Getting Ready For College Loan Consolidation

By Amber S Smith

Loan consolidation is indeed very lucrative. In order to avoid any mishaps, you need to be vigilant and extra careful. This article presents to you a quick checklist of the items that you need to check before you enter into an agreement with a lender.

In your spree to take charge of your education loans through student loan consolidation, you need to be careful enough to not be misguided by anyone. So, to benefit your finances in coming future, ensure that you have affected the required legal work and consolidated your college student's loan in the hands of a reliable and trustworthy lender. The checklist of things needed for investigation is mentioned below:

Personal Checks:

• Eligibility: Check whether you are eligible for the loan consolidation of a lender or not. Browse through the lender's website and read carefully their loan consolidation documents. Speak to them, if you think that your case is exceptional to the rules mentioned.

• Inventory of Loans: Also, before you seek a lender for loan consolidation, you should take an inventory of all your outstanding college loans. Review your loans, the related documents and the lenders along with repayment schedule.

• Repayment of Unconsolidated Loans: Check the monthly repayment amount for each of your unconsolidated loans. Call your lenders and check if the amount is right. This will provide you with a fair basis of comparing your monthly repayment amount for you consolidated loans versus the unconsolidated ones.

Lender' Loan Scheme Check

• Fees and Interest Rates: Interest rate plays an important role in helping you choose a lender. You should also check if there is any fees amount charged by the lender. Private education loans consolidation usually do not carry fixed interest rate. You need to be aware of such facts. Again, while making a comparison of floating interest rates, you should check the base interest rate as well.

• Payment Schedule: You should check with the lender about the chances of deferring a monthly loan repayment and if there are any extra charges levied on doing so.

• Lender's Image: You also need to check the image of the lender and his track record over the past few years. If possible, try to speak to some of the company's customers who have undergone loan consolidation with their help. Read through their testimonials and research the recommendations made by others.

• Check on Borrower's benefits: Check what is the true benefit received by you by the way of these loans. The main benefit is the lowered interest rate. Usually, you should be able to save up to 30-40% in your monthly repayments.

Over and above, when you go through the application process, you should check on what all documents will be required from your end and the time period after which you will receive your loan statement. You should also check the number of grace days provided by the lender and any special benefits.

Thus, if you follow this check-list religiously, you can ensure your safety. The best consolidation loan student option might just strike to you because of your careful analysis. College loan consolidation is thus no more a magician trick. The game has become quite easy since the rules and tricks of the game have been easily deciphered for the benefit of students.

This article has been contributed by Amber Smith. Amber Smith has profound experience in debt consolidation and student loan consolidation. Having served in the debt consolidation markets for over 15 years, Amber Smith is the most trustworthy name in the college loan consolidation market.