Student Loan Debt: My Personal Story

I have a very personal story to share with all you people out there with student loan debt. I am sharing this story in the hope that as many people as possible can learn from my mistakes. This is a true story that happened to me back in 1999.

I had been out of school for quite a while. I was working at a big law firm in New York City making a decent living, paying my bills and some of my debt. I had (foolishly) incurred a lot of credit card debt in my youth and I was really paying for it. I also had about $11,000 in student loan debt from a Federal Subsidized Stafford Loan I had taken out when I was in school. I wasn't paying my student loan debt. In fact, I completely ignored my student loan debt, throwing all the threatening letters I received into the trash! My thinking was, "what could they do to me? If I ignore the debt the government will step in a pay it off. Besides, those monthly payments are way too high!" There was a moderate amount of guilt associated with my actions, but it's hard to feel sorry for the richest government that has ever existed on the earth.

How can Student Loan Consolidation Solve Your Problem

Everybody knows that college education can be very expensive. The worldwide recession even made things worse. Because of this, few students who want to pursue higher education and be real professionals let their dreams fall, but this shouldn’t be the case. This is where student loan consolidation can help you.

There are people, not just students who would not want to get a loan because of the stigma that the word “loan” carries. Loans, according to others are nothing but burdens, and getting into one is like digging your own grave. There may be much debate about loans, but this post doesn’t aim to defend any side, instead it aims to help you get on with your after college life, thru student loan consolidation.

You survived the hard part; you’ve finished your college. But is it really over? Truth is, the really hard part is just starting and although you want to put all your efforts and energy in finding a job that best suits you, or you want to give your everything to the job you already have, there is a problem that will always be at the back of your mind – your student loan.

Now that you’ve finished college, it’s time to pay that debt. It would help if you planned out early on how you will pay the debt once you graduate, but sadly not all of us can think 5 steps ahead.

If somebody told you that you can file for bankruptcy then think again. Federal student loans cannot be discharged even if you file for bankruptcy. It will not cease to exist and you still have to pay it whether you’re bankrupted or not.

In this case, a student loan consolidation program is your only hope. This program will take the loans you got when you were in college, and consolidate it with other bills like outstanding credit card bills and put them into a lump sum. This can all be handled by a student loan consolidation company. This company will then draw a specific payment plan based on your income and total budget.

It gets even better. You will only have to pay your student loan consolidation company every month. The company will then do all the dirty work for you, including making the payments to your creditors. Do not let pressure yourself; you had enough of that when you were a student. Take the debt out of your head and let the company handle it for you.

Student loan consolidation distributes the money you have every month to make the crucial payments, thus saving you from further trouble. You know very well how important it is not to miss any payment, and the student loan consolidation company can help you achieve that.

How to Get Student Debt Consolidation Loans

Considering the changes in the economy, student loans are needed for borrowers looking for a repayment plan to minimize their debt.

With recent college graduates in 2009 bearing the weight of student loans with varying interest rates coupled with a lack of employment, the need for college debt consolidation is not only pressing, but is mandatory. So how do you select appropriate student debt

Before you consider combining your debt with one lender, you should thoroughly understand the student debt loan consolidation process.

Follow these steps to select the perfect student

Private Loan Repayment Protection An Option for Worried Borrowers

A new private company called SafeStart is offering a loan repayment option for in-debt students that may provide an alternative to the government’s new income-based repayment (IBR) program. SafeStart is marketed to borrowers at colleges, universities and online schools who are worried about whether they will be able to make their monthly loan repayments after graduation.

Students who pay into the program—a cost of around $40 – $60 for every thousand dollars of Stafford loans they take out—are covered in case they find themselves unable to make monthly payments during the first five years after graduating. They receive an interest-free line of credit which can be used to make up to 36 payments over a five-year period, provided the student meets the qualifications for financial hardship. College graduates are considered to be facing financial hardship if their monthly student loan payments exceed 10 percent of their income.

Money management training and debt counseling are also included in the program, which currently serves undergraduates only. Some financial aid experts are skeptical that SafeStart offers any significant advantages over government repayment programs, but it could be a viable option for some individuals, depending on their financial and career situations after they graduate.

Best Student Loan Consolidation Companies

Due to student awareness programs any student needing to consolidate his loans will know what to do and he or she will go directly to a loan consolidating company. The company’s employees will aid the student in transferring his many student loans into one easily manageable loan with many more advantages and perks, along with easier terms and conditions and a lower interest rate. All your doubts should be cleared when you are told that your pay back will be much easier due to decreased interest rates which eventually mean a comparatively lower increase in the amount that you give back each month. Only one payment per month means that you will be spared the hassle of remembering all the dates and deadlines of the payments that you have to make along with the actual hassle of making these payments, with you having to make only one check every month if you decide to consolidate. It will nonetheless be foolhardy to sign up for the first consolidation plan you come across, no matter how tempting it seems, without doing your research and taking a look at all the other consolidation plans provided by the various companies. Your research should help you decide which program to choose after taking a look at the one that seems to be the most beneficial and advantageous for your personal needs. Make sure you make the right decision and you think before you sign up as choosing a program unsuitable for you may end up with you paying more than your actual program, without any noticeable improvement in your terms and conditions or any other such benefit.

Helping you pay back your debts with as low as possible interest rates and monthly payment along with other benefits is the target of a consolidating company and you should thus take your time checking each and every one of them out. The lenders, in most cases, will not charge you extra or demand more money; if they do then you should proceed with caution and make sure that you know and understand the exact reason as to why they are charging you extra so as to be safe from any kind of fraud.

The employees at the companies will try to rush you into signing their contract immediately and even though this may look like a good option at that moment, it may not necessarily be true, so you should make sure that you check out all other available options that you have in the current market and choosing the one with the best rates and terms. Do not believe the lender at face value and make sure that you read the printed terms and conditions in your contract very carefully and thoroughly as they are the only terms that apply and any spoken promise should be ignored as just false talk trying to coax you into signing up.

Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies should have the company listed in order for it to be able to offer student loans. You can check the feedback of a certain company at the Better Business Bureau, helping you decide from a short list of companies as you can see if a certain company has had many complaints in the past or not. Do a complete and thorough background check of the company that you settle on so as to make sure that it can be trusted with your money.