Attending college is a fantastic experience. It’s a totally unique experience from high school, especially if your college has a large campus. There are many different activities that colleges offer students, far more than any high school can. Also many new people to meet, from all over the world. Going to college can be wonderful.
But it can be a pain too, if you have to pay for it. And if you needed to fund your tuition and other expenses with student loans, then it becomes really painful when you have to start paying those bills. Plus you have to pay the interest on what you borrowed too.
If you are in this fix, where you know your bills and interest will be too high, then there is one sensible idea to try. You can consolidate your student loans. Doing so will allow you to minimize your payments and significantly reduce your interest rate.
What often happens with college students who have taken out loans, is that they forget about them. It’s not hard to understand though, because college life can be so hectic. When diploma time comes, the loans are all but forgotten. That is, until the bills start coming in.
These same students also forget that they may have borrowed money from more than one lender. So after school they start getting bills from all over. And then life gets really hectic, keeping all the bills straight.
But to assist in this problem, students look to student loan debt consolidation. Then their monthly payments can be merged into one smaller monthly payment.
There are several loan consolidation services that can be found online. One such service is at NextStudent.com. They have a very informative website, and offer free one-on-one counseling, as well as low interest rates.
There are several student loan debt consolidation sites on the web. If you are in a bind with trying to pay your loans, then please do a search online right away, I’m sure you’ll find a service that will dramatically improve your financial circumstances.
By: Jim Konerko
Posts Tagged ‘Interest Rate’
Smart Student Loan Consolidating
February 4th, 2010Now Is the Time to Consolidate Student Loans!
January 28th, 2010
Now is the time to consolidate student loans. Time is running out for you to get some of the lowest rates available, because on July 1, 2008, the interest rate may jump two percentage points or more.
Waiting until June 30th is not going to help you, the time to act is NOW.
If you are still in school or are within the six-month grace period after your graduation, you are eligible to consolidate at a low rate of 2.875 percent.
This is a last chance opportunity for in-school students to consolidate loans, as the legislation is changing come July 1st.
If you have been out of school for some time, you might be able to consolidate for an interest rate of 3.37 percent, which is not too bad either.
Married couples have been enjoying spousal consolidation student loans. If you are married and have not considered consolidating your loans, you still can until the July 1st deadline.
Some lenders are offering a large carrot, if you agree to let them take your payment via your checking account (direct deposit transaction) on a monthly basis. That carrot could be a discount of up to 1.25 percentage points. The problem is you have to act now. If you are not motivated to move now and wait until June 30th or after the 1st of July, your rates will go up.
How much is up? Well the exact amount will not be known until sometime in June, but if you consider the price of everything else we are currently paying, expect it to be a good-sized jump.
Rumor has it that the in school/grace period rate will jump up to approximately 4.5 percent and the out-of-school rate will be as high as 5.2 percent and possibly higher.
What are you waiting for? Remember the lower rates will be for the life of your loan.
The Department of Education says that it is totally okay for students with loans from financial institutions, who are still in school to consolidate their loans before the July 1st deadline. In order to do that, you will have to ask your financial institution to put your loan into repayment and from there, you can consolidate. Once that is all done, you can then put in a request for an in-school deferment, this way you will not have to start making payments until after graduation.
If you have a direct loan from the Department of Education, you have always had the right to consolidate your loans while in school.
The upside to this is, you will have a much lower interest rate to pay back, and the down side is you will have to start making payments right after graduation, rather than having the six-month grace period.
This situation is good for juniors and seniors, as you have to have at least $7,500 in school loans in order to qualify for this program.
The important thing to do now is to check with your current lenders to see what loan options are available. If you have more than one lender, try shopping around for the best deal possible to consolidate your loans.
After July 1st you will be stuck with your current lender and will not have an opportunity to go to a different lender, unless your current lender does not off a consolidation loan with income sensitive repayment terms.
The time to act is now, and yes, it will take some effort, but the money you will save in the long run is worth the effort.
Remember “a bird in hand is worth two in the bush,” as my grandmother used to say.
Refinancing before July 1st gives you, the student, one last chance to lock in low interest rates and take advantage of other soon-to-be cut money saving opportunities and programs.
What are you waiting for?
By: Audrey Frederick
Consolidating Your Student Loan
January 25th, 2010
When getting out of college many students are faced with the fact that student loan repayment beings shortly there after. Consolidating your student loans down to one payment can greatly reduce the amount of money you will pay on interest alone by a sizeable amount in the long run.
Student loans tend to have a repayment period anywhere form 10 to 20 years. This makes it possible for the parents and students to repay the loan without feeling bogged down. However repaying the loans over a longer period can result in higher interest rates which results in more money out of your pocket.
When applying for a student consolidation loan, you are trying to lower the balances of all your loans into one lump sum payment. Balances from other loans can easily be transferred from one lender to another. Some place to look into in regards to consolidating students loans are Perkins, Stafford, FISL and HEAL. It is possible that some lenders will consolidate the student loan as a private loan as well.
Paying off a student loan in less than 10 years may reduce the monthly payment without extending the overall loan terms beyond 10 years. However, missing just one payment could increase your interest rate on the loan raising your overall monthly payment. It’s important to remember that if a student consolidates their loan before they begin making monthly payments, the interest rate could be much lower.
In some cases students have trouble paying off their student loans having just gotten out of college and in search for a nice paying job. There are specific plans that will allow a student to adjust their monthly payments on a sliding scale that start out with a low monthly payment and increase slightly every few years. This student loan consolidation method is quite popular by many since it allows for the low monthly payments initially, giving the students plenty of time to increase their salary over the upcoming years.
By: Timothy Rohrer