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Student Loans Refinance
A student loans refinance can be a great way to make your loans more manageable, and hopefully get a lower interest rate.
When you first get financing for school you likely have little to no credit and are offered undesirable interest rates. After the years you spent in school, hopefully during that time having some employment and building credit, you are probably able to find lower interest rates. Your life before you went to college is probably also very different from your post school life. You have new employment, new living conditions, and new needs for your monthly payments.
A student loans refinance is where you finance again, you apply for a brand new loan and use that to pay of your original financing. People do this for many reasons, often to adjust their monthly payment amount and the length of time it will take to repay, but even if these are part of the plan, you should have a goal of finding a lower interest rate when looking for your new loan to save you money.
If you have multiple loans, as many do, you of course have the option of finding new deals for each of them, but more commonly people find one new source of funding, and pay off all their old obligations with that. This way you have the added benefit of one monthly payment.
It is important to keep in mind that for private student loans, from a bank, credit union, or online lender, this is a great option. However, for any federal funding you may have you want to keep those separate. You certainly have the option to do whatever you would like, but government programs offer much lower interest rates and more flexibility than private options that you will want to take advantage of. If you have multiple federal loans you can contact them about consolidating to one monthly payment quite easily, but you’ll want to keep that separate from your other payments.
This is really a straight forward process that should make the intimidating task of repaying these much simpler, and cheaper. A student loans refinance will help you make your monthly payments adjust to your post college life, instead of the other way around.
Can You Ask Your Credit Card To Lower Your Interest Rate?
If you think that the interest rate of your credit card must be reduced, dont just sit there and wait. Credit card companies wont volunteer to lower your rate if you wont ask them to. Surprisingly, a recent study reveals that 57% of credit card holders simply phoned in their requests and were granted a lower rate without any difficulty. So if you think youre a good candidate, pick up your phone and speak out.
Why Ask for a Lower Rate Lowering your interest by even just 10 points or less can bring huge savings to your budget. Just imagine bringing down your 19% interest to just 10%. Now certainly, that makes a big difference. Although it should be your goal to pay off your balances in full each month and avoid the interest altogether, there may be instances when you have to carry over your balance. Reducing your interest rate protects you from the risk of bad credit.
Are You a Good Candidate? Nevertheless, credit card companies wont just lower their rates for anyone. Are you a good candidate? First, check your credit report and gauge your credit rating. If youve been consistent in submitting your payments on time to all your creditors, you should have problem maintaining a high credit score. Paying off your monthly charges in full also makes you an ideal customer for creditors.
Your debt to income ratio may also be considered. How much do you spend each month and how does this compare to your earnings? Do you frequently carry a large amount of charges on your card? Do you often maximize your cards credit limit? Financial experts recommend not using more than 40% of your given credit. Using more than 505 or worse, exceeding your credit line would make you a high-risk borrower in the eyes of creditors.
Also, you need to consider the type of credit card you have. If youre using a secured credit card or a bad credit credit card, you may not be in the position to demand for reduced rates. Since youre regarded as a high-risk borrower, you cant expect your credit card company to reduce your rates just because you asked them to.
What to Say If you enjoy an excellent credit history, theres no reason why you shouldnt deserve a lower rate. The question is, what should you say to your credit card issuer? What points can you use to convince your credit card to reduce your costs?
One strategy is to research about the interest rates that other credit card companies offer. Based on your research, compare them with your credit cards rate and use this argument to request for a lower rate. You can also point out that youve been a long time customer (and a good payer at that!) and that youll like to stay within their company but that other credit cards seem to offer a better deal. Ask them if they could match that offer.
If the person you talked to insists that it is not in their power to make adjustments on fees, ask to speak with the supervisor. If your request is initially rejected, dont lose hope. Call again after a month or two and see if theyll be more agreeable to your request. While waiting, continue to improve your credit score and youll have better chances of getting a positive answer.