Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Student Loan Consolidation

By Layla Vanderbilt

If you are struggling to pay off your student loans, or to balance the payment of multiple student loans, you may want to consider student loan consolidation. This approach is particularly helpful for borrowers facing forbearance or deferment, or if your level of debt is effecting your credit score. You can often decrease your level of debt, interest rates and number of loans in one step through loan consolidation.

Instead of making separate monthly payments for every loan you have taken, which is a big drain on your time and energy, student loan consolidation allows you to make a single, consolidated payment every year, thereby reducing or eliminating the possibility of missing your monthly payment. Your punctuality in making monthly payments will also help you in keeping your credit score high and will save you from having to pay extra fines that needlessly burn your pockets.

The benefit of having a good credit score is of course well-known. A good credit score will increase your financial options in the future ensuring that your finances remain in a healthy condition. A poor credit score, on the other hand, will not only drain your finances, but may leave you in a financial quagmire from which you may find difficult to extract yourself out. So loan consolidation can be really beneficial to you and save you from a possible financial mess. Another hidden benefit of consolidating your student loans is the advantage you will derive from lower interest rates which will reduce your overall monthly payments.

However, it is always wise to stack the advantages along with their disadvantages and gain a more critical point of view. Every person's finances and lenders are different, so these points may apply to you differently; while one person may have great success with student loan consolidation, it may not be right for someone else, thus leaving them in a worse situation than they previously were.

The time and energy you put into research about your loans will pay off in the long run. At first you may find that the endeavor is not worth the aggravation, particularly if you have many student loans to consolidate, but the long-term benefits will be obvious later. You will appreciate more solid finances in the future as you need to make more and more decisions regarding money.

A good idea is to have a good chat with your current and possible lenders discussing where you could possibly benefit. You need to consider if the transition is plausible at fist and further ensure that the transition from one agency to another is smooth. Choose lender your most happy with, for instance, if you're happy with your current lender, see if they offer student loan consolidation. Lastly before you make your final decision I cannot stress enough how important it is to make sure you make a well informed and educated decision. - 29904

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