Government Student Loans - A General Guide

Federal student loans are more attractive than private loans because of their lower interest rates. Apart from other advantages, they offer many options to defer payment if the borrowers have trouble getting a job after completing school. A total of nine government student loans and scholarships programs are currently run by the federal government, with the state governments also running more than 600 such programs.

To apply for the federal government student loan programs, prospective loan applicant are required to fill the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which requires details about their assets, dependency and income. It is quite a long form, and in 2010-2011 had more than 130 questions. The form is used to calculate the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) for each applicant, taking into consideration the household income of the applicant, the size of his or her family, assets and other such details. Depending on all these factors, the student may qualify. Even when they do not qualify, they can still get unsubsidized loans.

There are a number of different types of student loans. Broadly, these are Stafford Loans, Perkins Loans, Federal PLUS Loans, and the Graduate Consolidation Loans. Most of these loans require a credit check for the applicant, so if you want to take such a loan, you should keep a good credit history.

Stafford Loans

Stafford loans are the most widely used. They come in two varieties, the ones covered under Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), and the ones covered under the Federal Direct Student Loan Program (FDSLP). The former are provided by private lenders, with the government guaranteeing the lenders against default by borrowers. The latter are also called Direct Loans, and are administered by what are called Direct Lending Schools. These can be subsidized as well as unsubsidized.

Stafford loans are one of the best government loans because the government pays off their interest while you attend school. Only once you have finished school do you have to start paying off the debt; and because their interest can be subsidized, their repayment is easier than for other loans. To be eligible for a Stafford loan, you must enroll in a college that participates in the Federal Family Education Loan Program. You also need to fill out the FAFSA form to get the subsidized Stafford loan.

Federal Perkins Loan

Federal Perkins Loans are available to graduate and undergraduate students who require financial aid more than others do. It is a campus-based program, in which the school acts as the lender using a pool of funds provided by the federal government. The Perkins Loan is one of the best loans a student can take - it comes with an interest rate of only 5%, with the federal government paying the interest during the period in which one is enrolled in the school, and during a 9-month grace period. Afterwards, there is a repayment period of up to 10 years.

As of 2009-2010, the Perkins program had a limit of $5,500 per year for undergraduate students, and a limit of $8,000 per year for graduates. The total lifetime limits for both were $27,500 and $60,000 respectively. Perkins loans are cancelled partially or fully for teachers who teach in designated low-income schools, and for Peace Corps volunteers. The amount of loans cancelled depends on the number of years in service as a teacher and a Peace Corps volunteer; for example, 3 years of service cancels 50% of debt.

Graduate PLUS Loan

Graduate PLUS loans offer the borrowers an unsubsidized loan for fees towards graduate and professional courses. It is guaranteed by the federal government, which means that if the borrower defaults, the government will pay the lender. Unlike Perkins, whose interest is applied only once the study period is over, the interest on Graduate PLUS starts getting applied from the time it is disbursed. Their interest rate is about 8.5%. The borrower should meet three criteria to be considered for this loan: first, they should be a US citizen, or a non-citizen with a valid Social Security number; second, they should pass a credit review; and third, they must not have defaulted on a federal education loan in the past.

Parent PLUS Loan

Parent PLUS loans are offered to the parents of the student involved. The Grad PLUS program is an offshoot of this particular program. Like the Grad PLUS loans, repayment of the Parent PLUS loans begins right after the time the loan is fully disbursed. Its interest rate is fixed at 7.9%, though many lenders will offer benefits that reduce the effective interest rate. Because it is borrowed by the parent, it is also the responsibility of the parent to repay the loan. Just like the Grad PLUS loan program, it requires that the borrower not have an adverse credit score.

Federal Consolidation Loan

Consolidation loans from the federal government allow a student-borrower to consolidate his or her Perkins, Stafford and Graduate PLUS loans into a single consolidated loan with a longer term of repayment. The longer term ensures lower monthly repayments. The interest rate for these loans is calculated by finding the weighted average of all the loans consolidated by a student, and rounding them off to 0.125%; the interest rate is ultimately capped at 8.25%.

Both the Perkins and Stafford loan programs require one to fill out the FAFSA form. With so many government student loans programs available to students to choose from, anyone without the means to pay for his or her education has no reason to stop their education due to monetary constraints.

There are many student loans to choose from.

Its difficult figuring out which government student loans you should apply for and how many student loans there actually are.

You can even learn more about getting student loans without cosigner.

Get A Student Loan With Bad Credit: A How To Guide

Having bad credit due to poorly made financial decisions earlier in life is certainly a hard cross to bear. Especially if you wish to better your lot through an education, trying to finance such activities can be nearly impossible if your credit score is low. But there is no reason to use your bad credit as an excuse not to pursue your dreams, there are many bad credit student loan options available if you know what to do and where to look.

Get Counseling

Once you have made the decision to attend a particular school, your first step should be to contact that school's Financial Aid office to discuss your options. Many schools will provide free credit counseling or refer you to someone who can counsel you specifically related expenses and money incurred for the achievement of a higher education. Oftentimes, if a student is not approved for a traditional student loan, a bad credit student loan counselor will have the resources to direct that student to the proper private lenders who can and will offer loans to students with bad credit.

Federal Student Loans

The best way to get money for college is to use the programs sponsored by the government that offer to lend a certain amount of money each year to students at a low fixed interest rate. These loans, called Stafford and Perkins loans, are available to any US college student and often do not require a credit check.

Private Student Loans

Though government-secured loans are the best choice for college, if they do not provide enough money to cover all your expenses, there are other programs such as Sallie Mae and other private banks like Wells Fargo who offer student loan options. Oftentimes each institution will have a separate loan program designed for those needing student loans and who possess bad credit. These programs will offer different rates, fees and services. Since there are so many players to consider, it is really important that you shop around and compare the packages that each one offers against the others.

Co-Signers Provide another Option

If you cannot qualify or are uncomfortable taking a private loan to pay for school by yourself, then the next option that you have is to find a co-signer for your student loan. Therefore, your parents can help you if they have good credit. Though the burden to pay the loan is yours, their credit rating will help you to get better interest rates. It is important to remember, however, that your failure to repay a student loan that has a co-signer will negatively affect that person's credit as well. It is therefore important to discuss this choice with your loan counselor and your co-signer.

Take Your Time

The final option that you have available is credit repair. That is, even though your ultimate goal is to go to college and get a degree, you may be better off if you delay that for a while in order to work on repairing your bad credit. You can do this by making all payments on loans and credit cards on time, keeping track of your monthly finances as well as working to pay down your overall debt. You will also want to review a complete credit report to make sure that all the information on there is accurate and that you are not being penalized for something that you did not do.

Joycelyn Crawford is the author of this article. For more information about Bad Credit Easy Loans and Unsecured Loans please visit EasyLoanForYou.com

Scholarships for Mothers As a Guide to Your Successful Career

You cannot ensure your rights without being educated properly. Many mothers in the USA have begun married lives before completing their college education. As a result, they fall far behind to build a better career and get higher salary. This fact restricts them from leading a better life along with their children and family. However, the US government has recently taken initiatives to improve their lots. Scholarships for moms are government-aided programs that offer ten thousand dollars to the mothers who are single, married, working, or low-wagers. Scholarships for mothers need only a single form to fill up on scholarships4moms.net and this form can lead you to fulfill your long cherished dream.

The registration forms for scholarships for mothers are found on this website and need only a few minutes to fill up. You have to fill in the form according to the instructions provided with it. These guidelines on the form are needed to be followed until you are thanked by a confirmation page. That means you have finished the process and are eligible to receive the scholarship. You will be able to view information from schools or colleges available online and can choose one of their courses through this website. Moreover, a confirmation code will be sent to your email address soon after the completion of this form. These ten thousand dollar worth scholarships for moms are needed to fill in the form carefully so that one may not be rejected from the winner list. You have to fill in the blanks compulsorily which are marked with stars. As the success rate of scholarships for mothers is unbelievably high, you cannot help being careful while in filling the form.

The objective of this scholarship is to balance your motherhood so that you can get enough time, support, and money in order to boost your career up. Scholarships can offer also additional money if you need to further your study. Registration enables you to be the next competitor of this scholarship program. Scholarships for mothers help the US mothers in further ways. You can pay the school fees of your children with the rest of the money. Moreover, this scholarship influences directly the younger generation of this country as each children depends on its mother's success to a great extent. The exact tools needed to advance your career are provided with these scholarships for moms. The government has granted a large amount of budget for this program and you will not fail to get it if you provide the information correctly in this form.

Scholarships for mothers arrange online school or college courses for you. You will not have to leave your home to study in a school or college. I know many people who have already changed the direction of their lives with the aid of this scholarship. One of my colleagues has got this scholarship and she is now attending online courses to get a higher degree. She is happy to achieve what was beyond her capacity in the previous days and she believes it will help her get better jobs. In fact, scholarships for mothers have the best option that you need right now.

Apply for a FREE scholarship online

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scholarships for moms

Guide to Private Student Loan Consolidation

Private Student Education Loans

Private education loan consolidation means private loans cannot be comingled with Federal education loans. If you borrowed money with a private education loan, you will need a private education loan consolidation. By doing this you will reset the terms of the loan which may reduce your monthly payments. Usually the interest is not reduced. But if your credit score has improved since you originally applied for the first loan, you may qualify for a reduced interest rate. This may be the case now that you have graduated and gotten a job in your chose profession. You may now be a doctor making a good income and if you've been paying your bills on time your scores may have improved 100 points or more, which would definitely qualify you for a better credit score and lower interest rate.

Check with your existing bank to see if your current loans can be consolidated into a lower interest rate loan before you take it to another bank. They may be willing to help you rather than lose your business. If they are not helpful, shop around and find another lender who is willing to give you a private education loan consolidation. When shopping for a private student loan consolidation check to see if the loan is fixed or variable. What are the fees, origination fees, etc? And are there prepayment penalties? You should be able to pay an extra amount that is applied to your balance after collection costs; late charges outstanding interest and principal have been deducted from the payment. Any additional money left is considered prepayment and will be applied to the loan balance. There should be no extra fees associated with prepayment in the original loan. You will have to determine if the private student loan consolidation has fees of this nature.

Private education loan Consolidation Lenders

The Higher Education Act of 1965, The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 and the amended Truth in Lending Act banned fees or penalties for early repayment of private education loans. The competitive institution did not charge prepayment penalties to keep the playing field even for all private lenders. Prepayment can provide a significant savings for the student. The total interest paid can be reduced by the extra payments being applied to the balance first and then the interest, ultimately saving thousand of dollars over the lifetime of a private student loan consolidation.

An EdSucceed Private student loan Consolidation through cuStudentLoans.org will provide loan consolidation for undergraduate students with debt of $7500 to $100,000 and graduate degree recipients with debt of up to $150,000 a 15-year loan. They have a 1.00% origination fee and a variable rate based on prime plus 1.5% to prime plus 4%. Your rate is based on credit and whether or not you select ACH payments. If you have a cosigner, you can release them after the first 12 year of on-time payments if other credit criteria are satisfied.

The student loan Network offers private college loan consolidation for a minimum of $10,000 to a maximum of $300,000. The repayment term ranges from 20-year for $40,000 or less to 30-year for above $40,000. The interest rate is based on 3-month LIBOR plus 5% to 3-month LIBOR plus 8.5%. The origination fee is also a range of 1% to 5%. There are no prepayment penalties and the cosigner is released after 4 years of timely payments and is based on the primary borrower's credit improving.

Wells Fargo offers private education loan consolidation. They will consolidate a minimum of $5000 and up to $40,000 or up to $100,000 depending on the borrower's credit. A 15-year term is provided with a variable rate. The interest ranges from prime plus 1% to prime plus 5.75%. The base rate is 3.25%. There is no origination fee associated with this loan. The rate is reduced.5% for automatic debit payments and the rate is reduced further for making 48 payments on time consecutively.

Currently, both Chase and Next Student have temporarily suspended their private student loan consolidation programs. Private student loan consolidations that are variable rate should be compared to a home equity loan with a fixed rate. If the comparison makes a home equity loan more attractive, and you own a home with enough equity in it to finance such a maneuver, this may be a better option than a variable rate loan.

Private Student College Loans And Federal College loans

The primary difference in private student loan consolidation and federal loan consolidation is private loan rates are higher than federal loans even in consolidation. Federal loans and private loans cannot be mixed into the same consolidation loan. A loan that mixes several loans together often reduces the rate of one or two of the loans and reduces the payment giving the borrower more years to pay. This cannot be done when the loans come from different sources. Guaranteed Student education loans or federal loans with much lower interest rates cannot be mixed with private non-guaranteed loans with much higher interest rates in a private education loan consolidation.

The Consequences Of Default

Private college loan consolidation is there to provide more manageable debt repayments, preventing default or reducing incidences of default. Defaulting on a student loan could result in the IRS offsetting or keeping your federal or state tax refunds and wage garnishments. If you are a federal employee, they can offset 15% of your pay to repay Education loans. You may have to pay additional collection costs, legal action may be taken against you and the credit bureaus will be notified and your credit rating will suffer. Bankruptcy is no longer an option. Student education loans cannot be included in a bankruptcy filing. The only option for reducing payments of a private education loan is a private college loan consolidation. Your total loan term may be extended, lessening your monthly payments.

Check with your loan holder to determine if a private student loan consolidation is the answer to your budget woes.

There is so much to know when you apply for financial aid. It's good to have a website you can get a lot of information all in one place.

A Student's Guide To Direct Loan Consolidation

Direct loan consolidation is a program that helps you to manage your student loans. The US Department of Education's Federal Direct Loan Consolidation program allows you to consolidate your student loans into one new loan. The types of student loans you can consolidate among others are Federal Stafford Loans, Federal Perkins Loans, Direct PLUS Loans, and almost all other federal student financial aid programs. The result of this is reduced monthly repayment, extended repayment period and, although not always, lower interest rate.

As various financial aid programs may have different interest rates, the consolidation overcomes this by setting a fixed interest. The interest is determined based on the average of your combined loan interests. The consolidation interest ranges from 0.125% to 8.25%. The average of your combined interest will be rounded up to the nearest 0.125% of a whole 1% (e.g. an average interest of 4.111% will be rounded up to 4.125%). With this calculation, you might end up with a slightly lower or higher interest. A lender sometimes gives dispensations for students by giving lower interest rate or other reduction. You can consult your lender about the possibility of getting this dispensation.

With direct loan consolidation, you can extend your repayment period, resulting in lower monthly repayments. You can extend the period from the standard 10 years to 12-30 years, depending on the amount of your consolidation. Nevertheless, longer repayment period also means higher interest. To deal with this, you can increase your repayment or prepay the debt once your financial condition is recovered.

To apply for a consolidation program, your loans must be in the grace or repayment periods. A grace period is the amount of time during which you are not obliged to make repayments, which usually lasts for 6 or 9 months. Note that once the consolidation process is completed, your grace period will automatically end. So if you want to benefit from you grace period, you can delay the consolidation process until near the end of the grace period.

If you apply for the program during the repayment period, you should continue repaying the loans you want to consolidate. A step-by-step consolidation process can take around 30 to 45 days. When the consolidation process finishes, you are given 180 days to add any loans you might forget to enlist into the loan consolidation.

If you encounter problems repaying your loan, you can contact your lender to grant you a deferment or forbearance. A deferment is a period of time during which your lender allows temporary suspension of payments on your loans, while forbearance is a period of time during which your lender temporarily reduces your monthly payment amount.

For more information about direct loan consolidation, just visit our link!

A Student's Guide To Direct Loan Consolidation

Direct loan consolidation is a program that helps you to manage your student loans. The US Department of Education's Federal Direct Loan Consolidation program allows you to consolidate your student loans into one new loan. The types of student loans you can consolidate among others are Federal Stafford Loans, Federal Perkins Loans, Direct PLUS Loans, and almost all other federal student financial aid programs. The result of this is reduced monthly repayment, extended repayment period and, although not always, lower interest rate.
As various financial aid programs may have different interest rates, the consolidation overcomes this by setting a fixed interest. The interest is determined based on the average of your combined loan interests. The consolidation interest ranges from 0.125% to 8.25%. The average of your combined interest will be rounded up to the nearest 0.125% of a whole 1% (e.g. an average interest of 4.111% will be rounded up to 4.125%). With this calculation, you might end up with a slightly lower or higher interest. A lender sometimes gives dispensations for students by giving lower interest rate or other reduction. You can consult your lender about the possibility of getting this dispensation.
With direct loan consolidation, you can extend your repayment period, resulting in lower monthly repayments. You can extend the period from the standard 10 years to 12-30 years, depending on the amount of your consolidation. Nevertheless, longer repayment period also means higher interest. To deal with this, you can increase your repayment or prepay the debt once your financial condition is recovered.
To apply for a consolidation program, your loans must be in the grace or repayment periods. A grace period is the amount of time during which you are not obliged to make repayments, which usually lasts for 6 or 9 months. Note that once the consolidation process is completed, your grace period will automatically end. So if you want to benefit from you grace period, you can delay the consolidation process until near the end of the grace period.
If you apply for the program during the repayment period, you should continue repaying the loans you want to consolidate. A step-by-step consolidation process can take around 30 to 45 days. When the consolidation process finishes, you are given 180 days to add any loans you might forget to enlist into the loan consolidation.
If you encounter problems repaying your loan, you can contact your lender to grant you a deferment or forbearance. A deferment is a period of time during which your lender allows temporary suspension of payments on your loans, while forbearance is a period of time during which your lender temporarily reduces your monthly payment amount.
For more information about direct loan consolidation, just visit our link!