College Loans-Rates for Consolidation

December 27, 2008 by admin  
Filed under Managing Student Loans

College loans-rates for consolidation can vary depending on the loans you have to consolidate. Consolidating your student loans can be very easy. It can be done online and when you are nearing graduation, the mail and the phone calls will begin coming.

Consolidating your student loans is a wise decision, but be careful how you do it. I had a mortgage lender try to talk me into consolidating my government student loan, with a 3 percent interest rate, with some other outstanding debt into a home equity loan. That advice was not in my best interest. A student loan lender cannot foreclose on your home for nonpayment, but a mortgage lender can foreclose if you default on your payments.

Student loans will be consolidated with an average weighted interest rate of the individual loans. At this time the interest rate will not exceed 8.25 percent. The consolidated loan period can be as long as 30 years, but as with any other loan you can pay extra and pay it down in less time.

In most cases, consolidating your student loans is a good decision, but make sure you pay attention to the terms of your consolidation loan. It may be better to consolidate some loans and not others. If you have 2 consolidation loan options, just multiply the total number of payments by the monthly payment amount and that will give the total cost of the loan. Whichever option costs you the least is going to be the better deal.

Consolidating your student loans is something you should definitely look into shortly before graduation. If you have a substantial amount of money to pay back, you are going to want to do it as quickly and efficiently as possible.