Student Loan Consolidation

Student Loan Consolidation: Make your Student Loan Repayment Easier to Manage

Are you a May graduate with student loans looking at six-month grace periods that are ending sometime this month? If you’ve got multiple student loans going out of grace and into repayment, you’ll soon be faced with trying to juggle multiple bills, multiple due dates, and multiple monthly payments.

But you could eliminate the hassle of multiple student loan payments and help make your student loan repayment easier to manage by consolidating your eligible federal student loans with a Federal Consolidation Loan from NextStudent, a leading Phoenix-based education funding company.

What’s Federal Student Loan Consolidation?

Student loan consolidation allows you to combine your eligible federal student loans into one single consolidated loan with one lender, one monthly bill, and one convenient monthly payment. To be eligible to consolidate your student loans, you can’t currently be enrolled in school more than half time. The student loans you’re looking to consolidate must be in repayment, in a grace period, or in an authorized deferment or forbearance period.

Consolidating Federal Parent PLUS Loans

Parents with federal parent loans are also eligible to consolidate. Parents can consolidate the PLUS loans they took out to help you pay for school as soon as the PLUS loans have been fully disbursed and have entered repayment, even if you’re still in school full time. Although your parents can consolidate their PLUS loans, you won’t be able to consolidate your own student loans with your parents’ PLUS loans.

Take Advantage of All the Benefits of Federal Student Loan Consolidation

No fees
No cost to apply
No credit checks
No co-signers required
No prepayment penalties
Fixed interest rate
Repayment terms up to 30 years
One single monthly payment for all your eligible federal student loans

There are never any charges or credit checks to apply for a Federal Consolidation Loan with NextStudent. And there are no prepayment penalties, so you’ll never be charged extra fees just for paying more than the minimum each month or for paying off your student loan consolidation early.

Student loan consolidation lets you lock in a monthly payment with a fixed interest rate. You may also be able to cut your monthly student loan payments by as much as 50 percent when you consolidate your federal student loans with NextStudent. A federal student loan consolidation could extend the repayment term on your student loans by up to 20 years; by extending your payments over a longer repayment term, a consolidation loan could lower the amount you have to pay each month.

Private Student Loan Consolidation

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

NextStudent believes that getting an education is the best investment you can make, and we’re dedicated to helping you pursue your education dreams by making college funding simple. Learn more about Student Loans, Private Student Loans and Student Loan Consolidation at NextStudent.com.

Watch the video related to student loan

its young? Would feed the beast that swallows its young? Clearly, eightteen isnt old enough to drink but old enough to sign a promissary interesting. Military? Sure, join up. And who can put a pricetag on a top-notch education? How about $50000? $80000? Well, thats just for the textbooks. But what exactly is the consequence should I refuse to pay? Is there still a Dickensian debtors prison? Oh, there isnt? Well If at this time you cannot make the monthly payment we set, well be required …

Help answer the question about student loan

Can student loan interest be used as a tax deduction if the loans are in deferment/forbearance?
I know that student loan interest can be deducted.

My student loans are all either in deferment or forbearance. I'm accruing interest on some of them, but I haven't actually paid any interest yet. Can I deduct the interest that accrued?

Thanks!

About Author

Jeff Mictabor is an enthusiast on the topic of student loan issues in the news. He has been writing for the past 10 years for a variety of education publications. He now offers his writing services on a freelance basis.

Tags: consolidation, loans, Staford-loans, Staford-student-loans, student

Student Loans | Admin June 18, 2009

18 Comments

By Alex K., June 18, 2009 @ 8:23 am

Most student loans are limited to citizens or resident aliens of the US. You do not mention whether you are a US citizen living outside the US, or a citizen of another country.

If you are a US citizen, or resident alien (there are a couple of other types of non-citizens that are eligible…refugees for example) then you need to apply each year. The first step is the FAFSA and you can apply on line at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov. After that, there is more to do, but it varies depending on the answers on your FAFSA.

Good luck.
By Geeweeny, June 18, 2009 @ 8:28 am

I am a college communications instructor — really. And I use Mr. Kresling’s song to stimulate student discussion. I appreciate his reasoning and believe his observations valid. Many nations have discovered that balancing “brutal freedoms” against “safety” can indeed be managed effectively without destroying the well-being of their populace.
By Samarah12, June 18, 2009 @ 9:01 am

I concur.

What happened to scary red haired guy’s voice? He got quiet.
By Andrew M, June 18, 2009 @ 9:07 am

Nope, sorry, but personal loan won't qualify, as you will have nothing in writing to say that it is student loan interest.
By Dat_1_Chiq, June 18, 2009 @ 11:13 am

No one will "take over" your loans. You will still owe the money to your lender when you are in forbearance. They will simply add interest every month while you are making payments.

If you are asking about defaulting the lender will just contract out with a collection agency to start calling and hounding you to mail them payments. If you make 6 to 12 months worth of willing and reasonable payments you can ask your lender to "rehabilitate" your loan. This is when you are issued a new loan and pay off the one in default so you can get federal fin aid again. Again, rehabilitation can only be done after you have made 6 to 12 months of payments.
By AG, June 19, 2009 @ 3:29 am

No, you can only deduct the interest when you actually pay it, not when it accrues
By MLE, June 19, 2009 @ 6:49 am

Nope. It will no longer be a student loan then. You may be able to consolidate several student loans into another student loan at a better rate, but if you pay it off with a personal loan you'll be left with a non-deductible personal loan.
By corbalt385, June 19, 2009 @ 4:23 pm

The collage system is brutal but not ideologically unfair. As long as America stays true to it’s origins (as a place that values freedom over safety) than we will have to rely on social and not governmental reform. However if America decides that safety is more valuable then freedom than it would be fair for citizens to demand free good education.

Personally I believe freedom- However brutal- is better than safety.
By FuzzyLizard, June 19, 2009 @ 5:10 pm

Student loans effect your credit score like any other loans (that means credit cards also). As long as you pay on time your credit should be fine. But you do want to pay more than your monthly accrued interests, otherwise you will never pay off your student loan, and the balance will just get higher and higher.
By videogamer1979, June 19, 2009 @ 5:58 pm

doesnt matter….they're both 'installment' loans on your credit report. i wouldnt take a bank loan because MOST LIKELY the interest isnt tax deductible like the student loan.

i would advise to have 2-3 credits…2 installment loans….can be student loan, auto loan or other loan…and a MORTGAGE!
make sure you keep low balances are on revolving accounts…and you should be go to go.
By Dat_1_Chiq, June 20, 2009 @ 8:18 am

When your federal educational loans are in default, you have several options:

You can repay the loan in full.
You can negotiate a new payment plan with your lender.
You can "rehabilitate" your loan.
You can consolidate your loan.

Obviously option one is rarely attractive or possible for defaulted borrowers.

Option two (renegotiate) should be investigated fully – most borrowers skip this step, but it's probably the best option for most people. Call your lender and ask to speak to someone in the "Workout" Department. Explain your situation to them (there's nothing unusual about it) and ask what options are available to you for switching to a graduated, extended or income-sensitive repayment plan. If your lender will agree to change your repayment plan, a few regular payments will get your default status removed, and the new plan may be easier for you to keep up with.

Option three (rehabilitation) is really a specific form of a workout agreement. It probably won't help you much in your situation, because it requires an agreement between you and the lender that will allow you to make 9 consecutive on-time payments of some agreed-upon amount.

Option four is everyone's favorite, but you must absolutely understand what a consolidation loan will do. To keep this utterly simple – a consolidation loan is a brand new loan that will pay off your old, defaulted loan. A consolidation loan MAY lower your monthly payments, but understand how this works. A consolidation loan never lowers your payments by wiping away some of your debt – a consolidation loan lowers your payments by stretching out the length of your loan. If you pay less every month, you'll make many additional monthly payments, and – in the end – you'll pay far more back than you would have paid on the original loan.

As an example: Suppose I lent you $100 and you agreed to pay me back in 2 weeks by paying me $50 a week. You came back a few days later and explained that you weren't going to be able to afford to pay me $50 – is there something else we could do? "Oh, absolutely," I'd say, gallantly. "Instead of paying me $50 a week for 2 weeks, how about if you only pay me $10 a week for 17 weeks?"

See – in the end, you'll pay me back $170 instead of $100 – that's how a consolidation loan works. But remember – we're not talking a $100 loan for a couple of weeks – by the time you pay that $5000 loan of yours back over many years, you'll pay a few thousand more than you might have paid if you didn't consolidate that loan.

I've attached some information about consolidating from the Department of Education – take a few minutes to read it over. If you do choose to go this route, be sure to consolidate with a reputable lender (or directly with the government) and not with some fly-by-night operation that you learn about from some pay-per-click site shilled on Yahoo! Answers.

Good luck to you!
By cyberpimp29, June 20, 2009 @ 10:58 am

Dave Ramsey FTW!
By lulubellstallings, June 20, 2009 @ 3:46 pm

This is video is right on. The whole college experience is deteriorating because of greedy bastards taking advantage of young passionate kids who dont even understand the consequences of taking out a shark loan. You should feel like youre on top of the world when finishing college, not like a failure for taking out a bad loan that damages your quality of life.
By kresling, June 20, 2009 @ 7:37 pm

I have no problem with the collage system; it’s the college system that’s inequitable.
By squeezetruck, June 20, 2009 @ 10:44 pm

lol “federal debt.”
By person2954, June 21, 2009 @ 5:50 am

can i have the TABS to this song on the ukulele
By CrossoverManiac, June 21, 2009 @ 1:25 pm

Thanks
By workingmywayback, June 21, 2009 @ 5:52 pm

Well it seems to me if you set up the auto-draft to your bank account willingly you should be able to stop it at will as well. Call your bank and tell them you want to stop sending that company money. Or allow them to take it out of your account, however it was set up.
Good luck!

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