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Five Drawbacks for Student Loan Consolidation

Before a Student Loan Consolidation, Consider These Five Drawbacks

When considering student loan consolidation, there are a number of variables to consider. The process has both its advantages and disadvantages, all which should be reviewed before jumping into consolidation. The following list contains five potential drawbacks of student loans that students should be familiar with to get some help with debt.

Fixed Interest Rate

When consolidating student loans, you’re automatically given a fixed interest rate. This could be seen as either an advantage of disadvantage. It’s an advantage in the sense that your rate never goes up, yet puts you at a disadvantage when variable rates drop. Fortunately, such drops won’t have a huge financial impact on those paying back their loans, but should still be considered.

Discharge and Deferment Benefits

Certain loan programs provide discharge benefits which provide you with money after graduation. This money is used to pay off the loan. Deferment allows you to delay payments on a loan until the loan ends, and sometimes these benefits won’t remain after consolidation. Therefore you may want to reconsider consolidation so that you can retain these benefits. A viable option would be to leave these loans out of the consolidation process.

Loss of the Grace Period

After graduating, you normally have a six-month grace period in which you don’t have to make loan payments. The idea of this period is to give you an opportunity to find work and relocate if necessary. Consolidating your loans too early causes you to potentially lose this period. That’s not to say, however, that you should completely avoid consolidating during that time. If you consolidate during the grace period you have the potential to get a 0.5% interest discount on your new loan. This is a great way to save some money.

Payment Schedule

Be sure to make a payment schedule that isn’t too long but still remains realistic. Stretching out payments causes your loan take longer to pay off, which in turn means paying even more interest. This is probably one of the most common ways that those in the student loan debt consolidation business capitalize on those who don’t know any better. Be smart about your schedule and pay it off as quickly if you realistically can.

Eliminating Loans

Without consolidation you pay off your loans one by one, meaning that when a loan’s gone it’s gone forever. When you see your loans consolidate, however, they’re all lumped together. Therefore you’ll continue paying until it’s all gone. This is a serious point to consider for those paying off their debt.

In the end, it’s your choice entirely. Weigh the advantages against the drawbacks and determine if loan consolidation is the right path for you.

Understanding Small Business in Small Business Factoring

For some time, factoring has been a prominent part of the business world. It is a way for companies who are strapped for cash to sell their invoices, also known as their accounts receivable, to another company called a factor. The factor then pays an average eighty percent of what the total invoices are worth, minus a factoring fee for assessing the credit risk involved with the owner of the invoice. Now, there are risks and advantages for both parties. For the seller, they stand to gain quick cash they may need to drive their business or make head way into a new realm. They may also risk giving up nearly thirty percent in total profits their company would be due if they held out for their money. For the buyer, they get to pick up a high amount of invoices for a substantially discounted rate. However, if those paying the invoices have a poor credit history and will not be able to pay, they then take the risk of losing their money and barely making money with a lot of work, merely breaking even, or just losing money all together. That being said, small business factoring can be a tumultuous realm.

That said, one needs to look into emboldening what they have.

If one is able to see the strengths of small business, chances are they will be able to operate more successfully than focusing on the chance of changing their flaws.

For example, big business has price discounts. Small business cannot afford it. Thus, small business tries to focus on consumer relationship. There is a foreseeable relationship behind that.

It mirrors the same relationship of buyer and seller in small business factoring. Where one person has a weakness another no doubt has a strength, it’s how you employ those sides against your competitors.

One must do their best to see the relationship at hand, and work alongside them, not go against the grain.

In fact, the only time a business should go against the grain is if they are willing to lose what they’ve begun. If that is a risk they can put on the table, then rub anyone you want the wrong way. If you have people relying on you and cannot make those risks, it is important to find a way to move differently in the same direction as competitors.

Last thing one should remember if they decide they are going to be entering into a small business idea, whether it is a reliable and established idea such as small business factoring or not, that it’s a rough climate right now. The economy is off to a slow uphill climb, but that climb is going to take years. One must be ready and willing to put their model against an age of Internet technologies, social media, and so on. There is a lot to adapt to, and one knows that small businesses are getting continually crunched these days. That being said, innovation is the key word of the game and that should not be forgotten.