Student Debt Consolidation – Repayments Made Easier
Posted by admin | Debt Consolidation | Posted on February 5th, 2010
lessing for a student if he can make an easy and regular payments of his student loans; this only means his road to pursuing his college degree can be done with a lot less stress and hindrances. However, this is not usually the case for many borrowers. More often than not, monthly installments are not paid late, if not paid at all. Hence, with the number of loans that a borrower has to worry about every month, he has to decide fast and just get a student loan consolidation to take care of his financial woes. Consolidation means merging the old loans, turning them into one cheap monthly payment. Via this road, you find yourself taking care of a much easy-to-pay new debt and at the same time, ridding of the multiple loans that had created for you financial havoc all this time. And with the elimination of the old debts, you are in effect erasing the problem of dealing with the high interest rates that go with them. However, students must be careful about getting student debt consolidation. It should be emphasized that there are two types of college loans, the private and the government ones. If it so happens that you have both these types under your names, it is a must that you consolidate your loans into two groups – private and federal student loan consolidation. All kinds of government loans such as Perkins, Stafford and PLUS Loans should be consolidated under a government student debt consolidation loan. Why do we need to separate the federal from the private when consolidating? This is because the federal loans have lower rates of interest? If in case, they are consolidated together with the private ones, the advantage of having low rates will be disregarded. While your old government debts have different payment schedules and terms, once they are consolidated, there will only be a single repayment schedule leading to a much easier management of your debt. On the other hand, private debt consolidation loan should be employed when we want to merge private debts, and such loan can be availed as either secured or unsecured. Always remember, federal and private loans never mix as far as debt consolidation is concerned. For articles on student debt consolidation programs and other similar college loans and debt consolidation discussions, do visit our Easy College Loan Consolidation blog.
Student Loan Consolidation May Get you Up to 20 More Years to Pay Off your Student Loans
Posted by admin | Education | Posted on February 4th, 2010
If you’re a former student or a college parent with any outstanding federal student loans, you may be able to get up to 20 more years to repay just by consolidating your eligible federal parent or student loans. With that longer repayment term, since you have more time to repay, the amount you have to pay each month will typically go down. You may be able to cut your monthly student loan payments by up to 42% — just by consolidating!
Cut Your Payments on Your Student Loans by up to 42%
Here’s an example of how you can lower your monthly student loan payments when you consolidate your federal college loans and take advantage of a longer repayment term: Estimated monthly payments on a $75,000 student loan consolidation fixed at 7.25% and repaid over an extended term of 30 years are $512, versus estimated monthly payments of $879 on a $75,000 Federal Stafford Loan issued at 7.22% and repaid over 10 years — that’s a 41.8% reduction in monthly payment amount. (Your actual payment reduction may vary and will depend on the terms of the parent or student loans you’re consolidating.)
Get More Time to Repay Your Student Loans
Federal PLUS parent loans and Stafford student loans are issued with standard repayment terms of 10 years. You may be able to get up to 30 years to repay these federal parent and student loans when you consolidate them into a student loan consolidation.
How long you get to repay will depend on the total outstanding balance of your education debt: If your outstanding education debt totals $20,000 – $39,999, you’ll have 20 years to pay back your student loan consolidation.? If your outstanding education debt totals $40,000 – $59,999, you’ll have 25 years. If you have $60,000 or more in education debt when you consolidate your federal student loans, you’ll have 30 years to pay back your Federal student loan consolidation.
No Fees. No Credit Checks. No Prepayment Penalties.
Even though you can get more time to repay your federal parent and student loans by consolidating, there are no prepayment penalties on a Federal Consolidation Loan, so you won’t be assessed any additional fees for paying more than the minimum each month or for paying off your student loan consolidation early, should you choose to.
There are also no application fees, no processing fees, and no credit checks when you consolidate through the federal student loan consolidation program.
Replace Your Variable-Rate Student Loans With a Fixed-Rate Consolidation Loan
If you took out your Federal PLUS Loans or Stafford Loans prior to July 1, 2006, those loans are subject to variable interest rates that will adjust every year. So when interest rates rise, your monthly student loan payments may also go up. But you can put an end to rate increases and rising payments when you consolidate your parent or student loans.
The federal student loan consolidation program gives you the security of a fixed interest rate. By consolidating your federal
student loans, you’ll replace your variable-rate college loans with a fixed-rate consolidation loan, so you won’t have to worry about interest rates rising and leaving you guessing about your monthly payment amount.
Make Just One Payment for All Your Federal Student Loans
If you have multiple student loans in repayment and you’re dealing with the hassle of multiple bills, multiple due dates, and multiple monthly payments to multiple lenders, a Federal Consolidation Loan could help make your student loan repayment easier to manage.
With the federal student loan consolidation program, you can bundle all your eligible federal parent or student loans into one single consolidation loan with just one monthly bill, one lender, and one monthly payment that’s fixed for the life of your consolidation loan.
Consolidate Your Private Student Loans
If you have private student loans in addition to your federal student loans, you won’t be able to consolidate your private student loans under the federal student loan consolidation program. But you may be able to consolidate your private student loans separately with a Private Consolidation Loan, which offers the same convenience of a single consolidated loan for your private student loans.
Student Loan Repayment 101
Posted by admin | College And University | Posted on February 3rd, 2010
Unless you plan on being a student the rest of your life, student loan repayment is inevitable, and the ins and outs of student loan repayment can be confusing and overwhelming. The financial advisors at NextStudent, a leading Phoenix-based education funding company, would like to help clear the murky waters by defining terminology and laying out your student loan repayment options.?
Understanding Your Student Loan Repayment Options
A grace period is a pre-determined amount of time allotted to student borrowers after they leave school or drop below half-time enrollment before they must begin repayment of their federal student loans. Grace periods vary in length based on the type of student loan: Stafford loans have a grace period of six months; Perkins loans have a grace period of nine months. PLUS, Grad Plus and Federal Student Loan Consolidation loans have no grace period.
Deferment allows you to temporarily postpone your student loan payments (in most cases, up to a total of three years over the life of the student loan) if you’re unemployed or experiencing economic hardship. You can also request in-school deferments on your federal student loans while you’re enrolled at least half time.
While you’re in a grace period or in deferment, the interest on your Perkins and subsidized Stafford loans will be paid by the government. But you’ll be responsible for the interest on your PLUS, Grad PLUS and unsubsidized Stafford loans—any unpaid interest that accrues on these student loans during grace and deferment periods will be added to your principal loan balance for you to repay once repayment starts or resumes. If you want to avoid interest being added to your principal loan balance while you’re in a grace period or in deferment, you can choose to make interest-only payments during that time.?
Forbearance also allows you to temporarily postpone your student loan payments. When you’re in a forbearance period, you’ll have to pay any interest that accrues, even on Perkins or subsidized Stafford loans.??
Repayment Plans
Perkins, Stafford, PLUS and Grad PLUS loans have a standard repayment period of 10 years. If your standard monthly payment amount is higher than you’d like, you have three other repayment plans you can choose from that may make your monthly payments more affordable:
Extended Repayment is available to you if your federal student loans total more than $30,000 and if you received your first federal student loan on or after October 7, 1998. Depending on your student loan amount, you could extend your repayment period up to a 25-year term.
Graduated Repayment allows you to make lower payments at the beginning of your repayment term and gradually increases your monthly payment amount over time.
Income-Sensitive Repayment bases your monthly payment amount on your monthly income. You have to submit documentation of your income to qualify, and you have to requalify each year.
Student Loan Consolidation
If you’ve taken out any federal student loans, you’re eligible to apply for a Federal Student Loan Consolidation from NextStudent, which might give you more time to repay your student loans and could substantially reduce your monthly student loan payment.
The repayment term on a student loan consolidation will range from 10 to 30 years, depending on your total outstanding student loan amount. Student loan consolidation loans generally have the standard federal deferment and forbearance benefits.
When your student loan consolidation is in deferment, the government will pay the interest on that portion of your student loan consolidation loan that was originally a Perkins loan or subsidized Stafford loan. During deferment, you’ll only be responsible for paying the interest on that portion of your student loan consolidation loan that was originally a PLUS, Grad PLUS or unsubsidized Stafford loan. When your student loan consolidation loan is in forbearance, you’ll be responsible for paying all interest that accrues.
You can consolidate one or more qualifying federal student loans and take advantage of one easy-to-manage loan with a single monthly payment. Our online applications are fast and easy, and there are no fees to apply for a student loan consolidation.
NextStudent believes that getting an education is the best investment you can make, and we’re dedicated to helping you pursue your education dreams by making college funding simple. Learn more about Student Loans, Private Student Loans and Student Loan Consolidation at NextStudent.com.