Ivar Rudi asked:


Student Loan Debt Relief – School Loan Consolidation
In order to relieve some of the financial burden associated with furthering their educations, many students are opting to consolidate their debt at lower rates, and getting a longer period of time to repay. The following paragraphs will answer some commonly asked questions about the subject, as well describe how it can aid in debt relief.

What Is Student Loan Consolidation?

It is the act of combining your school loans into one in order to help manage your financial burden caused by college or trade school. When you consolidate you will only have one monthly payment to make, which is usually lower than your combined monthly payments of your unconsolidated loans. This is possible because when you consolidate, you are generally offered a longer time period to repay – sometimes up to 30 years. Many consider the lower payment a huge benefit, which it is, but it can also cause you to pay more interest, over a greater length of time, than you would with your combined unconsolidated student loans.

The rates are generally lower, and most often the rate will be fixed. With unconsolidated loans, most commonly the interest rates are variable, which means they can change at any time, sometimes without much warning. With a fixed rate, the monthly interest will remain the same throughout the entire duration of your consolidated loan.

What If I am Default on My Student Loan Payments?

If you are default in making your payments, you may still qualify. It is important to check with your debt holder, to ensure your defaulted loan has not been subject to wage garnishment. If your defaulted debt is subject to wage garnishment, you may not be able to consolidate.

How Can I Obtain More Information Regarding School Loan Consolidation?

There are many ways to obtain more information regarding this issue including:

· by requesting it from the financial aid office at school · by requesting it from the holder of your original student loan · by researching the internet

Information is usually available in any financial aid office of any learning institution. If you cannot get to your financial aid office, or if your financial aid office does not have the information you need, please request the information from the holder of your original loans, or search the internet for valuable information on the subject.

Knowledge is the key in finding the best rates available. The more knowledge you have on the subject, as well as knowing your credit scores, the better your chances of getting a good interest rate when consolidating your loan.

Wade Robins asked:


If you’ve financed your education with a variety of student loans and are now facing a barrage of monthly payments, you may find that a student loan consolidation will work to your advantage. But if your loans are courtesy of the Federal government, you may not be surprised to learn that there is a plethora of regulations for you to follow in applying for student loan consolidation.

FFEL And Direct Consolidation Loans

The US Federal government offers two school loan consolidation options, the Federal Family Education Loan Program, or FFEL, and the Direct Consolidation Loan program. It’s up to you to understand how they differ.
If you have existing school loan consolidations which you wish to combine, the Direct Consolidation Loan Program must be willing to accept them. While some FFEL lenders may accept all eligible all for consolidation, others lenders may accept only FFEL loans. But if an FFEL lender refuses to include your non-FFEL loans in a school loan consolidation, it may offer you an alternative way to consolidate them.

Repayment Options

FFEL school loans consolidations are available with a variety of repayment options. They include the standard, graduated, extended, and income-sensitive repayment plans, and while every FFEL lender offers them, the details of each is different. The income-sensitive option, for example, factors the total student loan debt into the amount of the monthly repayments.

The Direct Consolidation Loan Program, on the other hand, has the standard, extended, graduated, and income-contingent repayment options. The income-contingent repayment option is based on factors including the borrower’s adjusted gross income, family size, and amount of school loan debt.

Even those who have defaulted on an FFEL consolidation loan may be considered for consolidation of their default into a second consolidation, but if you are in this situation you may have to hunt for a lender to accommodate you. The Direct Consolidation Loan Program will also permit the consolidation of defaults, and if you can find a lender who will do it, you will have your eligibility for Federal student loans restored. For more info see http://www.schoolloanshelp.com/Articles/Nursing_School_Loan.php on Nursing School Loan.

The Direct Consolidating Loans Program will permit you to consolidate your loans while you are enrolled as a student, and if you qualify, will give you a six-moth grace period before you must begin your monthly loan payments; applying for consolidation while you are a student may also earn you a lower interest rate. The FFEL, on the other hand, only allows school loan consolidation when you have left school when all your loans have reached their grace or active repayment periods.

Peter Barlow asked:


Are you dreaming of pursuing college to have a better career in the future but your means are not enough to assist you get through it? No need to worry and keep up with that dream of yours. There is a student loans consolidation service that would help you make those dreams come true. Student loan consolidation is a practical way of bundling all your school loans into just one monthly payment. If you consider combining your student loans you can choose from these options: the federal student loans consolidation and the private loan consolidation. To help you decide which one suits you best, a brief explanation will be presented to you. The federal student loan consolidation is a fixed-rate refinancing existing federal loans into just one new loan.

If you want to cut your monthly payment by as much as fifty percent, or maybe you wanted to simplify your finances with just one monthly payment. Another good thing about this is that it would tend to reduce your interest rate through consolidation during your grace period and no credit checks, application charges or fees when you apply. When you combine all your student loans into one consolidated loan would lengthen your repayment term from the standard ten years to thirty years depending on the amount of the loan. Since you have a lower monthly payment, you can have spare money to meet your other living expenses like house rents, car payments and other necessities. There are no overpayment penalties so you can make larger payments to reduce the repayment term.
When you’ve finally decided to consolidate all your existing student loans into just one, loan counselors will educate you about the benefits you can get and will help you figure out what repayment option would be best for you. A borrower may choose from equal payment, select 2/graduated payments, select 5/graduated payments, extended equal payment, extended select 2 payment, extended select 5 payment and income-sensitive payment, each would be briefly discussed shortly.

The equal payment provides an equal monthly payment over the terms of the loan. Select2/graduated payment will allow you to pay for the interest only for the first two years of the repayment and there would be an increase in the level of installment of the principal and interest on the third year. On the other select 5/graduated payment will allow you to pay the interest only for the first two years of the repayment period but on the third to fifth years, your payment increases which includes a part of the principal.

A borrower is allowed to repay for the loan up to thirty years with the same terms of the equal repayment scheme. You may choose from either option under this plan: the extended select 2 payment and the extended select 5 payment. The first option allows one to repay the loan for up to thirty years, having the same terms with the select 2/graduated payment plan. While the second option will allow one to repay for up to thirty years with the same conditions as the select5/graduated plan. In addition, the last option is the income-sensitive payment plan. This option provides for payments to be annually adjusted based on your expected total monthly income from your job and any other resources.