Student Loans Repayment is very much on the mind as the fall semester gets started, students may be struggling with tuition bills, program fees and other education-related expenses like books and lab materials. When parents need some help meeting their student’s educational expenses, a PLUS loan could provide the financing they need. It’s also a good time to consider student loan consolidations to lower monthly payments on existing, non-subsidized student loan repayment programs.

Federal student loan consolidation is available for Stafford, Plus, Perkins, Heal, NSL, HPSL and all of the Direct Loans. You can only consolidate the loans that are not in default, so you must first take care of the defaulted loan in order to put it into the consolidation. There are really no disadvantages to consolidating student loans. The one disadvantage that we are aware of has to do with the Federal Perkins Loan. Perkins loans are typically subsidized by the Federal Government while in deferment while the student is still in-school. When you consolidate a Perkins loan it loses that subsidization.

What Student Loan Payment Programs Are Available?

Level Repayment Plan: This plan keeps your payments the same amount each month so you know what to expect to pay every month. There may, however, be a variable interest rate involved in this repayment plan that could change your monthly payments. In the long term, this could very well be the least expensive plan of them all.

Graduated Repayment Plan: This plan will offer you lower payments now, but will increase in the future. This is good if you have graduated and will begin your career in your chosen field. It will give you the time you need to start making a substantial living before you have to start making larger monthly payments.

Income Sensitive Repayment Plan: This plan is specifically for federal student loans. The best part about this option is that your payments will be based on how much money you are making. However, you will have to reapply for this plan on a yearly basis and can be one of the most expensive programs in the long term.

Extended Repayment Plan: This plan is available only for specific loans: the Federal Stafford, PLUS, and consolidation loans. There are certain things you must have in order to qualify for this loan, such as a certain amount of student loan debt, as well as when you received these loans.

The main benefit of looking at a repayment program is that you can research all of the available possible ways to repay your student loans. You just might find a repayment program that better suits your needs rather than a student consolidation loan.

Student loan payment plans vary here is an example. The Stafford loan has these repayment options:

Standard repayment is where the principal and interest payments are due each month throughout the repayment period.

Graduated repayments are smaller at the beginning of repayment process and increase at specific periods and in specific amounts over the term of the loan.

Income-based repayment takes monthly loan payments based on a percentage of the borrower’s monthly gross income. StaffordLoan.com offers an income-sensitive repayment plan.

Extended Repayment provides eligible Federal Stafford, Federal PLUS and Alternative loan/Federal Consolidation loan borrowers payment relief through a lengthened repayment term of up to 25 years.

Serialization is when the loan holder purchases your loans held by other institutions and services them in one account. You make one monthly payment but retain the original terms and interest rate.

__________________
Submissions | Hip-Hop 4 Obama