What to do about student loan consolidation?
Question by sweetdream319: What to do about student loan consolidation?
Hi all. I graduated college last May and will begin repayment on my loans starting in November. I have 7 federal student loans, totaling about $ 62,000 and 1 private student loan totaling about $ 8,000. Many places are not offering federal student loan consolidation any more, and I only have one private student loan so it doesn’t make sense to take out a private consolidation loan. As of right now, my payments are going to be about $ 800 monthly starting in November. I can’t afford that! What can I do?
Best answer:
Answer by Yareli
Practically any type of loan can be wrapped into the debt consolidation process. Common types include finance charges, late fees and overdraft charges, credit cards, personal loans, utility bills, medical bills, car loans, store cards, gas cards and back taxes. A debt consolidation loan allows you to condense your monthly payments into a single, simple bill, while lowering your interest rates and helping you pay down your debts more quickly and easily. It is also an essential tool in avoiding the much more serious step of declaring bankruptcy.
http://best-loans.awardspace.com/Loan-Consolidation.htm
Unlike bankruptcy, in which debts are cancelled and your credit rating collapses completely, debt consolidation loans are essentially a type of refinancing, where several old loans are replaced with a new one that has more favorable terms. Your loan consultant will negotiate with creditors on your behalf, so you’ll no longer have to deal with harassing phone calls and daily mail.
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First, you have never been able to consolidate private student loans with federal student loans, so your $ 8,000 loan will always be separate.
You are correct that many lenders are no longer doing consolidation loans. A change in how the government reimburses the lenders make it pretty unaffordable. Are your federal loans with one lender? If so, they should be able to collapse those loans to where you will receive on billing statement. It’s like consolidation, just not as official. If they are with multiple lenders I’d check (if you haven’t already) with those lenders to see if they will do the consolidation. If not, you can just keep checking around until you find a lender, or you could always consolidate with ED’s direct loan servicer…information can be found for that process at https://loanconsolidation.ed.gov/appentry/appindex.html.
My husband and I have several federal student loans (which we are currently paying on). All of our loans had multiple payback options, meaning we could pay a larger amount each month over a shorter amount of time (to pay less in interest), or we could pick to pay a lower amount over an extended period of time. So, if the current monthly payment is too high, call the lender and request a different repayment plan (lower amount over a longer time). By requesting this, you will pay a little more because interest will build, but you will still get it paid off and it will save your credit. Plus, in a few years if you see that you can pay more, you can just start sending in checks paying more than the minimum.
Because of the student loan reform act many lenders pulled out of the consolidation field. The ones that remain do so on a limited basis. Generally once they reach their monthly quota of loans they stop taking any others. This means you’ll likely need to check sites like http://www.studentloanconsultants.com for their list of lenders every week to see who is or is not offering consolidation loans at that time.
Unfortunately there is no easy way of doing it at this point, but just be patient and you’ll find a lender to do the consolidation.
Student loan consolidation that is sometimes called a student loan-refinancing program might be a good way to help you relieve some of your heavy debt. You can do more then just clear off some of your debt. You can save a very large amount of money by getting a student consolidation loan. This type of loan is usually offered at a lower interest rate. They also allow you to pay them back at a lower payment every month. You need to consider all of your options before you decide to go this route.
Get more info:http://student-loan-consolidationrebate.blogspot.com/