Thursday, April 28, 2011

How Consolidating Student Loans Can Be An Efficient Way To Manage College Debt

The consolidation of student loans can be a huge lifesaver for graduates who can't afford to make their student loan payments. A college education is not cheap, and it is seemingly unattainable to get a degree without obtaining at least several student loans. Nonetheless, these loans don't have to rule your income for potentially decades to come.
Academic loans can accumulate large amounts of student loan debt that virtually hits you from nowhere. It is very easy to forget that you are increasing your debt while enrolled in school. Most, if not all, loans are offered on what’s called an academic deferment basis, meaning you’re not required to make any student loan payment until your academic career is completely finished. Many of these loans also charge interest while you attend classes, although as previously mentioned no payment is required until after you graduate.
Six months after you graduate or dropout of school, or in some cases even fewer months, your student debt begins the repayment period. Loans received at the beginning of your college career may feature repayment terms of about ten years, but that can vary depending upon the kind of academic debt you are paying off. Once the repayment period begins, you have to start making the loan payments in order to maintain a clean credit history, even if you have not found employment in your desired field.
Masters, doctorates, med school and law school are some of the most expensive types of schooling. In these areas, you could easily accumulate hundreds of thousands of dollars in college loans and interest by the time you get your degree and start employment in your field of choice. In the case of doctors, you will likely be required to begin the payment process on your financial aid debt before finishing your residency. Additionally, lawyers are also expected to start paying back their student loans when they complete law school, and this holds true even if they have yet to take the bar exam. So bear in mind, you will in many cases be obligated to start paying this considerable amount of debt months, or even years, before you start realistically making enough money to comfortably pay it back.
The only method to help make this debt more manageable is through combining your student loans into a single loan. Consolidating student loans basically makes your student debt much easier to manage. The bank that consolidates your college debt begins by buying up all of your student loan debt. In a nutshell, they are forgiving all of the student loans in your name. This debt is now handled as one, lump sum consolidation loan that you are obligated to payback monthly based on your current income levels.
And not only will consolidating your student loans make your payments more manageable, consolidation may also reduce the total amount paid on your student loans. A large amount of debt consolidation loans carry reduced interest rates than at least a few of your previous student loans. Additionally, you also avoid several finance charges and late fees which can add up faster than you think.

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