By Dean Shainin,
consultant specializing in student loan consolidation

Copyright © 2006 Dean Shainin

With the cost of education going through the roof, going to college can be very costly. Many students don’t have thousands of dollars to pay their way through college. This is why so many college students use student loans and federal student loans to get themselves through college. When it comes time to pay back their student loans, it can be a real burden and a distraction from their career.

Today’s career minded students can get help with the burden of having several student loans. One can focus on their chosen career, instead of losing sleep over paying several monthly student loan payments. Student loan consolidation and federal student loan consolidation can be the solution with several benefits.

How Does Student Loan Consolidation Work?

Here is typically how a student consolidation loan works. When a student first applied for several loans from several different agencies and student loan providers, they each gave a different interest rate and term for paying back the loans.

The idea of student loan consolidation, is to take all the different student loans and put them into one easy convenient loan. You then only have to make one monthly loan payment every month, instead of several loan payments every month over time.

This saves the student both time and money. Having a lower interest rate and less checks to write every month are a couple of the many bebefits of doing a student loan consolidation or federal student loan consolidation.

What About Federal Student Loan Consolidation?

There are several advantages when you get a federal student loan consolidation. You can take advantage of fixed interest rates, lower monthly payments, one payment each month, get payment incentives and new or renewed deferments.

There is usually not a minimum loan balance required with this type of loan program. Also, you have the option of which loans you may want to include and money saving payment incentive plans with some federal student loan consolidation programs.

Another benefit is that you can consolidate your undergraduate loans if you are still in graduate school. You can decide on what loans you want to consolidate from the loans that qualify.

However, federal student consolidation loans can’t include loans you may have received from banks, credit unions, personal loans, consumer debt loans or any other type of financial service loans you may have applied for in the past. They have to be federal student loans to qualify.

8 Helpful Benefits From Student Loan Consolidation

1. Lower Monthly Payments. Depending on your student loan situation and the type of lender you choose, you may be able to lower your monthly payments by up to 50%

2. Having Simple Loan Payments. By consolidating your student loans, you only have one loan payment per month and one check to write. This is very beneficial if you are writing several checks every month to multiple lenders.

3. Having Fixed Interest Rates. With some federal consolidation loans you can have a fixed rate for the life of your student loan. It’s best to do research to see what the best interest rates and term you are eligible for. You can check online to calculate the interest rate on a new student consolidation loan based on the rates of your current student loans. You can then round up to the nearest 1/8th of a percent of the weighted average of the interest rates on your eligible student loans.

4. Extending Your Payment Period. You may have a lot of student loan debt. With federal consolidation loans you may be able to extend the payment term up to 30 years. It’s a good idea to realize you will end up paying more interest over the life of your student loan consolidation. The idea is to get some leverage until your career takes off. You can focus on making money instead of several monthly loan payments.

5. In School Consolidation Programs. While still in school, eligible students can lock in a low rate. This would put you into repayment status, but since you are still in school, you are automatically put into deferment. The drawback of consolidating your loans while in school, is that you lose your 6 month grace period. The solution to this would be to request forbearance for up to 1 year on your student loan consolidation. Here again you can do some research and get more information online.

6. Lower Interest Rate. Student loan consolidation can save you thousands of dollars. You may be using credit cards with 12% to 28% interest trying to keep up with your bills. This can cost you thousands of dollars when you pay the minimum monthly payments on high interest credit card debt. Having a student loan consolidation may be your best option if you can get lower interest rates when consolidating your student loans.

7. New Interest Rates. With a new student loan consolidation, you may be able to get a much better interest rate. Interest rates are now at an all time low. You may have been paying on debt you built up from several years ago, at high interest rates. Things change over time in the financial industry.

8. Help Relieve Stress. With a student loan consolidation you don’t have to worry about several monthly loan payments and due dates. This in itself, can make a student loan consolidation worth your while. You can focus on your new career, instead of those nagging loan payments every month.

Student Loan Consolidation Services And Resources Online To Help You

You can get a student loan consolidation online quickly and easily. The Internet makes research and finding good consolidation loan programs. You can get done in a day, what used to take several weeks. You can learn everything you need to know from information sites that provide the latest news, resources, tools and data in regards to student loan consolidation and federal student loan consolidation.

With knowledge you can be empowered to get the best type of program for student loan consolidation. You can get loan quotes, rates and compare loan companies that are competing for your business.

Dean Shainin is a consultant specializing in student loan consolidation. Get valuable resources, tools, information and more articles on student loan consolidation, visit this site: http://www.studentloanconsolidationtips.com/

Published - January 2006