Monday, November 12, 2007

Federal Student Loan Consolidation

Earning a college degree is very important, and can also be very expensive. There is a need for tuition, books, and various other living expenses. If you are able to attend college without taking out a student loan, you are very fortunate. However, that is not the case with most people. Most people have to borrow at least some of the money and from several different sources in order to attend college. And upon graduation, one is faced with repayment of these loans weather employed or not.

Being faced with repayment of these loans is usually a hard dose of reality. Slow payment or no payment of these student loans can have huge negative consequences if ignored. Before this happens, it would be wise to consider a federal student loan consolidation program.

The concept of federal student loan consolidation is very simple. You take out one large loan and pay off all of the smaller ones. Doing so creates a number of positive benefits for former student now with huge debt:

  • One payment vs. many different payments
  • Usually this one payment is reduced from the previous total
  • Paying off several small loans will help your credit rating
  • Consolidation comes with lower interest rates that are usually fixed
  • Several types of loans qualify for federal student loan consolidation


Summary

Once you have graduated from college, do yourself a favor. Think federal student loan consolidation. You will now have one payment that will total less than your previous payments. This will boost your credit rating and take you from variable interest rates to a fixed one. And to your surprise, there are sever types of federal student loans that qualify for consolidation.