Student Loan Debt Consolidation
Sometimes students obtain more than one student loan. When the payments start overwhelming your budget, it might be the right time to consider the debt consolidationstudent loan. It will let you not only to get the debt relief, but also to reduce the stress.
The main feature of the loan consolidation is that multiple loans offered by various creditors get exchanged onto the single one. This means less paperwork and less stress. Your finances will be easily controlled due to the fixed payment plan you shall stick to.
Still the student loans are not meant for everyone. Be attentive to understand the pros and cons of these actions.
Here are the features you shall obtain in order to use the debt consolidation for student loans
- You’re not in school and enroll the university at any status less then part-time;
- Your payments are still within the ‘grace period’ of the loan;
- Your credit history is a good one (you didn’t default on the previous loans);
- Your loan is $5.000 or more.
Not all loans can be consolidated. Keep in mind, that you can’t consolidate private and federal loans, as well your own and your friend’s loans.
Though there’s the fixed amount of the minimum loan, you might as well use the consolidation with less than minimal sum in case you resort to the Federal Direct Consolidation Loan Program.
The program of student loan consolidation
Before resorting to the loan consolidation, take your time to get the deep understanding of the process, weight your options and find out which loan consolidation is right for you: the federal or the private one.
Federal student loan consolidation
A lot of people use the federal loans to cover the expenses on studying; still these loans are usually not enough. That is why some students use the private loans in order to pay for their education. There’s a list of top providers of this kind of loans, you can use several of them to make more money, still when it’s time to pay off the debt the consolidation will appear to be wise decision.It’s important to consolidate the student debts, since they obtain high rates and short terms of payback, so the risk of charges is quite high. Federal loans offer more significant protection; still the sums of the private loans are better.
The main reason of consolidation is to replace several loans with the single one with the long period of payment. The sooner you make the consolidation the faster you get debt relief.
Private Student Loan Consolidation
Though federal loans are able to help the students, still they do not offer the complete solution of the financial question. That is why a lot of students resort to the private loans. By consolidating them in one single loan you get the opportunity to make one single monthly payment with the low interest rate. The other benefit is that you will easily improve your credit history.
5 reasons to consolidate student loans:
Easy payments
It’s not easy to control payments in case you’ve taken loans from different creditors. You might miss the payday and get stuck into charges. With the single loan this will never happen.
Significant discounts
A lot of lenders offer special discounts for their debtors, like the reduction of rates in case of automatic payment. If you don’t have this advantage, you will get it in case of loan consolidation.
A lot of payment options
By using the debt consolidation you can deal with the Parent PLUS loans. You can choose the optional plan of repayment. Also in this case you’re able to seek the Public Service Loan Forgiveness in case your plan is for 10 years or more.
Low monthly payments
By consolidating your loans you get the opportunity to lengthen the period of your payments. For the $20.000 loan taken for 20 years you will be paying only $152 each month. Don’t forget about the interest rates though. The longer your payment period os the more interest rates you pay.
Low interest rates
You can lower the interest rate by applying the cosigner or searching for the other lender. Use the benefits of the offered discounts and decrease your monthly payments. Remember this doesn’t work for the federal loans, since the consolidation can change nothing there by leaving the interest rate as the average one.
Cons of student loan consolidation
Various kinds of the loans obtain different disadvantages the students have to know about. These might be:
- Paying more in total due to the long payment period;
- Obtaining the larger total interest amount;
- Having to pay for longer time, thus getting the late debt relief;
- Losing the benefits offered by the current lender;
- Having to repay the given benefits;
- Facing the threat of possible penalties;
- The loss of grace period in case you consolidate during the one.