Sunday, October 17, 2010

Consolidate Student Loans and Simplify Your Finances

The big problem most college or university graduates will have to surmount is student loan. They may have heard that consolidating student loans makes the management easier with a chance to get better terms.


1. The Better Circumstances To Consolidate Student Loans
Typical students are not wealthy. The ones who have excellent credit scores can have the chance to get cheap loans from the bank. These loans are taken under a circumstance where a student has no income or any guarantee that he will get one in the near future. What then happens with the loans consolidation?
There is a grace period. This is the time to consolidate student loans. It is the period after graduation, when the loans consolidation has to be made because thereafter it becomes more expensive. The fortunate thing is that at this point, many graduates have got a job and thus better credit scores.

2. What Does A better Credit Score Mean?
Better credit score simply means cheaper loans. The interest accrued is the price the graduate has to pay to money loaned from the bank. Banks categorize borrowers into a different order according to the risk they attach to them. A borrower with a good track record and high credit score is a low risk customer to the bank, which means lower interest rate.

3. Is Getting A Longer Payment Time The Wiser Choice?
The temptation to get both a lower interest rate and a longer payment time is great, because they decrease the monthly payments by several hundreds of dollars. But the general recommendation is that a graduate pays the loan back as soon as possible because the longer time he has to pay, the more interests he pays in the end.

4. Can Federal Student Loans be Consolidated With The Private Student Loans?
No. What you can do is to consolidate loans all the federal together and do the same for all private loans. This rule is based on the fact that the federal loans have benefits coming from the tax payers and they are not allowed to be mixed with the private loans.

5. What Is The Maximum For The Loans Consolidation?
If you want to consolidate federal student loans, you are allowed to include any Direct Loans and FFEL up to the remaining balance of these loans. After the loan has been consolidated, they will be paid away and you start to pay your new loan following the agreed schedule.

The private loan consolidation follows the agreement between the borrower and the lender, so you need to hear the terms directly from the private lender.

Debt Avoidance through Student Loan Consolidation

You should consider taking advantage of student loan consolidation if paying off your student loan is starting to become burdensome. If you choose this option, you minimize the burden you have to go through.


The fear of applying for student loans is the major reason why a lot of people who opt not to go to college. Yes, getting a degree gives you more career opportunities but it comes with a price because you become indebted before you even get your career off the ground. This is the pitfall involved with these loans.

That is why most persons wouldn’t want to go through loan application. Who wouldn't rather think of his or her future rather than thinking of how to pay off debts? Wouldn't you prefer to think of saving up for the future instead of saving up to pay for loans?

While this is a reality for a lot of people, thankfully, there is a way to get out of this - a way that will make it easier for you to build a brighter future. This is achieved through student loan consolidation. With this option, you are guaranteed that you are not burdened. You don’t have to worry about being in debt before you laying the foundation of your future.

How does loan consolidation work? You may have thought that the interest rates were within your grasp. However, the current reality of the economy has changed things for you. The high paying job that you were expecting to sustain the payments may not have materialized.
Right now, student loan consolidation is essential. Through loan consolidation, you get to modify your previous agreements. A way to restructure your loan is by lowering the interest rates. By lowering the interest rates, you give yourself a little more breathing space. This way, you make things more affordable.

This does not end here. There is another thing consolidation can do to make things easier for you. This is done by lengthening the duration of payment from a few months to a few years. This way, you get to stretch out your income more. You will have more to spend on.
With student loan consolidation, you are given more room to build a brighter future. Interest rates are lowered, and the time it takes to pay off the debt will be longer. Lastly, you assured a healthy credit status.

The downside is that you will have to pay more since the length of time is much longer.

Student Loan Consolidations Companies – How to Select the Best Loan Consolidation Lender

Consolidating your student loans is a way of merging together all the loans you took from different lenders under a single student loan consolidation company.

How do you select the best consolidation lender that will offer you the best repayment terms?
Picking the wrong consolidation lender will hurt your budget and general economy. It is very important to follow some guidelines to help you choose the best consolidation company for you.

Private against federal
If your prior loans are from a federal source, you will be on the lookout for a federal consolidation. Federal loans are more convenient than the private ones due to the lower rates of interest.
If the loans to consolidate are from a private source, you will usually go for the private consolidation lender because the federal company will not offer you a good interest rate for consolidating private loans. The reason for choosing this way is that interest rates and terms vary for both.

Although some private lenders may offer you amounts that consolidate most of your debt, you should always go first for the federal company if most of the loans you need to consolidate 
are federal.
As a rule of the thumb, getting loans from private consolidation lenders mean meeting more requirements than from the federal ones. Private lenders base their loans on creditworthiness and will be looking more at your credit score - if you have any or the co-signer you present.

Interest rates
Interest rates are determined by private lenders based on two factors: the standard rate used for loans, (LIBOR) and your credit score. A higher credit score means a lower interest rate that will be applied. Your aim is to try to find a consolidation lender that will offer the lowest interest rate possible. Interest rates can be fixed or variable. The first is the preferred choice.
Not all federal lenders are offering consolidation loans now but the ones doing so calculate interest rate as the weighted average of the individual interest rates of the loans being consolidated.

Terms and conditions
Aim at finding a lender that offers you the best terms in relation to:
a) Loan Amounts – Choose the lenders that can offer you a loan that covers all your debt.
b) Fees, usually determined by your credit score. These are usually application fees and origination fees - fees applied to issue the loan.
c) Deferment  - the  period of time between the time you take the loan and the time you start repaying.
d) Repayment term - the length of time to complete the repayment.
e) Check if co-signers are required.