One of the best possible ways, as considered by many, to get out of your student loan debt is to consolidate them together. As much as student loans are a great way to finance your education, they can often leave college students with some burdensome debts after they graduate and of course, that is not the best way to kick off a new life and career, so many of them consolidate their student loans debt so that they would only have a single payment to pay every month.
What is a student loan consolidation? It means that you are basically bundling up all your student loans into a separate loan with only one lender as well as just one repayment plan. That in itself is already less to think about. When you decide to consolidate your student loans debt, all the balances from your outstanding student loans are all paid off with its total balance being brought together into a single consolidated loan. In the end, you would be left with only one student loan to pay off.
How much can you save from consolidating you student loans? Well that depends upon the interest rate that you are going to get and if you decide to stretch your repayment plan or not. According to one of the biggest giver of student loans in the US, people who choose to consolidate their student loans debt are able to reduce their monthly dues by up to 54%. But remember, the only way you can reduce your payment by up to that much is to extend your existing repayment plan.
Typically a student has about 10 years to pay their student loan but you can actually choose to extend it for up to 30 years if you wish. If you do opt for an extension, you would also end up paying more in terms of interest since you basically lengthened the life of your loan. However, there are no pre-payment fines so you can always opt to pay off the loan in advance if you chance upon some extra money.
Where can you get consolidations? You can consolidate your student loans dent through any credit union or bank that is a participant in the federal family education loan programs or you can approach the US Department of Education directly. The terms and conditions are pretty much the same regardless of where you choose to consolidate your student loans debt. But for good measure, verify initially with the lenders where you hold your existing student loans.
You can only consolidate your student loans once not except you go back to school and then obtain more loans. So you best make sure that you get the best deal for the first time. Interest rates would be pretty much the same from all the different lenders but some might offer you discounts in the future as a sort of reward for your prompt payments as well as further discounts for having your monthly payments wire transferred directly from your bank account to them.