Tag Archives: student loans

Student Loan Consolidation – How To Get The Best Rates And Plans? (Page 1 of 2)

Student loan consolidation can have many benefits for the career minded student. With the prices of things 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 many college students use 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.

Before you sign up on the dotted line, you should know how to get the best student loan consolidation rate and plan for your financial needs. If you are tired of too many bills and monthly due dates, it just might be time to find the best student loan consolidation rate and plan that you can qualify for.

What Is The Idea Behind Student Loan Consolidation?

When a student first applied for several student 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 advantages of doing a student loan consolidation.

Credit Check Before You Get Student Loan Consolidation Rates And Payment Plans

The most obvious way to get the best student loan consolidation rates and payments, is by having great credit. It’s easy to get great student loan consolidation plans with a credit score, also known as FICO, over 660. But, there are several ways to get the best student loan consolidation rates and payment plans.

You can do a simple online search on FICO and credit scores to find the information you need to check out your credit score. Knowing your credit information should be your first step to getting the best student loan consolidation rates. With knowledge, you will get the best student loan consolidation rates for your financial and credit situation.

Student loan consolidation rates and plans can vary from person to person. The loan rates offered will be based on your financial situation and credit. With a FICO credit score under 600, it can be a challenge to get a good student loan consolidation rate and plan in most cases.

7 Aspects To Consider With Student Loan Consolidation Plans

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.

Student Loan Debt Spirals at For-Profit Colleges (Page 1 of 2)

Despite the publicity in recent years surrounding an ostensible “student loan crisis” that has saddled a generation of college students and their parents with overwhelming amounts of student loan debt, a large number of college students are actually graduating with little or no debt from student loans, newly released data has revealed.

However, the likelihood that a college student will take on any student loan debt depends largely on the type of school he or she attends, with students at for-profit career schools, online schools, vocational training programs, and other for-profit institutions tending to rely on student loans in much higher proportions.

Many College Students Eschewing Student Loans

About one in three college graduates leaves school without any debt from student loans, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Education as part of its National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, which is conducted every four years.

Of those students who earned a bachelor’s degree in the 2007–08 academic year, 34 percent graduated with no debt from student loans — a figure that has held steady over the past four years. Of those students who earned either a two-year or four-year degree or certificate, 41 percent graduated with no student loan debt.

The For-Profit Exception: Student Loan Debt Saturates Career Schools

A breakdown of the NPSAS student loan debt data, however, reveals that student loan borrowing diverges widely across types of higher education institutions, with students at for-profit colleges borrowing money for their education more often and in larger amounts.

Virtually all for-profit students are graduating with at least some debt from college loans.

Among graduates of two-year associate degree programs, for example, whereas only 38 percent of those in public programs left school with at least one education loan, 98 percent of those in for-profit programs did so.

Among graduates of two-year certificate programs, only 30 percent of students in public programs left school with education debt, while 90 percent of students in the for-profit programs did so.

Of those students who earned bachelor’s degrees, 62 percent of those in public four-year programs and 72 percent of those in private four-year programs graduated with debt from student loans, while 96 percent of students in for-profit bachelor’s programs did.

More Private Student Loans Seen at Career Schools

Students in for-profit programs were also more likely than their private and public counterparts to leave school with debt from non-federal private student loans.

Overall, 30 percent of students earning a higher education degree in 2007–08 had taken out private student loans. But the percentages were much higher among students of for-profit schools.

Among graduates of associate degree programs, 60 percent of those in for-profit programs had taken on debt from private student loans, compared to just 15 percent of those in public two-year programs.