I have a mix of osap and bank/student loans out the wazoo, so thanks for sharing.

 

I wish things like this were spelled out in text online. It would make the maze easier to navigate.

 

cheers

 

kevin

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Guest MacHopeful06

Hi Kevin,

 

You're right! Things would be a whole lot easier if this type of information was in text online. I had no idea how this worked until I happened to speak to an RBC account manager for professional programs today. I'm not in med school yet but I'm hoping to be next year and seeing that I also have a lot of student loans this was great news

 

Cheers,

Mac Hopeful

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Guest wattyjl

actually, in my case, as i wrote above, RBC absolutely did NOT count my student line of credit or my credit card debt against the amount of money they offered for their LOC - i have access to the full (150K) amount.

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Guest allycat03

Hi,

 

My sister has a loan with Nationale Bank and would like to know if the prime intrest rate includes all of residency?

 

Thanks

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Guest Ruenil

When you go through MD Management, does anyone know what the payments are like while you're still in school? I'm guessing it's not like OSAP where they wait until you graduate to charge you for interest? I just got back from CIBC, and they not only charge you interest right away, it's not prime nor fixed. :x Getting the money to pay for this is getting to be quite a project....

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Guest squeegy80

Ruenil,

 

From what I got out of the MD Management pamphlet (see Med Orientation 101 thread on LOCs), the LOC is like OSAP in that you do not have to start making payments until after graduation. In fact, with the LOC you can wait until 12 months after the completion of your residency to start payments. The way it differs from OSAP is that with OSAP you don't accumulate interest until after graduation (I'm pretty sure about this, although I don't know much about OSAP). But with a LOC you start accumulating interest on the funds you use, as soon as you use them. So from what I can see, the optimal situation (assuming you've already exhausted at no-interest or low-interest financing options, like parents...) is to use your OSAP loan as much as you can, and then transfer it to your LOC at the time of graduation, giving you 12 extra months, and not having any interest yet.

 

Hope that made sense

 

squeegy

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Guest Jochi1543

I have some general questions....

 

1) Is being approved for the loan pretty much entirely dependent on the fact that you will get a marketable degree, or is your credit history and such a major consideration as well? For example, I don't really have any credit history, nothing bad on it, but nothing to show that I was paying bills on time either. Will this affect me negatively?

 

2) I see some people are taking out really huge loans ($150,000). It seems like at most schools tuition will add up to about $80-90K over the course of 4 years. So, what do you do with the rest? Is it entirely to cover your living expenses? (I assume the terms of the loan allow you to use it for more than just tuition, but also rent and stuff).

 

3) How do you receive the money? Does a certain sum get dumped into your bank account every year/semester, or does the bank allocate the tuition money directly to the school and other funds to your bank account, or do you submit your bills to the bank?

 

I'm trying to figure out what financial situation I should expect myself to be in when I end up in meds...Thanks for any replies!

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