Consolidate School Loans - Is This What You Need?

By Charles Gloson

When college students get into a financial bind, the easiest thing in the world for them to do is take out another school loan. All they have to do is fill out a form on-line, and wait for the money to arrive. The problem is they never take into consideration whether or not they can afford to pay them back after graduation. Suddenly, they find themselves close to graduation day, and they realize that in just six short months their first loan repayments will be due and that they will be more than they can afford to pay. The best thing to do is to investigate how to consolidate school loans.

There are only two benefits of consolidating school loans. You get to choose your monthly repayment plan, and you only have to make one monthly payment that will be considerably lower. If you have the money to make the multiple loan payments, consolidation will not be a help to you.

Loan consolidation will be a way out if you don't make enough money to pay several loans off at the same time. There is an important fact that you need to think about before you consider loan consolidation. You will have to pay a much larger amount of interest because of the longer time period that you will have to pay off your consolidation loan.

Private student loans are different from federal student loans in that they have variable interest rates. A student with a low credit score will pay a much higher interest rate on a private loan than he would on a federal loan. If the student has been able to raise his credit score during the years he's been in college, then he may be able to consolidate his private loans into a single loan with a much lower interest rate. By doing this he will be able to save money

If the student faithfully makes his loan payments for 24 to 48 months, he can remove the co-signer from his loan. This removes the liability responsibility of the loan off the shoulders of the co-signer. This is a big advantage of school loan consolidations.

Once you decide to consolidate your loans, look for a lender that won't charge you an application fee or for paying off your loan early. Ask the lender what is the maximum amount of interest you will have to pay on the loan, and make a note of how long the loan is for.

When you begin to think about whether or not it would be a good idea to consolidate school loans, remember that each case is different. The only students who actually benefit from loan consolidation are those who have private loans, or those who can't pay several loan payments at the same time.

About the Author:

0 comments:

Guides Complete