MARCH 25TH, 2009
By ADMIN
A student who is awarded one of the direct student loans needs to be attending a school that participates in the Direct Loan Program.
That student must first complete a FAFSA, and then he or she must sign a master promissory note (MPN). If the loan recipient then needs to talk with a counselor about the loan, those services can be obtained at the Direct Loan Servicing Site.
Services Available to Holders of the Direct Student Loans
At the Direct Servicing site, the holder of a direct loan can set-up an account. Using that account the holder of a direct student loan can view the record of his or her payments.
That site also contains records on the balance owing for each of the many student loans.
Anyone who has been awarded one of the direct student loans can use the Service Center to request use of electronic correspondence for the sending of bills and other information. Loan payments can be made free of charge from the Service Site.
Payments for any of the student loans can be scheduled as much as 6 months ahead of time.
The Various Types of Direct Student Loans
Some students with a direct loan have a subsidized Stafford Loan. The subsidized loan has an interest subsidy. All students awarded those direct loans can count on the government to cover their interest payments while they are still in school..
Not all Stafford Loans are student loans, and not all direct student loans are subsidized. Where students do not show tremendous need, the government might award an unsubsidized Stafford Loan.
Such unsubsidized loans do not come with an interest subsidy.
PLUS Loans represent a third type of direct student loan. PLUS loans are low interest loans for graduate students and parents. As with the other student loans, the application for the PLUS Loans entails submission of a FAFSA and a MPN.
Factors That Determine the Size of the Direct Student Loans
Not every student who receives one of the direct student loans gets the same amount of money. The amount of money awarded to the recipient of a student loan depends on three different factors.
The school costs will dictate to a large extent the size of the student loan. The government will also adjust its loan amount to account for any other aid that a student might expect to receive.
Finally, the distribution of funds for the direct student loans depends on the expected contributions from each student’s family.
After the Department of Education has examined those three factors, then it will provide a needy student with funds that should adequately cover his or her tuition costs.
Most students can get-by with loans of $8,000; they then obtain added money from additional on and off-campus sources.
MARCH 25TH, 2009
By ADMIN
A student should always, once through college, initiate steps to consolidate their student loans. This article details the benefits available to graduates, parents or students who take those steps.
The Consolidation of Student Loans Brings Reduced Payments
When a student gets all his or her loans under the same Social Security number, then the government will agree to consolidate those student loans. The student’s individual loans are paid off, giving the student one large loan.
Moreover, when the government takes steps to consolidate student loans, it also takes two other important steps: It extends the loan and it lowers the loan rate.
There is not set way by which a loan provider can bring down the rate on a consolidated loan. A reputable loan provider carefully examines all the possible ways that a student’s rate might be made lower.
The loan provider then establishes that low rate as the rate for a consolidated and extended loan.
The government’s willingness to both extend the loan and to lower the rate can save students considerable money. Although the payment schedule has been extended, the person with the consolidated loan can feel free to pay the loan off ahead of schedule.
In other words, there is no prepayment penalty levied on those who make an early pay-off after choosing to consolidate student loans.
Two More Reasons to Consolidate Student Loans
It was mentioned above that the rate on a consolidated loan is lower than the rate on each of the original loans. Besides being lower, that rate is also fixed. The rate on a Stafford or Perkins Loan is variable.
The rate on a consolidated loan does not change during the course of the loan.
A student with a consolidated loan does not need to spend time keeping track of the payment schedule for two, three or more loans. That student loan recipient can just make a single monthly payment.
Often the student elects to make that single payment through an automatic debit. That can decrease the loan rate by another 0.25%.
Still Other Reasons to Consolidate Student Loans
Gradate students who consolidate student loans can learn then about fellowships and graduate school loans. Parents who consolidate their loans can search for free money or private loans. Those benefits come on top of the loan’s lower interest rate.
When you consolidate student loans, you provide yourself with a chance to improve your credit score. No graduate wants to face credit problems that have been caused by his or her need to take out loans in order to cover college expenses.
In light of all the above benefits, students should ask this question:
Who Can Qualify for the Program to Consolidate Student Loans?
Before allowing a student to consolidate student loans, the government looks to see if the student or graduate owes $10,500 or more.
The government also checks to see if the loan recipient has any loans in default.
MARCH 25TH, 2009
By ADMIN
After exhausting all forms of “free money” for college, such as scholarships and federal grants, the next best thing for students are federal student loans (http://www.nextstudent.com) to help them pay for school. Federal Stafford student loans have low interest rates and are more appealing when they feature benefits and incentives, according to NextStudent, the Phoenix-based premier education funding company.
It is becoming much more difficult for some students to imagine their dream of a higher education, as college costs increasingly are on the rise along with the cost of tuition and other expenses. NextStudent believes that student loans (http://www.nextstudent.com/student-loans/student-loans.asp) should not be an extra burden to already cash-strapped college students, so the company offers incentives to make payments easier and more manageable.
. Federal Stafford loans do not require collateral or a credit check and payment is postponed until after graduation. There are no guarantee fees and students do not need a co-signer, these student loans have a low interest rate of 6.8 percent and are secured by the government.
NextStudent’s Stafford Student Loan Incentives
NextStudent has professionally trained Education Finance Advisers who know all the ins and outs of the numerous student loan programs offered. They are available to assist student borrowers with all their questions about the Federal Stafford Student Loan program. Through NextStudent’s Student Loan program, student borrowers receive:
·A .375 percent reduction on their interest rate when they make payments through Auto-Debit
·A 2 percent interest rate reduction: 1 percent after the first 12 months of consecutive on-time payments, with an additional 1 percent rate reduction after 24 months of consecutive on-time payments
·A 2 percent upfront cash rebate, whereby borrowers receive the full amount they qualify for at disbursement. Borrowers must participate in Auto-Debit and make one on-time monthly payment to qualify.
Types of Stafford Student Loans
There are two types of Stafford student loans: subsidized and unsubsidized. To qualify for a subsidized Stafford student loan a student must show financial need. The government pays the interest while a student is in school and during grace periods and deferment. With unsubsidized Stafford student loans, students are responsible for the interest; however, payment is deferred until after graduation. All students are eligible for unsubsidized Stafford loans.
Eligibility
Federal Stafford loans are eligible for federal student loan consolidation (http://www.nextstudent.com/) . There are no prepayment penalties. Repayment typically starts six months after graduation. In addition, there are alternate available repayment options, including deferment and forbearance.
In order to be eligible for a federal Stafford student loan, borrowers must either be enrolled at least half time in a degree or certificate program, a citizen of the United States or an eligible noncitizen, current on existing federal education loans, and a high school graduate or have an equivalency diploma.
Federal Stafford student loans are affordable and can help students get through college without the worry of paying back student loans until after graduation. NextStudent’s program offers a variety of incentives to make these student loans even more affordable and manageable. There is no reason not to take advantage of a great deal that helps students obtain their dream of a college education.
NextStudent offers one-on-one education finance counseling and has a portfolio of highly competitive education lending products and services including an online scholarship search engine, low and no-cost federal student loans ( http://www.nextstudent.com/ ), parent loans, private loans, student loan consolidation programs (http://www.nextstudent.com/consolidation_loans/consolidation_loans.asp) and college savings plans.
The NextStudent Scholarship Search Engine, one of the nation’s oldest and largest scholarship search engines, is updated daily, available free of charge, completely private and represents 2.4 million scholarships worth $3.4 billion.
For more information about NextStudent and its student loan programs, please visit the company’s Web site at http://www.nextstudent.com/.
MARCH 25TH, 2009
By ADMIN
Like any other debt, student loans could influence your future decisions and your credit history. Additionally, when a student loan debt has exceeded eight percent of your income, it is seen as bad credit when assessed for further loans.
There are two approaches in reducing your student loan debt burden. When interest rates of loans fall, your education loans could be consolidated or refinanced.
There are several kinds of student loans. However, the most common are the federal and private student loans. The U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid programs manage the federally funded loans. The federal educational loan is the easiest kind to obtain.
Federal student loans are more advantageous compared to private student loans. The interests on federal loans are tax-deductible and on particular kinds of service, the student loan could be forgiven.
On the contrary, private loans do not provide any benefit. In consolidating your student debt, it is advisable not to mix the private and federal loans together. Be sure to consolidate every one of your federal student loans. Then, you could consolidate your private loans separately.
There are three scenarios to determine a person’s eligibility in consolidating his federal student loans. There are many kinds of student debt consolidation plans offered. When students do not consolidate their student loan debt, this will result in the inability to acquire future mortgages, car loans, credit cards, and other kinds of credit.
Student Loan Consolidation - How Does Consolidation Help?
When a certain student initially applied for a number of student loans from different providers and organizations, each student loan agency or provider offered distinct interest rates as well as term or period of time for the loan to be paid back. The concept of a student loan consolidation is to grab all the varying student loans and put them all into one single, simple and handy loan.
Then the student will only make one payment each month for all the loans incurred, than several or individual loan payments each month; with this, the student will then save time as well as money. With a much lower interest rate plus less checks to issue each month, are a few of the advantages of executing a student loan consolidation.
Who Should Consolidate Student Loans?
Generally, individuals apply for a student loan consolidation to cut on their payments each month and to save on money for an accumulated period of time. The faster you settle your student loan, the more money you can save.
5 Student Loan Consolidation Advantages
1. Lower payments every month.
2. Have simple and convenient loan payments.
3. Have fixed interest rates. With certain federal student consolidation loans, one may have a permanent fixed rate on a student loan.
4. Payment period can be extended. You can then give attention on earning money rather than making several monthly student loan payments.
5. In school consolidation arrangements. Student loan consolidation can help ease the burden of several monthly bills.
MARCH 25TH, 2009
By ADMIN
Are you a May graduate with student loans looking at six-month grace periods that are ending sometime this month? If you’ve got multiple student loans going out of grace and into repayment, you’ll soon be faced with trying to juggle multiple bills, multiple due dates, and multiple monthly payments.
But you could eliminate the hassle of multiple student loan payments and help make your student loan repayment easier to manage by consolidating your eligible federal student loans with a Federal Consolidation Loan from NextStudent, a leading Phoenix-based education funding company.
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What’s Federal Student Loan Consolidation?
Student loan consolidation allows you to combine your eligible federal student loans into one single consolidated loan with one lender, one monthly bill, and one convenient monthly payment. To be eligible to consolidate your student loans, you can’t currently be enrolled in school more than half time. The student loans you’re looking to consolidate must be in repayment, in a grace period, or in an authorized deferment or forbearance period.
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Consolidating Federal Parent PLUS Loans
Parents with federal parent loans are also eligible to consolidate. Parents can consolidate the PLUS loans they took out to help you pay for school as soon as the PLUS loans have been fully disbursed and have entered repayment, even if you’re still in school full time. Although your parents can consolidate their PLUS loans, you won’t be able to consolidate your own student loans with your parents’ PLUS loans.
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Take Advantage of All the Benefits of Federal Student Loan Consolidation
No fees
No cost to apply
No credit checks
No co-signers required
No prepayment penalties
Fixed interest rate
Repayment terms up to 30 years
One single monthly payment for all your eligible federal student loans
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There are never any charges or credit checks to apply for a Federal Consolidation Loan with NextStudent. And there are no prepayment penalties, so you’ll never be charged extra fees just for paying more than the minimum each month or for paying off your student loan consolidation early.
Student loan consolidation lets you lock in a monthly payment with a fixed interest rate. You may also be able to cut your monthly student loan payments by as much as 50 percent when you consolidate your federal student loans with NextStudent. A federal student loan consolidation could extend the repayment term on your student loans by up to 20 years; by extending your payments over a longer repayment term, a consolidation loan could lower the amount you have to pay each month.
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Private Student Loan Consolidation
If you have private student loans in addition to (or instead of) federal student loans, you won’t be able to consolidate your private student loans under the federal student loan consolidation program. But you may be eligible to consolidate your private loans separately with a NextStudent Private Consolidation Loan, which offers the same convenience of a single consolidated loan for your private student loans.
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NextStudent believes that getting an education is the best investment you can make, and we’re dedicated to helping you pursue your education dreams by making college funding simple. Learn more about Student Loans, Private Student Loans and Student Loan Consolidation at NextStudent.com.
MARCH 25TH, 2009
By ADMIN
With the cost of higher education increasing more and more in the past years, the time you graduate from college is no longer just the moment when you plan your career, it has become the moment that your debts start to catch up with you.
To diminish the stress of repaying the student loans you acquired in college it is advisable that you resort to student loan debt consolidation. Whatever types of student loans you may have acquired in time, if they are not consolidated they can have a negative impact on your credit history after graduation, rendering you unable to acquire different kinds of credit like car loans, credit cards or mortgages. To prevent that, your best option is student loan debt consolidation.
The consolidation can be applied to both federal student loan debts as well as private student loan debts, but it is preferable that they are consolidated separately, as these types of loans have different characteristics. The most important difference between the two types of student loans is that the interest on federal student loans is tax deductible, whereas the private student loans offer no benefits. Also, in special cases, a federal student loan can be repaid by joining the army or by doing community service. In these cases the student pays no money, and offers his services in exchange for the entire amount.
How to consolidate your student loan debt - Student loan debt consolidation takes place, most of the times, during the grace period of a loan. This applies to both federal student loan debts as well as private student loan debts. The lower in-school rates of interest are used to calculate an average fixed interest rate that will be applied to your consolidated student loan debts.
A student loan debt consolidation program offers various flexible repayment schedules with lower monthly payments, very attractive rates of interest and only one lender that the student loan debt is returned to. Student loan debt consolidation does not require any additional fees or charges, no credit checks or co-signers, the companies that consolidate student debts only require that you, as a student, have loaned at least the minimum amount available.
How to consolidate your federal student loans - Using federal student loan consolidation you can build up all your federal student loans into just one loan with a single lender and a single schedule of repayment. The advantages do not stop here, as there are no charges, prepayment penalties or fees required after the consolidation of your loans. Also, the consolidation of loans can be made by you personally or by your parents, and it does not require the presence of any co-signers.
Through the federal student loan consolidation program all your debts are acquired by a commercial lender. At this point your account balance with the credit bureaus is zero, and all your debts are rolled into just one debt that you owe to a single commercial lender. All you have to do is sign a new promissory note that contains the details of your current rate of interest and repayment plan, and your federal student loans are consolidated. However, in order to qualify for this consolidation you must be able to prove that you made at least three full and on time monthly payments.
With the federal loan rates of interest at their lowest, this is an especially good time to consolidate your federal student loan debt, as the interest rate for the consolidated loan would be even lower, and fixed for the whole duration of the repayment schedule. And, since financial advisors say that the interest rates have been so low for so long that there is no place for them to go but up, this is probably the best time for a long time to come to consolidate your debts.
A wisely chosen student loan debt consolidation program will help lower your after graduation debt and will have a positive impact on your credit history.
MARCH 24TH, 2009
By ADMIN
Congress has recently decided to change rules for student loan consolidations.
One of the changes effects the payment of student loan consolidations, both for federal and for private student loans. The payments will now be based on the student’s income. If a student can show that he or she suffers from ‘partial financial hardships’ then the payments made monthly on a student loan consolidation will be limited at about 15 percent taken from a students current income, instead of a set price for every student. This is a part of their College Cost Reduction Act along with their Access Act. Those changes will take effect the year 2009 as of July first.
For those students that spend at least ten years in what the government considers to be a qualifying public service position, for example teaching or maybe charitable work, then the remaining amount of a students current loans can be forgiven. Unfortunately, it is only with the loans that are funded directly by the federal government. This option became available for students on October first of the year 2007.
As of July 1st 2008, those students who move FFELP or Federal Family Education Loan in a direct loan program by using a loan consolidation plan can also qualify for the above.
Just pain consolidating student loans is also an option. A lot of the time students will consolidate funds in order to extend the amount of time they have to pay, and lower the monthly payments that they make. When they go to consolidate their loans, students have many things to look for, and many benefits they can get from consolidating their loans.
One reason why students use student loan consolidation is the escape from changing interest rates that randomly go up. Some are just looking to make fewer payments a month and a lower payment at that.
When choosing to use student loan consolidation, timing is essential. Instead of just picking one at the spur of the moment, a student should wait until after the US Treasury Bond Auction. This generally occurs in the very last week of May, and takes effect on the first of July. This usually gives each of the loaners to take a month to decide if it would benefit them to do consolidations under their current rates, or if it would be better to wait until the new rates take effect in the beginning of July. And it will give a student a chance to look for lower fixed rates.
Since private loans are not the same as federal loans, therefore these new rules that apply to federal student loan consolidation do not apply to private student loan debt consolidation. For this reason federal loans can be used only to consolidate the loans that are backed federally and private loans must be consolidated using other private consolidation methods.
If you are, or know a student who is currently looking for student loans, it is always better to use federal student loans, and federal student loan consolidation options. If you go to consolidate all of your loans you need to be sure to have two groups, one federal student loan consolidation and one for private student loan consolidation.
MARCH 24TH, 2009
By ADMIN
Consolidating student loan debt is the best way for a person to manage their money and debt right out of school. Typically a person will have a large amount of debt collected through college. This might include car debt, credit card debt, and student loans. In order to keep track of it all and to make timely payments, the student should consider consolidating student loan debt to minimize the amount of worry each month. By getting a student loan consolidation, students can take advantage of the lower interest rates on their student loans. Consolidating student loan debt is the best way for a student to learn about money management in the “real world.”
When a student chooses to consolidate student loan debt, they are basically combining all of their student loans into one. The interest rates of the loans are also combined and averaged to become the interest rate that the student will pay on the student loan consolidation. By lowering the interest rate on the student loans, a student can focus on getting all of their debt lowered and plan out their budget every month. Being able to manage finances and other debts in addition to student loan debt is a good practice, and will benefit the student in future financial dealings. By making timely payments on a student loan consolidation, the student is making their credit report that much better.
Often times, student loan debt will have the lowest interest rates of any other type of debt that a student will have. While many people suggest paying off the higher interest debts first, it will affect the student’s credit history if they do not pay their student loans. When a student misses multiple student loan payments, their student loans become defaulted. A defaulted student loan will put the account on hold until the student can get their loans current. When a student has a defaulted student loan, their credit history will get flagged. There are ways to get the credit history back to normal; however, when they go to apply for future finances like a mortgage or a car, their credit report will show the default student loan.
A student loan consolidation helps students to get control of their debts and finances when they are out of college. For many people, a student loan consolidation helps to make paying student loans back easier with less hassle. Most students get their student loans consolidated within their grace period, which is beneficial for many reasons. Interest rates always go up in July of each year. So when a student consolidates their student loans, they can take advantage of lower interest rates.
For more resources about Loan consolidation or even about School loan consolidation and especially about Student loan please review these links.
MARCH 24TH, 2009
By ADMIN
While taking a loan for meeting high cost of collage studies, a student has to go through lots of formalities as these loans involve governmental proceedings. Many other hurdles may come up for a student. This is because students are new to loans and do not know nuances and aspects of loans. However there are number of student loan services providers these days that can make student loan availing fairly easy. It is not just loan availing, but student loan services also include all crucial aspects of the loan also. A student can locate these services on internet.
Main focus of Student Loan Services is to make loan availing and its repayment a burden less affair for students. So, these services are vital for any student. These services first of all collect all necessary details about the student and his or her requirements so the student takes a suitable loan. The services providers are also responsible for processing the loan application for students.
Once the loan has been availed these service providers keep an eye on the loan repayment. Students can repay installments online though student loan services. What is more, in case a student later finds student loan repayment a little difficult then these services help the student come out of the trouble. For instance, they can advise a student in taking a consolidation loan beneficially.
Student loan services are also source of student loans and student loan consolidation. These services offer full loan packages to all type of students for enabling to meet their educational requirements. Student can get all loan information on various types of student loans from these services like details on Federal Stafford Loans, collage student loans, graduate Stafford loans, PLUS loans, private student loans and so on.
While searching for a suitable student loan service ensure comparing their types of services and the experience the company has in providing it. Surely these are useful loan services for the students.
MARCH 24TH, 2009
By ADMIN
So you’ve graduated from college, and after the relief and the celebrations, the realization of your adult responsibilities may be starting to set in: the job search, rent payments, utility bills. And now here’s another one: All those federal student loans that made your college years financially possible may be coming up for repayment soon. As grace periods end, whether you and your parents face just one student loan or multiple student loan balances, payments and payment dates, Federal Consolidation Loans can help simplify your repayment options and may lower your monthly loan payment obligations.
NextStudent, a leading Phoenix-based education funding company, features Federal Consolidation Loans, available to both parents and graduates, that offer all the benefits of federal student loan consolidation along with NextStudent rate reduction incentives that reward responsible repayment.
Federal Student Loan Consolidation Eligibility
In order to be eligible for student loan consolidation, a borrower’s federal student loans must be in one of the following:
Grace period
Authorized deferment
Forbearance
Repayment
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Federal student loans that are delinquent or in default cannot be consolidated through NextStudent.
In addition, students consolidating their own federal student loans can only be attending school less than half time. But, parents: You can consolidate the PLUS loans you took out for your children’s education as soon as they’ve been fully disbursed and have entered repayment, even if your children are still in school.
However, parents’ PLUS loans can’t be consolidated with children’s Stafford loans.
Understanding Your Federal Student Loan Consolidation Rate
The interest rate for your Federal Consolidation Loan will be a fixed rate and will be based on the weighted average of the interest rates on the student loans being consolidated. In a weighted average, the larger the loan being consolidated, the more the interest rate is factored into the average.
The weighted average is then rounded up to the nearest 0.125%, with a maximum interest rate of 8.25%. This will be your fixed interest rate on your Federal Consolidation Loan.
The Benefits of Federal Student Loan Consolidation
The thought of repaying thousands of dollars of student loan debt can be overwhelming, especially when you have multiple student loans with several different lenders or servicers. Besides the convenience of combining all your existing federal education loans into one single loan with one monthly payment, a Federal Consolidation Loan offers several other benefits:
A fixed interest rate—no more worries about variable interest rates going higher and leaving you guessing about your monthly payment amount
Interest rate capped at 8.25%
No prepayment penalties—you won’t be charged for paying off your consolidation loan early
No credit check and no application fees
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Consolidation loans are also often repaid over longer periods (15–30 years), which may lower your monthly payments by up to 60%.
Rate-Reduction Advantages with NextStudent
Besides all the benefits of federal student loan consolidation, a Federal Consolidation Loan with NextStudent features additional benefits you won’t find with many other lenders:
We’ll reduce your rate by 0.25% right off the bat if you sign up for our automatic payment plan to have your loan payments automatically debited from your savings or checking account. No stamps, no hassle, no having to remember to make your payments every month, AND you lower your monthly payment—make your life more convenient and get rewarded for doing it.
We’ll reduce your rate by 1% after you make 36 on-time payments—and lock that rate reduction for the life of the loan, even if you miss a payment later on down the road.
We know repayment can seem overwhelming now, especially if you’ve just graduated. NextStudent can help. A Federal Consolidation Loan with NextStudent could help you simplify your finances, may lower your total monthly payment, and may give you a little more time to pay back your student loans—the breathing room you need as you navigate that transition between college and the real world.
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NextStudent believes that getting an education is the best investment you can make, and we are dedicated to helping you pursue your education dreams by making college funding simple. Learn more about Student Loans, Private Student Loans and Student Loan Consolidation at NextStudent.com.
