If you know the benefits of college loan consolidation than you should know it can save you thousands of dollars each year which is money you could have saved to pay for your education of even a much needed holiday.

To understand how loan consolidation works is very simple. When you consolidate something it means to unite into one system or combining. So when you consolidate a college loan it means that you put all your current loans and unite them into one loan.

How College Loan Consolidation Works Suppose you have a college loan with lender 1 and you’re paying 5% interest on that college loan every year. Then the following year you needed another loan to pay for summer school, new books, equipment, and so forth. So you go to lender 2 and get a new loan at 6%. Suppose the following year you decide to change courses and you require new books again. So you go to lender 3 and get a new college loan at 6.5%.

Now this is how you consolidate your college loan to save you money. Go to lender 4 and get all your 3 loans consolidated into 1 loan with lender 4. Lender 4 will pay off your existing debt with the 3 other lenders and give you a new interest rate for example at 4.5%. By consolidating your college loans you can save thousands per year and here’s another example.

Suppose you have a loan for $25,000 and you pay around $260 per month at 5% in interest. If you consolidate your loan you can pay around $150 per month which is a saving of $110 a month. Because you only pay off one lender you don’t have to pay all the necessary management fees and high interest rates.

So the real question now is how do I find a good lender to consolidate my college loans? Here’s a simple tip. Search online for “consolidate college loans” and visit at least 20 websites. Read carefully what all the consolidation loans offer. The 2 most important things you need to know are. 1. What is the interest rate? 2. What additional fees do you have to pay at the start, at the end and every month if any?

Get around 5 different consolidate college loan lenders and compare their rates. Then it’s a matter of narrowing down to find the best lender for you. Good luck with you education and I hope it pays of itself when you find the right job.




By: Marc Lindsay

If you’re a former student or a college parent with any outstanding federal student loans, you may be able to get up to 20 more years to repay just by consolidating your eligible federal parent or student loans. With that longer repayment term, since you have more time to repay, the amount you have to pay each month will typically go down. You may be able to cut your monthly student loan payments by up to 42% — just by consolidating!

Cut Your Payments on Your Student Loans by up to 42%

Here’s an example of how you can lower your monthly student loan payments when you consolidate your federal college loans and take advantage of a longer repayment term: Estimated monthly payments on a $75,000 student loan consolidation fixed at 7.25% and repaid over an extended term of 30 years are $512, versus estimated monthly payments of $879 on a $75,000 Federal Stafford Loan issued at 7.22% and repaid over 10 years — that’s a 41.8% reduction in monthly payment amount. (Your actual payment reduction may vary and will depend on the terms of the parent or student loans you’re consolidating.)

Get More Time to Repay Your Student Loans

Federal PLUS parent loans and Stafford student loans are issued with standard repayment terms of 10 years. You may be able to get up to 30 years to repay these federal parent and student loans when you consolidate them into a student loan consolidation.

How long you get to repay will depend on the total outstanding balance of your education debt: If your outstanding education debt totals $20,000 – $39,999, you’ll have 20 years to pay back your student loan consolidation.? If your outstanding education debt totals $40,000 – $59,999, you’ll have 25 years. If you have $60,000 or more in education debt when you consolidate your federal student loans, you’ll have 30 years to pay back your Federal student loan consolidation.

No Fees. No Credit Checks. No Prepayment Penalties.

Even though you can get more time to repay your federal parent and student loans by consolidating, there are no prepayment penalties on a Federal Consolidation Loan, so you won’t be assessed any additional fees for paying more than the minimum each month or for paying off your student loan consolidation early, should you choose to.

There are also no application fees, no processing fees, and no credit checks when you consolidate through the federal student loan consolidation program.

Replace Your Variable-Rate Student Loans With a Fixed-Rate Consolidation Loan

If you took out your Federal PLUS Loans or Stafford Loans prior to July 1, 2006, those loans are subject to variable interest rates that will adjust every year. So when interest rates rise, your monthly student loan payments may also go up. But you can put an end to rate increases and rising payments when you consolidate your parent or student loans.

The federal student loan consolidation program gives you the security of a fixed interest rate. By consolidating your federal

student loans, you’ll replace your variable-rate college loans with a fixed-rate consolidation loan, so you won’t have to worry about interest rates rising and leaving you guessing about your monthly payment amount.

Make Just One Payment for All Your Federal Student Loans

If you have multiple student loans in repayment and you’re dealing with the hassle of multiple bills, multiple due dates, and multiple monthly payments to multiple lenders, a Federal Consolidation Loan could help make your student loan repayment easier to manage.

With the federal student loan consolidation program, you can bundle all your eligible federal parent or student loans into one single consolidation loan with just one monthly bill, one lender, and one monthly payment that’s fixed for the life of your consolidation loan.

Consolidate Your Private Student Loans

If you have private student loans in addition to your 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 able to consolidate your private student loans separately with a Private Consolidation Loan, which offers the same convenience of a single consolidated loan for your private student loans.




By: Jeff Mictabor