Monday, May 25, 2009

How to Get the Best Student Loan Rate

Getting the lowest student loan rate possible can be rather tricky. There are so many different ways that you can get funding for school, you really have to do some digging to find out how to get the best rate. In the end, you may have little choice in the matter.

Part of your student loan rate is going to be based on the current average interest rates. If you have student loans from previous terms and interest rates have dropped, you may consider refinancing or consolidating those loans to take advantage of the lower student loan rate. However, you do not want to do this with subsidized loans, as you will suddenly become responsible for paying the interest on these if you consolidate or refinance them in any way other than through the Department of Education.

The Department of Education does offer some direct loans and direct consolidation loans. The problem with getting these loans is that you have a set interest rate of 8.5 percent. In recent years, 8.5 percent is much higher than the average interest rates. Basically, it's not a good deal unless you have such bad credit that your interest rates are over 9 or 10 percent, which is unlikely.

Your credit does play a role in your student loan rate, especially if you are getting private loans. The better your credit, the lower your interest rates will be. That is just common sense. However, there are other factors that may be taken into consideration, such as current income, expected income after graduation, cosigners, and overall credit history. In other words, there is much more involved in determining the student loan rate than just your credit score, which is used in other types of interest rate configurations.

In the end, the only way to get the best student loan rate is to do your research into every possible loan source and choose the one that you qualify for that has the lowest interest rates and finance charges. You should also consider other factors in your decision, however, because the lowest rate doesn't necessarily mean the best loan for you.

Joe Eitel is an accomplished freelance writer who is an expert in the student loan consolidation field. If you'd like to learn more about how student loan consolidation works, visit: [http://consolidatingstudentloansonline.com/]Consolidating Student Loans

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joe_Eitel http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Get-the-Best-Student-Loan-Rate&id=2331538

Posted by bestwish at 1:56 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Student Loan Rates - Tips For Student Loans

By Joel Davis
Getting a college education for many people sees the need for astudent loan. Finding the best student loan rate of interestfrom a financial institution is an important consideration thatmay save you money when the time comes for student loanrepayment.
Generally a student loan is not required to repaid until thestudent graduates and has finished his or her schooling. It’svery easy during the educational period to be unconcerned abouta loan and not have some sort of repayment plan in mind.
The student loan rates will then be an important factor as thegraduate will be starting a new job, possibly finding newaccommodation, and have travel and living costs to cover. Everycent will count in the beginning and even a difference of 1% inthe student loan repayment will have an effect on livingstandards.
Read the contract fine print;
Some lenders charge fees to set up a student loan that canincrease the cost of the loan. Often a lender will offer a lowinterest rate that seems most competitive. However these lowrates are often off set or can actually cost more due to thestudent loan fees that are charged.
On the flip side lenders that don’t charge the fees will rollover the costs into the interest rate. As a general rule threeto four percent in fees is about the same as a one percenthigher interest rate.
Check to see if the student loan interest rate is fixed orvariable, a fixed loan may be more expensive than a variablerate at the time of application but if the variable rates are torise in the future the fixed loan would have been the bestoption.
This is something where the student will have to consider theeconomy and seek out advice on the direction of future interestrates. Use a student loan calculator to calculate future loaninterest rates. This can give you a general idea of what theloan will cost you per month but remember it is only anestimate.
At the time of writing a Stafford Federal loan has a 6.80%fixed student loan rate. Compared to a student loan rate with anaverage private loan rate of 8.25%, you’ll quickly see why manystudents turn to the Federal government for the best loan rates.
Find out when the interest begins accruing. Typically, thestudent loan rates won't take affect until six weeks until afteryou graduate. That means you have time to save up in order topay your loans back. But you should make sure of this so thatyou're not caught by surprise when that first bill becomes due.
It’s always a smart thing to shop around for the best studentloan rates available to you; you may get lucky and find even abetter loan than a Stafford loan has to offer. Taking thesesteps will give you peace of mind and be stress free, allowingyou to focus on your main goal, completing your studies andgetting the education to go out and get that great job orbusiness you deserve.
About the Author: Joel Davis is the webmaster athttp://www.studentloan-blog.com for making informed choices andstudent loans easy to understand.
Source: http://www.isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=231612&ca=Finances