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Overwhelmed By Loans for Students Consolidation Offers?

Make a calendar. Add bill due dates to your everyday calendar. That way if a bill doesn’t show up in the mail for some reason, you’ll still know exactly when it needs to be paid.

Change your due dates. Take a good look at your calendar: Do you want payment dates spread out evenly, or would it be better for them to coincide? Once you decide, see if your creditors will change them accordingly—most credit card companies are happy to comply. (Please note, pushing the due date back a few days will result in a onetime adjustment to your next bill, because finance charges will continue to accrue.)

Sign up for auto–bill pay. You cam do this with your insurance premiums, utilities, mortgage, student loans, etc. You simply sign a document agreeing to have the payment deducted from your checking accounts. You still need to manage, check and verify that the amounts deducted are correct, but it is a good way to make sure your bills are paid on time. You’ll also save on postage, and you may get a lower interest rate on your student loan or mortgage (some creditors decrease interest rates if you agree to set up automatic payment).

Make your payments online. Instead of using a paper check, go online to your bank account and pay bills electronically. The money will be immediately deducted from your available balance. It’s neat and efficient.

Savings Accounts

It’s essential to build up a cash stash for emergencies, especially in a shaky job market. Interest rates on savings accounts will likely decline with the Fed’s rate, as a result,  you can profit by putting your money in a certificate of deposit (CD) account — the rates are more competitive and locked in for a fixed period. (A CD can yield around 2.5 percent more than a typical savings account. Make the switch soon though; if interest rates continue to drop, so will CD yields. Another option is to open a savings account at an Internet bank. “Compared with traditional institutions, online banks pay better rates on savings accounts because they’re spared the cost of maintaining branch offices. Or transfer your savings account at a mainstream bank to its online division, where rates are slightly higher. But don’t move your money unless you’re upping your rate by at least a point or it’s hardly worth the trouble. And remember, before you make a move, be sure to consider starting fees, annual fees, and other expenses.

Student Loans

Interest rates on federal student loans are adjusted every July 1. Considering the current interest rate trend, that’s good news for college graduates still struggling to pay off their debt. If you have multiple federal loans at varying rates, you can shave your monthly payments by consolidating. Contact your lender or the U.S. Department of Education at loanconsolidation.ed.gov. If you’re repaying a private loan, stop mailing checks and send them electronically. Many lenders knock half a percentage point off your rate for online payments because there’s no paperwork and less processing.

When you are in debt, and your debts are unsecured (from credit cards), you have two options:

Find another source of income, negotiate with the collections agencies, and pay them off; or declare bankruptcy.

Repaying your debts: Morally speaking, finding a way to repay your debts is preferable. Even if you can take a part time job nights or weekends to make an extra couple hundred a month, you may be able to use that to keep the debt collectors at bay. Furthermore, consider looking for additional income anyway to avoid going into anymore debt. 

If your debts are in collections is bad in some ways, but good in others. It’s bad because these debts are marked as “in collections” on your credit report, which will hurt your ability to get new credit for years to come. The good news is: Collections agencies purchase your debt from your creditors for a fraction of the original amount. Therefore, they may agree to settle the debt for less than you originally owed. They won’t concede this easily, but if you are persistent in telling them you want to pay the debts, but are working with a very limited income, they may listen.

Bankruptcy: Chapter 7 bankruptcy will discharge unsecured debts. It’s not free though: Expect to pay $300 to file the papers in federal court, and $1,000 or more in attorney’s fees. Plus, Chapter 7 bankruptcy can stay on your credit report for up to 10 years.

If you absolutely cannot find additional income, bankruptcy is probably the way to go. If you’re young enough, you probably won’t lose many—if any—assets in the liquidation process and, if you get your debt and bankruptcy behind you, your credit history will be clear again in about ten years.

A note about student loans: Any federal student loans (such as Stafford or Perkins loans), will not be discharged in bankruptcy, and there are dire consequences for not repaying these debts. Defaulting on federal student loan make you ineligible for federal benefits of any kind including social security, Medicare/Medicaid, and more.

If you’re currently a student, these loans should be deferred (i.e., you don’t owe any payments). If you left school and went back, for example, you may have to let your lenders know so they can suspend the payments.

Taking action on your debts in one way or the other is the right thing to do. Ignoring them will only create more headaches down the road.

Since George W. Bush took office; unemployment has sky rocketed, home foreclosures are rampant, the U.S. National Debt went from 5.7 trillion to 10 trillion dollars, the trade deficit went from 380 billion to 759 billion dollars, corporation profits have doubled, consumer credit card debt has gone from 65 trillion to 128 trillion dollars, a college education has become unaffordable, student loan debt has exploded, less Americans have health insurance, and those that still do pay twice as much, and the annual U.S. household income has decreased.

It will be a long time before we know what the future holds. Let’s all hope the next 8 years are better than the last.

The joy of receiving your hard earned college diploma may quickly be replaced with stress and confusion once your student loan bills start arriving in the mail. If you’ve accumulated several loans through different lenders, it may be smart to consolidate them.

Choice is yours

The rising cost of a higher education has increased the use of student loans over the years. If you’ve completed college in the past few months, it’s likely that chunks of your new paycheck are going out every 30 days to cover the student loans that you’ve taken out during the last few years. You may not be aware that the United States Department of Education offers a student debt consolidation loan program. It’s easy to qualify for the loan, and it offers many benefits to the borrower. Here are a few ways such debt consolidation may help you:

• You’ll make one monthly payment. This alone can be helpful if you’re paying multiple lenders with different due dates. Keeping track can be confusing.
• Your interest rate (and monthly payment) may be lower. The Department of Education calculates your consolidated interest rate by determining your current average rate and raising it to the nearest 1/8 of 1 percent.

Research, research, research

Like with any other loan, you should do your homework before jumping in with both feet. While debt consolidation can sound like the perfect deal, it’s important to read all documents thoroughly, and do some numbers crunching before signing on the dotted line.

If you have only one or two loan payments, for example, and you have no trouble paying them, it may not benefit you to consolidate. Determine the consolidated interest rate to see if it’s as attractive as the rates you currently have on the loans you hold. Also, look at the loan terms carefully. The longer you take to pay off your student loans, the more money you’ll be spending in interest, which quickly adds up to more money spent over the life of the loan. Compare the total amount you’ll spend in each scenario to determine whether consolidating is a smart money management decision.

The last thing you need once you’ve graduated and launched a career is for your credit report to be damaged because it was hard for you to keep track of several student loans. If it’s early enough in the life of your current indebtedness, a student consolidation loan may be a wise choice that’s easy on your budget as well as your lifestyle.

Now as a student borrower, you have to be choosy when it comes to finding the best student loan rates. And while indeed, a lot are being offered everywhere, choosing the right one for your loan needs is usually not that easy.

First of all, getting the best student loan consolidation program can be a great task itself as hundreds or even thousands are available in the market, more than willing to take anyone in as their client. Of course, many of them are really offering attractive programs and really competitive student loan consolidation rates to entice would be borrowers. But many are actually unscrupulous companies and individuals who are just out to make money from people with genuine need for an effective consolidation program.

It can be easy to find many companies, especially if you are to search online. However, nothing beats getting advice from people, such as other family members and friends who might have dealt with consolidation before and are ready to give you recommendations if they believe their lending company can offer you what you need. Perhaps they are more knowledgeable about how to discern if a lending company is a legitimate one or the fly by night type. It can really be very helpful if you can gather first hand information about student loan consolidation.

Remember, in deciding on which program to get, you have to take serious consideration of the student loan consolidation rates.  A lot of companies offer good programs but very high interest rates. Remember, the loan market is very competitive. You just have to be patient in your search and sure enough you will find one that can offer you rates that is affordable to pay.

Student Credit cards offer many benefits to you in addition to providing easy access to cash and credit. These credit cards help you to take home cash back or additional rewards on your spending when you make use of these cards. They also help you to start building a good credit history, which will be a real plus later in life when you are planning to make use of loans to buy a car or house.

The cash back or prizes on student credit cards vary from 1% to as high as 5% for different types of purchases made on these cards. To compare the credit cards, you should carefully read through the terms and conditions to determine which card will give you the highest rewards on your the majority recurrent expenditures. a number of scholar credit cards even recompense you with points for maintaining a good GPA and making payment on time.

The point be able to be cash in by the student for a assortment of rewards, counting cash back, air tickets and the gift cards, and in some cases exclusive rewards which also consist of VIP passes to Studio Tours a great deal more. You should make sure to compare credit card offers, look for the best card that offers the rewards that you find most exciting.

Most of the student credit cards come with a 0% introductory interest rate for the first six months. Depending on the card and the provider, this rate may apply only to purchases, but in some cases it may also apply to balance transfers and cash advances. In short, if you are willing to use your card for cash advances or balance transfers in addition to purchases, look for a card that offers a 0% introductory rate on all these services.

Student credit cards offer you great advantage if you pay the balance in full every month without fail. However, It is always best, not to use your credit card as a supplement for availing student loan. You should also keep in mind that once the introductory rate expires, student credit cards will charge you a fairly high APR, from 12.99% and up.

There are a few things you need to keep in mind when it comes to learning about credit cards for the first time and if you can keep these in mind, you will do just fine with your finances. Make sure that you pay your card off in full all the time in order to avoid interest rates and make sure you never spend more than you can afford. If you can follow these golden rules, you will be set.

To start out the working career with an overwhelming amount of debt is a daunting prospect to put it mildly. But the fact is that many college graduates unfortunately are facing this situation. Fortunately consolidating your student loans is a great way to meet the challenge of getting rid of the burden of debt from school or college.

The main benefit of consolidation is that you’ll normally pay a lower interest rate then compared to what your various loans are already set at. This works the same way as refinancing a home in order to have a lower mortgage payment. And be aware of the fact that the current interest rate is the lowest it has been in almost 40 years. When you do a consolidation you’ll pay one interest rate, not several different rates. And at the time you took these loans, the rates were probably higher.

And this means money saved: A lower interest rate on a relatively big loan can save you thousands of dollars in the long run. And in addition to this, some lending companies offer rate reductions for students consolidating their loans while they are in their grace period. A warning though: Stay away from companies that require you to start your payment immediately after the grace period. There are companies out there that don’t require this. Use them!

• No health insurance or inadequate coverage. Medical bills are a factor in one out of five bankruptcies. 
• Maxing out on your credit cards or charging more than you can pay off each month. Credit card debt is one of the major factors in many bankruptcies. A good rule of thumb is to use no more than 30% to 40% of your available credit at any one time. This gives you flexibility in case of job loss, illness, divorce, or other threat to your income. 
• Over-using home equity loans. Think twice before you use your home equity loan or line of credit for items other than home improvements. Make sure you can afford the payments comfortably. 
• No emergency fund. If you live from paycheck to paycheck with little or no savings for emergencies, you’re at higher risk of going bankrupt. 43% of American households have less than $1,000 saved, an alarming statistic. 
• Paying the minimum balance on your credit cards. Since it can take 20 to 30 years to pay off your credit card balance when you pay only the minimum payment, if that’s all you can afford to pay, you really can’t afford to buy whatever it is you’ve been buying. 
• Co-signing a loan for someone else. Co-signing loans is a common factor in many bankruptcies when the person you co-signed for defaults on the loan payments and you’re held responsible by the lender. 
• Tax lien or foreclosure on your home, or repossession of a car or other item you failed to make timely payments on. These are signs that you’ve lost your grip on your financial situation. Take them seriously. 
• Borrowing too much on student loans. You may end up finding your student loan payments so high you can’t afford your living expenses.

The key to avoiding bankruptcy or other, less dire but no less unpleasant financial problems is to have a firm grip on your finances by following these eight tips:

1. Avoid impulse spending. 
2. Don’t use a credit card unless you have the cash to pay it off.  
3. Tear up credit card offers you receive in the mail. 
4. Set up a budget and stick to it. 
5. Don’t buy more house than you can comfortably afford. 
6. Make sure you’re adequately covered by insurance (medical, homeowners, auto). 
7. Don’t make speculative or high-risk investments. 
8. Don’t incur joint debt with others who have questionable financial habits.