How to find the best student loan consolidation rate?
The number of student loans requested from the United States Department of Education has increased in recent years due to the rising costs associated with receiving a quality university education. The expenses of tuition, housing, books and other fees have overwhelmed many average families. To cope with the cost of higher education, many students have accepted student loans from the government. These loans are usually enough to get them through school, but soon after graduation they have to start paying them back.
Most of the time students are looking for the lowest student loan consolidation rate when they first start their higher education. When school is completed, it becomes almost essential to find the best student loan consolidation rate. The ability to do this can save you a lot of money and can make managing all your loans a whole lot simpler. By combining all your loans in one (consolidating), you set your outstanding loans together to carry the same student loan consolidation rate.
The two main things that you will come across when thinking about what Student Loan Company to go with are Borrower Benefits and quality of Customer Service. Student Loan Consolidation companies do not have the ability to undercut one another and lower a borrower’s student loan consolidation rate due to the fact that this a FREE federal program, regulated by the federal government. The Student loan consolidation rate you will receive is regulated by the Federal Government and based on the T-bill.
One thing that separates companies from one another are Borrower Benefits, different companies offer different Borrower Benefits. There are two main Borrower Benefits that you will encounter; 0.25% reduction for using Automatic Debit, and 1% reduction after 36 ontime payments. I would suggest inquiring with the company as to what their Borrower Benefits are when it comes to Student Loan Consolidation.
When to choose the best student loan consolidation rate, your lender will take a weighted average of all the current student loan consolidation rates on all the loans that you’re consolidating; they will then round up to the nearest 1/8th percent. So, example: the current 4.7% Stafford rate, when rounded up to the nearest 1/8th percent, becomes 4.75%. This is the “base” rate you can expect from a lender offering no incentives. Now, almost all lenders will offer you a additional 1/4% student loan consolidation rate reduction if you elect to have your payment automatically debited from your bank account each month. 4.75% minus .25% = a total student loan consolidation rate of 4.5%. I’d be willing to bet that that’s exactly what your company is offering you, right? You’ll see a lot of companies offering this rate to their borrowers. Don’t accept anything higher than this, definitely. You can certainly shop around for a lower rate, though you probably won’t receive anything too much lower.
When weighing these different offers, keep in mind that the rate isn’t everything. If you are offered a rate that is dramatically lower than the federal rate, be wary. Make sure that you’re being offered a Federal Consolidation Loan and not a private one. Check to see how long the company has been in business; in general try to avoid companies that haven’t been around very long.
Conclusion
In article above,we are taking about a Federal Consolidation Loan, through which you would combine your existing Federal Loans(through which you would combine your Federal loans like Stafford and/or Perkins and/or PLUS loans into one large, fixed-rate loan).
Keep in mind, If you were to consolidate your Federal Student Loan debt with you other debt or private student consolidation than you would lose all of your Federal Benefits that come along with your Federal Student Loans.
Private student consolidation loans are not guaranteed by the gov’t - so they’re a much higher risk to the lender. Therefore, they’re typically based on the credit history of the borrower. It’s unlikely you’d get a significantly different student loan consolidation rate if you shop around to different lenders.
What you can do is get your credit in as good shape as possible before you consolidate, and/or find a cosigner with good credit. This can help bring the student loan consolidation rate down. The rates may seem high, but they’re probably lower than a typical credit card or car loan rate, plus the interest on them may be deductible on your taxes.











