College Student Loan Consolidation – Get Help Paying Back Your Student Loans

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If you’re like most students, you took out a number of student loans while you were in school.

And now that you’ve graduated and received the paperwork for each of those loans you probably added up what you owe and what you’ll have to pay each month. If you’re like most recent graduates, you may have just stared at the number you came up with, in shock.

That’s because although you have to pay them all separately, they probably total anywhere from between four hundred to a thousand dollars or more per month.

There aren’t too many recent graduates who can afford to make payments like that every month. In this economy you might not even have found a job yet.

However, it’s possible for you to consolidate all of you your student loans into one loan, defer your payments, and then make a single payment that’s less than the total of your other payments combined.

College Student Loan Consolidation Can Help You

If this sounds like it’s something you want to do, then you need to explore the options that student loan consolidation offer. By combining all of your loans into one loan you can substantially reduce the amount of your monthly payments.

On average, those multi- hundred dollar payments could drop to a new monthly payment that might be as low as one hundred to two hundred fifty dollars per month.

Another benefit you can take advantage of is that student loan consolidations will often offer a 6 to 12 month grace period, so you will be able to defer your payments.

The amount of your payment will depend on how much you borrowed, how you consolidate your loans, and your student loan consolidation interest rates. None-the-less, the bottom line is that your bottom line (per month) should be quite a bit less.

What Are the Drawbacks to College Student Loan Consolidation?

The trade off (there’s always a trade off) is that you will pay your loan back over a longer period of time than you had originally agreed upon.

Some Student Loans Consolidation Choices.

Either federal loan consolidation or private student loan consolidation is available. Federal loan consolidation interest rates are lower.

If you plan on pursuing a career in the public service, or elsewhere in the job market where salaries are lower than the norm, you might want to consolidate student debt through the income contingent repayment plan available from the U.S. Department of Education.

If you’re approved, your monthly repayment will be adjusted annually and will be based on both your annual income and the size of your family.

An alternative way to consolidate student debt is through a graduated repayment plan, that’s usually available through banks and other lending institutions.

This type of student loans consolidation plan will often start you off with interest-only payments. These payments will gradually increase until the loan is fully paid. The rationale behind this mode of consolidating student loans is that people usually earn more as their work experience increases. As they earn more they should be able to pay more. This student loan consolidation plan can be ideal for the new graduate.

Current regulations stipulate that student loans can only be consolidated one time, so choose well.

If you’ve already consolidated but find yourself in a tough spot, then a forbearance may be at least a temporary fix for you.

A forbearance is a quick fix that will temporarily suspend your federal or direct loan payments after you’ve begun making payments. These work if you don’t qualify for a deferment but do qualify on the basis of financial hardship.

You should apply through your lender. Even though you might only be able to hold off on your payments for several months, those few months can make a big difference, giving you the time you need to accumulate some cash.

In that time you can take a part time job or perhaps you can do freelance work. And it will give you some breathing room go over your cash flow to see where you might be able to cut back on your living expenses – maybe it’s time to get a smaller apartment or a roommate.