Thomas Erikson asked:


Consolidate graduate student loans and lower your monthly payments, lower your interest rate and simplify the process by having only one loan.

For graduate students, consolidating your student loans becomes even more important than for undergraduate students. Because you generally carry significantly higher debt from being in school longer, making it more manageable when it comes time to repay is essential.

Based on the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, graduate students average between $27,000 and $114,000 additional debt on top of their undergraduate debt. Here are 4 benefits that consolidating your graduate student loans provides.

The single most important benefit when you have a large debt is lowering your monthly payments so it is more manageable. When you consolidate graduate student loans, you replace your multiple student loans with one large consolidation loan. The total amount you pay each month with the consolidation loan is significantly less than the total amount paid each month on the multiple loans. This can be done by extending your consolidation loan period up to 30 years.

By consolidating your loans, you simplify the whole process. It’s much easier to keep track of one loan instead of multiple loans with multiple lenders and due dates. Also, the amount of paperwork and other hassles are greatly reduced.

It should be noted that if you have both federal and private student loans, you will want to consolidate these separately. Federal student loans (graduate or not) receive special benefits and conditions which are lost if consolidated with private student loans. So if you have both, you will want to have one consolidation loan for federal student loans and one for private.

The process of consolidating your graduate student loans provides the opportunity to receive lower interest rates. This helps offset the cost of extending your loan period in order to receive lower monthly payments. The lower interest rates on larger loans can help you save a great deal over the life of the loan.

When you consolidate graduate student loans, you essentially pay off your existing student loans with your consolidation loan. By paying off loans on time or early, you improve your credit score.

This can benefit you in the future by providing better rates on your car loan or mortgage. For a mortgage, even a small improvement in interest rate could translate into thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars in savings.

If you want to lower your monthly payments to a more manageable level, deal with only one lender, get a lower interest rate and help your credit score, you should consolidate graduate student loans. Make your student loans fit your financial situation – it’s the smart choice.



Posted by Nikhil Gupta

Ricky Lim asked:


While student loans have helped many poor students by enabling them to pursue further studies by providing financial assistance, it can also be an emotionally and mentally exhausting journey.

Repaying a large student loan or multiple student loans can be a long burden which extends many years, well into your working years. Many students which have graduated find themselves having to set aside a large portion of their salary just to repay the student loans.

So what solution is available to help? A student loan consolidation plan may be able to help you particularly if you are repaying several student loans concurrently.

A student loan consolidation plan consolidate your student loans into one loan thus you only need to make one payment each month. This will help to better manage your finances as now you only repay one loan.

There are several types of student loan consolidation plans available depending on who you lend it from. Examples are federal student loan consolidation, sallie mae student loan consolidation etc. Check with your school or lender for more information.

There are several ways in which you can repay a student loan consolidation. The most common is a standard repayment plan. You repay a fixed amount every month until you fully repay the loan.

A graduated payment plan allows you to repay the student loan after you have graduated. It is suited for students who have no income during studies and only able to repay when they graduated and have a job.

A variable payment plan allows you to adjust how much you repay each month depending on your income level. It allows a greater flexibility and is more suited for people whose income varies each month. An example would be salesmen who earn via commission.

Another advantage of student loan consolidation is that it also helps to improve credit rating. Since you are effectively getting a new loan and your existing loans have already been cleared, it will help to improve your credit rating and easier to get financial assistance should you need one in future.

I would advise getting a federal student loan consolidation as the interest rates are one of the lowest available and the government loan is open to anyone studying in an american education institution.



Posted by Nikhil Gupta