How To Pay Back The Student Loan Consolidation

Just to make it clear with you, your responsibilities don't stop when you have consolidated your student loans. In fact, you should start to look at how you should repay the consolidation to keep your credit score in good value. But besides being punctual with your payment, what else can you do to manage your consolidation?

1. Repayment plans

When you are consolidating your loan, remember to get more information from your consolidators about the different repayment plans they offer. Since not all repayment plans are made equal, you and the consolidator have to look into your portfolio to determine which is the best plan that suits you.

If you don't think that you can settle the loan within 10 years, then the simple repayment plan might not fit your need. If you have a family and you decided to extend your loan period, maybe you can look at the income contingent plan.

2. Talk to consolidators

If you run into any financial difficulty, you should talk to the loan consolidators as soon as possible. Maybe both of you can work out something so that you can still pay the student loan consolidation on time.

If it seems impossible to channel money to your loan, you will need to ask for deferment (postponement of repayment when you are going back to school or being unemployed) or forbearance (temporary suspension of repayment when you are sick or facing financial difficulty).

And no matter what you do, you should avoid getting your loan into default.

3. Watch your expenses

Even though you have consolidated your student loans and you are making single monthly payment, it doesn't mean that you can spend your money as you like. If you really look in the market, there are a lot of similar alternatives that you can choose from instead of buying the high end product.

Besides that, you will also want to watch your credit card spending. You don't want to upset your credit score with uncontrolled credit card usage.

By the way, there are more ways you can do to repay your student loan consolidation. All you need is a little bit of exploration and asking around.

by Michael W

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Guide to Private Student Loan Consolidation

Borrowing may be your only option to pay for your college education if you are not eligible for grants and don't qualify for scholarships. The process of acquiring these loans can be simple enough that you allow the repayment period to begin before you calculate what that monthly amount might be. If your starting salary is less than you anticipated, you may need to consider private student loan consolidation to put your loan into a more manageable format.

Private Student Education Loans

Private education loan consolidation means private loans cannot be comingled with Federal education loans. If you borrowed money with a private education loan, you will need a private education loan consolidation. By doing this you will reset the terms of the loan which may reduce your monthly payments. Usually the interest is not reduced. But if your credit score has improved since you originally applied for the first loan, you may qualify for a reduced interest rate. This may be the case now that you have graduated and gotten a job in your chose profession. You may now be a doctor making a good income and if you've been paying your bills on time your scores may have improved 100 points or more, which would definitely qualify you for a better credit score and lower interest rate.

Check with your existing bank to see if your current loans can be consolidated into a lower interest rate loan before you take it to another bank. They may be willing to help you rather than lose your business. If they are not helpful, shop around and find another lender who is willing to give you a private education loan consolidation. When shopping for a private student loan consolidation check to see if the loan is fixed or variable. What are the fees, origination fees, etc? And are there prepayment penalties? You should be able to pay an extra amount that is applied to your balance after collection costs; late charges outstanding interest and principal have been deducted from the payment. Any additional money left is considered prepayment and will be applied to the loan balance. There should be no extra fees associated with prepayment in the original loan. You will have to determine if the private student loan consolidation has fees of this nature.

Private education loan Consolidation Lenders

The Higher Education Act of 1965, The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 and the amended Truth in Lending Act banned fees or penalties for early repayment of private education loans. The competitive institution did not charge prepayment penalties to keep the playing field even for all private lenders. Prepayment can provide a significant savings for the student. The total interest paid can be reduced by the extra payments being applied to the balance first and then the interest, ultimately saving thousands of dollars over the lifetime of a private student loan consolidation.

An EdSucceed Private student loan Consolidation through cuStudentLoans.org will provide loan consolidation for undergraduate students with debt of $7500 to $100,000 and graduate degree recipients with debt of up to $150,000 a 15-year loan. They have a 1.00% origination fee and a variable rate based on prime plus 1.5% to prime plus 4%. Your rate is based on credit and whether or not you select ACH payments. If you have a cosigner, you can release them after the first 12 year of on-time payments if other credit criteria are satisfied.

The student loan Network offers private college loan consolidation for a minimum of $10,000 to a maximum of $300,000. The repayment term ranges from 20-year for $40,000 or less to 30-year for above $40,000. The interest rate is based on 3-month LIBOR plus 5% to 3-month LIBOR plus 8.5%. The origination fee is also a range of 1% to 5%. There are no prepayment penalties and the cosigner is released after 4 years of timely payments and is based on the primary borrower's credit improving.

Wells Fargo offers private education loan consolidation. They will consolidate a minimum of $5000 and up to $40,000 or up to $100,000 depending on the borrower's credit. A 15-year term is provided with a variable rate. The interest ranges from prime plus 1% to prime plus 5.75%. The base rate is 3.25%. There is no origination fee associated with this loan. The rate is reduced.5% for automatic debit payments and the rate is reduced further for making 48 payments on time consecutively.

Currently, both Chase and Next Student have temporarily suspended their private student loan consolidation programs. Private student loan consolidations that are variable rate should be compared to a home equity loan with a fixed rate. If the comparison makes a home equity loan more attractive, and you own a home with enough equity in it to finance such a maneuver, this may be a better option than a variable rate loan.

Private Student College Loans And Federal College Loans

The primary difference in private student loan consolidation and federal loan consolidation is private loan rates are higher than federal loans even in consolidation. Federal loans and private loans cannot be mixed into the same consolidation loan. A loan that mixes several loans together often reduces the rate of one or two of the loans and reduces the payment giving the borrower more years to pay. This cannot be done when the loans come from different sources. Guaranteed Student education loans or federal loans with much lower interest rates cannot be mixed with private non-guaranteed loans with much higher interest rates in a private education loan consolidation.

The Consequences Of Default

Private college loan consolidation is there to provide more manageable debt repayments, preventing default or reducing incidences of default. Defaulting on a student loan could result in the IRS offsetting or keeping your federal or state tax refunds and wage garnishments. If you are a federal employee, they can offset 15% of your pay to repay Education loans. You may have to pay additional collection costs, legal action may be taken against you and the credit bureaus will be notified and your credit rating will suffer. Bankruptcy is no longer an option. Student education loans cannot be included in a bankruptcy filing. The only option for reducing payments of a private education loan is a private college loan consolidation. Your total loan term may be extended, lessening your monthly payments.

by Loren R

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