Posts Tagged ‘Federal Loan’

Student Loan – Do You Need a Cosigner?

April 19th, 2010



When you are searching for a student loan you may find that you will need a cosigner. There are many situations where this is true because you may find that you do not have a past credit history so the lender will require that you have someone cosign the loan for you.

It can be hard when you are in school and just starting out to establish a long credit history. There are many students who are just trying to survive and have a long or positive credit history can sometimes be a difficult thing to have.

There can be situation where you will apply for a loan and do not need a cosigner such as a Federal Student Aid Loan. But if you are getting a loan through a traditional lender than you need to be prepared to have a cosigner ready to help you. The lenders will base there decision on a few factors but the biggest will be your credit score. There are some lenders that will also look at your work history and make a decision based on that but in most cases it will hinge on your score.

If you are in a situation where you do not have a cosigner then you may really want to try to exhaust all of your financial aid options. You can find many grants and other scholarships that will give you money to help with school expenses.

Remember that when searching for a student loan the lender may ask for you to have a cosigner for the loan.

By: Bryan Burbank

What Types of Student Loan Repayment Plans Are There?

April 12th, 2010



When a student gets a student loan, there are several different types of student loan repayment plans that you could get in order to make the repayment of the loan a lot more manageable for you. There is the Standard repayment plan that is the most economical plan of them all. This plan allows the student to have low monthly payments, allows them to change the repayment agreement as circumstances in your life change, and allow you to pay off the loan without any type of penalties that you would have to pay.

There is the extended student loan repayment plan which makes the overall loan amount more than other repayment plans but this plan allows you to have very low monthly payments and allows you to take up to 25 years in order to pay for the loan. Even though it may take longer to pay for the loan, you won’t have to deal with a high loan payment every month. There is the graduated repayment loan plan allows the student to start off with very low monthly payments and graduate up to the normal amount of monthly payments that they should be.

There is also the Income-Contingent student loan repayment plan allows the student to pay back their loan on a monthly basis by the amount of income they made that year. Each year it is calculated towards the income that they received and the monthly income is adjusted accordingly. There is the income sensitive repayment plan which allows the student to pay monthly payments per their income, but they get to choose what percentage of their income they want to pay. This percentage can be anywhere between four percent and 25 percent. They can do this yearly and pick the lower amount if they are having financial difficulty.

Then there is the income based student loan repayment plan which allows student loan payments to be capped at a more reasonable percentage of their income, will cancel any balance after 25 years if payments have been made accordingly, and will be available in all major federal loan programs. This is a new plan that was created in September of 2007 due to the fact that college costs have gotten out of control for students today and this is a way for the Department of Education to take it under control.

By: Simon Harris

Student Loan Consolidation Rate – How to To Prevent Default Using Student Loan Consolidation Rate

April 2nd, 2010



Do you have an outstanding student loan on which you are making repayments? Keep in mind that defaulting on this loan can have severely negative consequences on your finances. Default with lead to rude reminders, imposition of high charges and a drastic fall in your credit score.

Did you simply presume that nobody would follow up on your loan if you defaulted? Or were you facing serious financial troubles which left you with no choice but to default? Once you default, your credibility will fall and your repayment cost which rise. One quick way to end your worries is to opt for a good student loan consolidation rate.

Just what is meant by default?

Not making your payment for a pre determined period will lead to your defaulting on your loan. Some lenders do not treat a borrower as defaulting unless he or she has skipped payments for more than a complete year. Lenders do not treat any borrower as defaulting without serving formal notice by post or email.

Once your loan is categorized as a defaulted loan, you will have to make arrangements to convert its status into a current loan. Default is a very serious issue which hits your credit score and credibility. It will take a long time for you to move back into the good books of your lender. It takes nothing less than twelve months with consecutive payments and no missed payments before your credit score will improve.

Hence, no matter what happens, try to avoid defaulting on your loan. You always have remedial options irrespective of whether you have opted for a federal loan or a private loan. In case of a federal loan, opt for deferment and forbearance. In case of a private loan, sign up for a good student loan consolidation rate to remedy the situation. This is a very good option as you still retain deferment and forbearance as further remedies is the situation does not improve.

What is deferment?

As the term indicates, using this option postpones your loan repayments for a fixed period. Your loan stops and no interest is charged for the period you have opted for deferment if you have obtained a subsidized loan. This is a common choice when the borrower is pursuing additional education programs.

Forbearance

You should opt for the forbearance option if you have income problems. If you have been laid off or if you have fallen ill, you will not qualify for deferment and should opt for forbearance. Such programs may exempt you from making payments or may require very nominal payments for a fixed period. You may choose to apply forbearance to the principal, interest or both figures.

By: Michael Clifford Ramsey