College education often involves a whole lot of expenses for which students take numerous student loans. Most often, these loans, their interest rates and repayment schedules become a big bother. With so many loans to keep track of along with a never-ending stream of student loan interest rates, students get entangled in these rather than focusing on studies. There is a way out of the problem, called student loan consolidation.
This consolidation makes the repayment schedule very simple and convenient by putting together all your student loans into a single loan with a fixed monthly payment schedule. In other words, the earlier loans are dispensed with and a single new one is created.
Benefits of student loan consolidation:
The most obvious benefit of the consolidation is that of convenience. By merging all loans into one, you no more have to keep track of numerous student loans and their repayment schedules and deadlines. Managing a single account is definitely easier and you do not have the risk of forgetting any of the many loan repayment schedules and consequent default.
Another substantial benefit of consolidation is in the financial aspect. Now, since you have just one loan to pay off instead of many, the monthly payment that you need to make is much lower.
Similarly, the consolidation also enables you to take advantage of low, fixed interest rates. Often, to facilitate loan repayment by the students the loan consolidating body lowers the interest rates. At the same time, the law stipulates that the loan consolidation rate cannot exceed 8.25%. Furthermore, the interest rates at the moment are at a record low so students can avail the financial benefits of the loan consolidation.
To make it even simpler for students, the loan consolidation process entails no processing fee and no credit card checks either. One of the benefits of the consolidation is that the payment terms and conditions are very flexible with the option of customizing them to suit a students individual requirements.
There is a benefit of this consolidation repayment if made electronically. You can avail a discount of 0.25% on the student loan rates in case you opt for electronic repayment. It is also a good idea to employ direct debit from your bank account so that there is no risk of you forgetting to make a repayment.
All those students who are in the grace period or those who are still in school can avail the benefits of consolidation. At the same time, while considering whom to opt for loan consolidation, you must know that these days governmental consolidation programs are no less beneficial than private bodies.
Whichever body you choose, the bottom line is that the benefits of student loan consolidation are so great that it is in the best interest of students to go for these. This will help you focus more on other aspects of your college and career instead of continuously applying your mind to loan issues.
Default Student Loan Consolidation
In order to make simple the payment of federal student loans, it is highly advisable that you consider consolidating your loans ? this is done by combining all the different types of loans you incurred. Doing so has many advantages. One is that federal student loan interest rates are currently at their lowest, so consolidating your loan means that the interest rate used for the whole duration of your loan is fixed. One category you could take into consideration regarding federal student loans is availing of the FFEL student consolidation loan. This loan program helps any borrower especially students via multiple repayment schedules. Thanks to the FFEL student loan consolidation program, only one payment is made each month.
Through the FFEL program, the loan consolidation you will be acquiring will be made by a commercial lender, after which credit bureaus will tell you that you already have a zero balance in your account, after doing so you will then sign a fresh promissory note indicating that you will have a new interest rate and schedule of repayment. However, in order to avail of the FFEL consolidation loan, you must currently be in repayment on the loan you defaulted or that you have been able to make at least three voluntary and on time monthly payments in full.
Disadvantages of availing student loan consolidations, if there are any, actually depends on you. If in case it would take you a bit of a longer time in paying off your student loan, you will then consequently pay more interest during the course of your whole loan repayment. However, since in consolidating your loans, there are really no penalties in prepayment and if you continually pay the same amount payments before actually consolidating your loans, the interest you will incur would not increase thus you will be able to pay the loan faster than when you did not consolidate your loans. Another advantage when one avails of student loan consolidation is that there are no fees or charges incurred. The United States Department of Education does not in any way make charges or collects any fees to any borrower who avails of the student loan consolidation.
Refinancing student loans again depends on the borrower. The United States Department of Education does not in any way allow any borrower to refinance a student loan consolidation. But if in case a borrower has an additional federal loan that is not originally included in the loan consolidation, these debts may then be added and calculated again into a another Federal Consolidation Loan. Student loan consolidation has another advantage. A borrower is still entitled to avail of the same Federal benefits. This is because student loan consolidation is a federal program. And being it a federal program, a borrower is more than welcome and is entitled to various benefits such as deferment, interest that is tax deductible and forbearance. Plus, the loan is guaranteed by the government and is insured federally.
The following is a basic list of 8 student loans that are eligible to be consolidated.
1. SS - Subsidized Federal Stafford Loans & Guaranteed Student Loans (GSL)
2. DSS - Direct Subsidized Stafford Loans
3. DUS - Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loans
4. DPLUS - Direct PLUS Loans
5. DUCON - Direct Unsubsidized Consolidation Loan, including Direct PLUS Consolidation Loans
6. US - Unsubsidized and Non-subsidized Federal Stafford Loans
Both Rohit Chopra & Emanuele Allenti are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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