Search Your Need

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

What Is Student Loan Consolidation Program And How It Works?

It is common that students nowadays are taking over one loans to further their studies in colleges or universities. & issues start to arise when you need to juggle between work & various payments to multiple loan agencies.

Then you heard about student loan consolidation but what is it exactly?

This is a simple loan repayment program where you combine all of your outstanding student loans in to one so that you only make one payment to a single loan agency every month. Let's say you are holding 3 federal student loans & you are currently making 3 different payments with 3 different rates of interest to 3 different loan agencies. By consolidating these 3 loans, it is seems that your outstanding loans are being paid off & you are now only need to focus in a single loan. This can significantly make your life simpler.


Currently, there's five student loan consolidation programs in the market & one of them is offered by the federal government & is called the federal student loan consolidation. Some found that this program is more flexible because it requires less documentation & students are not subjected to credit check.


The other loan consolidation program is offered by the private sectors like banks & credit unions hence it is called the private student loan consolidation program. Those who are not eligible for the federal government loan consolidation will most likely apply for this program.


How does the student loan consolidation works?


In order for this program to work, you will must first file an application along with your chosen loan institution & wait for the approval. At the mean time, you can look in to the different repayment designs offered by the institutions to see which plan you are most comfortable with.


Before you sign the paper, make positive you understand & agree with all the terms & conditions. Keep in mind to clarify along with your loan agency if there is any hidden cost or additional fee involve. Surely you don't need to find out last minute that you need to pay additional processing fee when you are close to paying up your loan. How about further discount or any incentive when you pay on time? You deserve to know.


Five times the paper has been signed, you ought to keep yourself update with the application status. This loan consolidation method ought to not take over 180 days. In case you didn't receive any news until then, you will must check with the loan agency to see what is the issue along with your application. Ought to your application be decline, you will must look for another loan agency.


Five times your application has been approved, the new loan agency will contact you for the nice news & to discuss about the rate of interest. It is feasible to ask for better rate of interest when you are consolidating your student loan with the private sectors but you might not enjoy the same privilege with the federal loan consolidation. This is because the rate of interest offered by the federal government is fixed at the current low rate.


By: Rashid

No comments:

Post a Comment