Rising tuition fees have given rise to students having to take student loans. However, these high student loans give a high impact on the day to day lives of the students. This gives rise to difficult financial situations for the student during and after their studies. This is the reason students turn to student debt consolidation loan to rid themselves of the burden of the student loans.
Student debt consolidation loan means having the multiple student loans replaced with a single loan with a lower monthly payment scheme to be paid over a longer repayment period. Though a student debt consolidation loan is beneficial, it is important to know its pros and cons before signing up for one. The huge students’ loans have an impact on your future decisions and on your credit history. So make it a point to have your student loan debt not exceed 8% of your income to get a good credit history.
There are many types of student loans, but the most common student loans are the private and federal loans. It is not advisable to go in for student debt consolidation loan by mixing these two loans together. Instead, it is better to consolidate the federal student loans and then the private loans, separately. This is because when consolidating both these kinds of loans, the federal loan benefits will all be lost.
For one to be eligible for consolidating his/her student loans, it is important that the person is no longer enrolled in a school. The person should also be repaying the debt or at least be in the grace period of the loan. Through student debt consolidation loan, instead of making multiple payments to all your lenders, there is only one debt consolidation company to whom you have to make your payments. It is the job of this company to pay off your lenders. Interest rates are lowered as the debt consolidation is a second mortgage, which has lower interest rates. Lower interest rates lead to lower monthly payments. And with only one payment, the monthly installment will be lower too. As you only have to pay a single person, all clarifications can be made through only one person instead of approaching all your lenders.
All things have their share of good things and bad points. There is always a chance of falling into more debt with student debt consolidation loan. This is because there is only one payment to be made, with more money remaining at the end of the month. This may prompt you to use your credit cards and spend money again. Student debt consolidation programs take a long time to cover, so you will be spending a good number of years repaying the loan. Moreover, though the interest rate of the student debt consolidation loan is low, over the long loan period, you will actually be spending more than you would have spent if you had retained the individual loans.
As consolidation loans are secured loans, you stand a chance of losing whatever you keep as security if you don’t repay the loan. So it can be seen that though student debt consolidation loan is beneficial, it also has its drawbacks. It is up to the individual to decide whether to opt for student debt consolidation loan or not.
