วันอังคารที่ 17 มีนาคม พ.ศ. 2552

Student Loan Consolidation Basics

By Michael Fleischner

For anyone attending an online or traditional institution, paying back college loans is an area of concern. There are a number of options for paying back your college debt and student loan consolidation is one of the best. With a variety of loans, all with different interest rates, loan consolidation is a great way to lower your payments and simplify the process.

Loan consolidation is the process of reducing your many loans from different lenders and issuing a single loan from a new provider. There are significant benefits in loan consolidation, resulting in lower monthly payments and much less paperwork.

When taking advantage of loan consolidation, you have a single lender and one monthly payment. One of the benefits of a consolidated loan is that you often have a few repayments options to chose from. Make sure you research these options and decide which ones work best given your current ability to pay.

Student loan repayment options include standard repayment. This is where you make a fixed sum payment. Most student loan repayment periods are for ten or fewer years. If the monthly amount is too much for your budget, a second option is to extend your payment for a longer time period of time. The last repayment option is to pay a graduated amount during the repayment process, stepping up about every two years.

With selecting the graduated repayment option, your payments are made over an extended period. Keep in mind however that payments are not the same over the life of the loan. Every couple of years your payment amount increases. This graduated payment schedule is right for individuals who need the lowest payment amount when repaying their loans.

Consider that once a loan is consolidated your interest rate is fixed even though graduated repayment requires a change in this rate every two years. This means that you must make an equal payment each month. This is important when you are repaying a consolidated loan or any loan for that matter. Not repaying your loan in a timely manner can result in default, hurting your credit rating and ability to borrow.

A good way to make sure you pay your loan in a timely manner is by discussing your repayment options with your lender. By using direct deposit and automated withdrawal, your best bet is to have your monthly payments automatically taken from your account each month. By setting up an automatic payment program, you can pay your debt sooner and easier than trying to remember the need to write a check.

When you begin repaying your student loans, consider loan consolidation. Student loan consolidation simplifies the repayment process and gives you flexible repayment options. Consider a budget that allows you to make your payments in a timely manner. More importantly, find a reputable lender who can work with you as you enter the workforce and seek to pay your debt.

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