Which College Loan Is Right For You?

December 3rd, 2008

Many young college students are under tremendous pressure trying to figure out how they are going to pay the high costs of college tuition. Often times, their parents are equally concerned about where the money will come from for their child’s education expenses. If you’re a worried student or have a college bound child and have exhausted the financial aid and scholarship avenues, your only solution is a college loan. There are several kinds of college loans available, but which college loan is right for you?

The first type of college loan is a federal student loan. This loan is either subsidized or unsubsidized. Subsidized college loans are when the government pays the interest of the loan for the student for the time they are in school, but the student must show a great financial need to get this type of loan. Unsubsidized federal loans are available to anyone. With an unsubsidized college loan, the student must pay the interest beginning at the time the loan is issued. There is no deferment. Federal student loans are very easy to obtain and are the most commonly used.

The next type of college loan is a private student loan. A private student loan may be required to add funding when other types of financial aid are not enough to cover the student’s costs. Private student loans are credit based. They are unsecured, which means they require no collateral, but they have very high interest rates. Private college loans can be used for anything, not just tuition costs.

Parent college loans are another type of college loan to consider. A parent college loan is a loan the parents can take for the full amount of the college tuition. This loan can span the tuition costs for all of the years the student will be attending college. This loan is convenient because it will be the only loan needed for the duration of your college years. The interest rates are much lower on parent student loans.

The last type of loan is the college consolidation loan. This loan is used to consolidate several prior loans into one loan source with one payment to a single lender, rather than having several payments to several lenders. Most students find that they need this type of college loan after they made the mistake of not getting enough funding in an initial loan.

These are the college loans available. Before choosing a college loan, try to figure out how much you need. Then see if you can get any help from your parents, financial aid or scholarships. Be sure that when applying for a college loan that your credit is as good as possible. With some careful thought, you should be able to select a college loan that is right for you.

For more information about college loans and some great college loan calculators visit http://collegeloanresource.com

Tips And Tricks On Student Consolidation Loans

December 2nd, 2008

Though these loans are great for getting hold of the benefits portrayed above, there are many things that must be taken into account when undertaking student debt consolidation that may reduce or boost these benefits. Since knowledge doesn?t take up space, read on and make sure to remember these tips and tricks so you can make the most out of your debt consolidation loan:

Keep your Government Loans and your Private Loans Apart
Federal student loans usually come with many benefits you surely want to keep. This includes a significantly lower interest rate that you won?t be able to beat with any private consolidation loan. So if you need to consolidate your federal student loans, you?ll need to resort to government consolidation programs. Use private consolidation loans only with private student loans.

Focus on getting rid of variable rate loans
Though sometimes lower, variable rates tend to be a problem since you cannot predict market variations and thus your budgeting may be useless. If possible, consolidate all your variable rate loans into a single fixed interest student consolidation loan and leave fixed interest rate loans aside unless you can get a significantly lower interest rate with the consolidation loan.

Watch for prepaying penalties
Some lenders penalize those who pay off their debt sooner by adding extraordinary fees to the overall debt claiming additional administrative costs. If this is the case, you should leave low balance loans aside. If the fees are not covered by the amount of money you?ll be saving by consolidating the loan you will want to continue paying the loan on its original terms.

Keep your credit report clean
Try not to incur in delinquencies as this will be recorded into your credit history and prevent you from getting a good interest rate when applying for a consolidation loan. Before applying, always request your credit report and make sure everything is in order. If you happen to find any inconsistencies, contact the credit agency immediately and demand that they correct the inaccuracies. Many have been denied loans just because a credit agency employee had made a mistake.

Avoid Trading Loan Length in exchange of Lower monthly payments
Unless you really can?t afford the loan installments, refrain from extending the length of the loan. It is best to get lower monthly payments by agreeing to a lower interest rate than to get them by adding to the number of outstanding monthly payments. Extending the loan length may solve your current cash flow problems by reducing your installments, but will increase the overall cost of the student consolidation loan turning it into a bad deal. It is best to cut on your expenses for a little while till your income increases than to consent on many years more of annoying debt.

Mary Wise, a professional consultant with twenty years in the financial field, helps people in the process of securing personal loans, mortgage, refinance or consolidation loans and preventing consumers from falling into the hands of fraudulent lenders. You can visit her site and get aid for Student Consolidation Loans regardless of your credit. If the link doesn?t work, just copy badcreditloanservices.com and paste it in your browser?s address bar.