Consolidating Student Loans: Putting The Fun Back In College

Consolidating Student Loans: Putting The Fun Back In College

by Wade Robins

Although many people look back on the time they spent in college as the best years of their lives, and someday you might do the same, if you are currently a college student struggling to keep up not only with your studies but with the payments on your student loans, your college experience is probably not much fun.

If you arrange your daily college schedule not around the next big event on campus but around your next loan payment, you are probably desperate for a way to get your debts organized and under control. And there is a solution for you which will not only relieve you of having scare up several loan payments each month but also reduc4e your loan payments by lowering your interest rates.

Consolidating student loans has become a lifesaver for thousands of students in situations similar to yours, and all you need to do is find a student loan consolidation service which will let you borrow enough to pay off all your current loans at a lower rate, allowing you to roll all your monthly payments into a single one which will be less than the total you are used to paying.

Getting Organized

Before you try consolidating your student loans, however, you will have to organize all the information on your existing student loans to present to your prospective lenders. All the information on your loans is available at www.nslc.org, the site of the National Student Clearinghouse, and the website of the US Department of Education will also give you lots of information on consolidating student loans.

Consolidating student loans can be done through banks or credit unions which are members of the FELP, or Federal Education Loan Program. But if you have taken all of your student loans from the same lender, consolidating those student loans will have to be accomplished through that lender.

Avoiding Scams

Because so many students are looking into consolidating their student loans, there are some less than scrupulous lenders willing to take advantage of their situations. If you approach a lender about consolidating your student loans and are told you need to pay an application fee or have a credit check done, run the other way. You will never be asked for any up front fees or credit reviews by any legitimate lender.

Consolidating your student loans should go smoothly because requests for consolidation are seldom denied. You will be able to consolidate your loans while you are still an undergraduate, and even if you decide to cut your student status from full to part time. Consolidating your student loans while you are in school, or no more than six months following your graduation, in fact, will usually get you better interest rates than if you wait until later.

When you approach a lender about consolidating your student loans as an undergraduate, you are required to tell the lender if you want your loan to be marked for early repayment. Doing so will lock in a reduced interest rate, but will also mean that you have to start making payments right away, instead of postponing them until after you graduate. But if you run into trouble, you can request a payment deferment while you remain in school.

Doing Your Homework

As a student, you should appreciate the value of research and apply your research skills to consolidating your student loans. You need to get it right the first time, because you are allowed only one consolidation. Most lenders will not offer a consolidation for less than $7500, but you can find a list of reputable lenders to contact from your school’s student financial assistance office.