Friday, December 25, 2009

Consolidate School Loans - Is This What You Need?

By Charles Gloson

For many students obtaining student loans is as simple as clicking on a web site, filling out a form and waiting for the money to arrive at the university or in your checking account. That's a simple solution to all of their financial woes. They never give a thought to paying back their loans until they get close to graduation day. Then they suddenly realize that six months after graduation they will be paying a large amount in loan repayments every month. At that point, the best solution may be to consolidate school loans.

Did you know that you can choose the plan that suits you best for repaying your school loans, or that you can combine them into a single monthly payment that won't be as high? These are two advantages of loan consolidation for people who can't afford to repay their different school loans. Loan consolidation does not help students who can afford the multiple loan payments.

If you can't make the multiple loan payments now, or you think it will become a problem in the future, then consolidation is for you. There is one thing you must remember. Although the loan consolidation will lower your monthly payments, it will also raise the amount of total interest you will pay by lengthening the amount of time you have to repay the 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.

Whether or not a student should consolidate school loans depends on each individual case. If you cannot make monthly payments on various federal student loans, or if you have borrowed money with private loans, you can benefit from loan consolidation. - 30462

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