School Loan Consolidation Program

What is school loan consolidation program?

School loans for meeting the educational expenses are available thru government agencies and private lenders. Millions of students have benefited from these loan facilities. Federal education loans are very popular because they are affordable and in many cases credit rating of the borrower is not an issue. There are several plans under Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program for providing loans to students and their parents to pay for the students’ education. These loans are distributed either directly by the government or thru authorised private lenders. In addition private lenders offer private loans that students take to supplement their federal loans. In federal loans as well as private loans there are school loan consolidation programs that make it easier to manage those loans. It is possible to consolidate several specified federal loans into a consolidation loan. Similarly private loans can be consolidated according to the terms of the private lenders. But no school loan consolidation program has provision for consolidating federal loans with private loans.


Consolidation of loans has several advantages and some drawbacks. If you have taken several federal loans you will have to follow the repayment schedules of all of them. You will need to monitor all the loans and keep in touch with all the lenders. By consolidating those loans into one consolidation loan you have to deal with only one loan and one lender. There will be only one repayment schedule and it will be easier to manage only one loan. The interest rate will be fixed for the duration of the consolidation loan. The monthly instalment amount and the term of the loan will depend upon the repayment plan. Generally monthly instalment is less for longer duration loans.


Generally there are four repayment plans in Federal school loan consolidation program. The simplest is the Standard Plan in which the monthly instalment remains fixed for the tem of the loan and loan period is shortest. Another option is Extended Repayment Plan in which duration of the loan can be increased and the monthly instalment will consequently reduce. The third option is Graduated Repayment Plan in which the monthly instalment is low initially and gradually increases at pre-determined intervals. The borrower gets relief at the start of repayment, but has to make up towards the end. The fourth and last option is Income Contingent Repayment Plan in which borrower’s earnings are taken into consideration and then monthly instalment schedule is decided.


All these repayment schedules are for the benefit of the borrowers. But it should be remembered that longer period of the loan results in higher total payment. In longer term plans the instalment is small, at least in the beginning. But longer duration of the loan means paying interest for longer time. Therefore total outflow of funds by way of repayment is higher in longer term loans.


Before you decide to have a federal consolidation loan, you might like to know the details of the loan such as interest payable, monthly instalment amount, duration of loan etc. You can approach your prospective lender and obtain all these details and more. However there are easier methods of calculating details of your consolidation loan. Many websites have calculators for consolidation loans that visitors can use for calculating details under various repayment plans. These calculators are fairly accurate and can give you a good idea of the consolidation loans. However the final details should be obtained from the lender only.


Private school loan consolidation program can be given by the lender of private consolidation loan. You can expect considerable variations in the terms set by different lenders. While applying for a consolidation loan it may be worthwhile to find out what schemes the lender has for the benefit of the borrowers.

Great Lake School Loan

Great Lake School Loan

Great Lake School Loans are referred to education loans provided by Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation and Affiliates, or just Great Lakes in short, and its associates. The education loans offered by Great Lakes include Federal Loans as well as private loans. Great Lakes is one of the biggest providers of assistance to the students by way of financial, operational and educational support. It operates with thousands of schools and lenders as guarantor and servicer of education loans to provide highest quality service to the students.

Great Lakes and its associates provide all popular Federal education loans such as Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans for parents, graduate / professional PLUS loans for students, Perkins loans and consolidation loans. Private or alternate loans are provided by private lenders associated with Great Lakes. Private loans are costlier than Federal loans because of higher interest rates, though processing time is generally much less. The students interested in borrowing private loans should first try to meet the financial requirement for education by Federal loans. These loans have lower interest rates and for many of these loans credit rating may not be an issue. Private loan should be taken as further financial assistance only if all the Federal loans the student is eligible for are not sufficient to pay for the course.

The procedure for applying for Federal loan is similar everywhere. The first step is always to fill up FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). Application forms are easily available thru the school or on-line. The information provided in FAFSA is used to determine student’s eligibility for various types of loans. The student generally gets communication about eligibility from the school’s financial aid office. After getting this information the student can apply for the amounts to be borrowed in different loan programs and decide the lender. Processing of loan takes a few weeks. Loan is disbursed only after the student completes and submits MPN or Master Promissory Note in which the students agrees with the terms of the loan and declares the intention to repay the loan. It may be possible to get multiple loans on same MPN. The loan amount is sent to the school, not directly to the applicant. Out of this loan amount the school deducts any outstanding dues from the student and hands over the balance amount to the student. This amount can be used by the student to cover educational expenses.

Stafford Loans are most affordable with current interest rate of only 6.8% at the time of writing. Repayment becomes due after the end of grace period of six months following the completion of the course, or when the student stops attending school at least half-time. The interest starts accruing as soon as the loan is disbursed. In case of unsubsidized loan the interest accrual till the time the payment becomes due is capitalized and added to the original loan amount. In special cases the student can be given subsidized loan in which the interest accrual before repayment starts is paid by the Department of Education. The borrower can approach the lender to find out whether the lender has any schemes for benefit of the borrowers.

Perkins Loans have even lower interest rate. Currently it is just 5%. The interest is exempted while the student is enrolled in school at least half time. After graduation the grace period is as much as 9 months.

Consolidation loan also forms part of Great Lake school loan. There are rules for consolidating Federal education loans that are specified on the web site of Great Lake. Private loans can be consolidated separately, not with Federal loans. For complete information visit the web site of Great Lakes:

www.mygreatlakes.org/

Chase School Loan

Chase School Loan

There are many authorised loaners for furnishing education loans. Federal student loans are distributed by private loaners, also directly by the Department of Education, and guaranteed by the federal government. Chase Education Finance is a leading provider of education loans. Federal as well as private student loans received thru them are normally called chase school loan. Chase Education Finance is a division of JP Morgan Chase & Co. They provide a wide range of educational products and services. They've educational products planned for prospective university student, undergraduate students, postgraduate students, parents of the students and former students.

Chase school loan also covers consolidation loan and private student loan. If the borrower has taken several federal loans it will be a sensible step to get those loans consolidated into a single consolidation loan. It will be more convenient to deal with the loan and there are several other advantages. Many lenders including Chase have their own scheme of bonuses for borrowers with good repayment records. To supplement federal loans for educational assistance private loans are also provided by Chase. Different providers of private education loans have their own sets of rules that can diverge substantially. The concerned applicants can consult the lenders for their conditions.

Several Federal Chase school loan addresses several federal loans such as federal Stafford loan, both subsidized and unsubsidized, parent (PLUS) loans, and grad PLUS loans for graduate students. Chase provides several benefits to the receivers of these loans. For example, for Stafford loans the applicants do not have to pay the origination fee. The origination fee which can go up to 3 % is paid by Chase. There is no prepayment penalty. If students wish to pre-close the loan they can do so without having to pay any penalty. There's no credit check for loan approval. The repayment is flexible and consolidation of loan is possible. There is grace period of 6 months after completion of the course before payment becomes due. Deferment of payment is allowed. There are some added advantages when the repayment starts. If the student makes arrangement for automatic direct submission of the instalment Chase offers 0.25 % rebate on interest. If the student makes 48 successive payments on time there is 2% reduction in principal amount. The applicant of Stafford loan must submit FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) as a first step of loan application.

Other federal education loans also have similar benefits. For parent (PLUS) loan no income statement or collateral is needed. This loan disbursed to the parents of undergraduate and dependent students. As with the Stafford loan there is flexible repayment option and there is no prepayment penalty. The interest may be tax deductible. The payment can be deferred up to 60 months while the student is still in school. Grad PLUS loans are given to graduate students for continuing with their higher and professional educational courses. For these loans also there is no income or collateral demand. There are several repayment plans to choose from and interest payment is tax deductible. The payment can be deferred by up to 60 months while the student is still in college.

More information of chase school loans can be obtained from their web site :

www.chasestudentloans.com/

Sallie Mae School Loan

The name Sallie Mae is synonymous with education loan as it is one of the largest providers. Federal school loans and private loans are available from them for undergraduate and postgraduate students and their parents. Sallie Mae student loan consolidation can be used to consolidate Federal loans and private loans. Both types of loans can be consolidated individually, not together. Federal loans that can be consolidated include Stafford, PLUS, Perkins, HEAL loans amongst others.

Consolidation of school loans is a handy way to take care of loans since following consolidation you have to deal with only one loan instead of of multiple loans that were consolidated. The lowest sum for Sallie Mae school loan consolidation is $5000 for Federal as well as private loans. All Federal education loans in grace, repayment, deferment, or forbearance but not in default can be consolidated. Application for consolidation can be done online and it's forwarded electronically with you e-signature. In case of variable rate Federal student loan, Sallie Mae’s Best Rate Promise ensures that interest on your consolidated loan is computed based on minimum interest rates of Federal loans. Interest rate in Stafford loan rises by 0.6 % as soon as grace period ceases. If you apply for consolidation during grace period the consolidation loan interest rate will be based on lower interest rate of grace period, even if consolidation is paid out after grace period.

Upromise Loan Link is a unique plan offered by Sallie Mae for benefit of the borrowers. The borrowers can join their Upromise program and get rewards for everyday purchases from participating companies. This way they accumulate savings. By Upormise Loan Link they can have their savings transmitted automatically to pay for their loans. It is convenient to join Upromise and doesn’t cost you anything. As you apply you are required to register your grocery, gas, and credit cards and then start savings by buying from participating merchandisers.

The payoff of having interest rate lower just by fraction of a percent is that it can result in savings of hundreds of dollars during the span of the loan. The interest rate of consolidation loan remains frozen for the term of the loan and a little lower rate of interest can result in considerable savings. There are no fees or bills for consolidation of Federal loans and there is no penalization for prepayment. Sallie Mae has several repayment plans - standard, graduated, extended, and income-sensitive. In the standard plan monthly repayment instalment remains fixed for the duration of the loan. In graduated plan the instalment is lower at the start and increases step by step at predetermined intervals. There are several options in graduated plan. Repayment in income-sensitive plan is based on monthly revenue and is adjusted as the income grows. The extended plan can extend the term of the loan to 25 years for qualifying loans.

After consolidation of loans the borrowers’ advantages that went along with the initial loans are lost. However the borrowers’ benefits of consolidation loans are available after loans are consolidated. Sallie Mae student loan consolidation is simple and easy to apply, and is backed by tremendous repute of Sallie Mae. In addition, expert, professional advice is available without any cost.

AES School Loan

AES School Loans and Their advantages

AES or American Education Services is a division of PHEAA – Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency. They offer federal student loans for college and higher education. The college level loans offered by them are broadly known as aes college or school loan. The loans are furnished by some 400 loaning collaborators.

Applicants from all places can apply for aes college loans. The students do not have to give back the loan while they're in school at least half-time. After completion of the course of study a grace period of 6 months is given before repayment starts. There is no pre-payment penalty. All the same, citizens and students of Pennsylvania can get loans with further benefits. For instance any student desirous of enrolling in college graduation course can apply for Stafford loans, but residents of PA and those studying in schools located in PA can apply for Keystone BEST Stafford loans and avail aes benefits. These benefits can result in substantial savings for the students that have to repay loans after graduation. These benefits include 1 % credit on successful completion of graduation course. There is 0.25% decrease in interest rate if the borrower makes arrangements for direct debit payment of instalments automatically. As a matter of fact this last mentioned benefit is applicable for all loans across the board except for alternate loans where terms could vary according to particular loans. Continuing with the benefits for Keystone BEST Stafford loans, 0.5 % credit is given on the original principal loan balance after 24 months provided 24 successive payments have been made timely. For residents and students of DE and WV, aes BEST Stafford loan is available. In this loan, in addition to the benefits given to Keystone BEST Stafford loans, there is additional benefit by way of 2% reduction in interest rate after 36 consecutive on time payment.

Other loans provided by AES include Parent PLUS loans which are provided to the parents. For all loans the student must have submitted a FAFSA. Parent PLUS loans are given to the parents and the loan amount covers 100 % cost of education minus any other financial aids given to the student. For residents and students of PA there is Keystone PLUS loans for parents with some additional benefits. These benefits include 1% rebate of the loan amount after 24 successive payments timely and 1 % additional rebate after 48 consecutive payments on time. Select loaners can offer some further advantages.

Graduate PLUS loans are also available that are given to students for higher courses after graduation. Students and residents of PA can get Keystone PLUS loans with additional benefits. As in the case of Keystone PLUS loans for parents the benefits for Keystone PLUS loans for students include 1 % rebate after 24 months on 24 consecutive timely payments and 1% further rebate after 48 months on 48 consecutive timely payments. More benefits could be available from individual lenders.

The benefits given by aes school loans and higher education loans can result in significant monetary savings for the students and residents of PA. More information will be available on their website :

www.aessuccess.org/

Consolidation Federal Loan School

Consolidating school loans is a worry for several people who have availed several education loans.

There are various benefits of consolidating not only education loans but other loans also. There are some disadvantages as well about which the concerned persons should be knowledgeable. Possibly the biggest advantage of debt consolidation is that the management of debt or loan gets simpler. Several loans will have their own repayment amounts and schedules. If you've taken several loans it will be a difficult task to remember each of them and arrange for repayment of the instalment of each loan. By consolidation of loans, be it education loans or other types, just one repayment schedule is computed. The borrower has to think of only this one schedule and it renders it more manageable. Consolidating school loan could be little more tedious than other loans. This is because a large volume of education loans are either federal loans or federal supported loans. For consolidation of federal loans you've to access your original lenders or other government agencies. As you know while working with federal agencies the standard operating procedures have to be followed thoroughly and this may take some extra time. The result is that the work gets done the right way even if takes a little longer.

What are other benefits of consolidating school loan? Well, the repayment term can be extended for consolidation loan. The monthly instalments will vary with the period of repayment, but it's generally lower than total monthly instalments of the original loans that were consolidated. The borrower can use his options to select a repayment term that's suitable to him. Does this mean that the borrower has to pay out lesser amount in totality? Not necessarily. It will depend upon few factors including the duration of loan repayment. If the borrower selects, say, 30 year period against 10 year period of the original loans, he will be paying interest charges for the prolonged period. Even if repayment instalment sum is low, the pay out by way of interest could be significant. In the end the borrower has to pay much higher amount though he gets relief in monthly instalments. Consequently the borrower has to make a choice – higher immediate relief with bigger overall payout over longer period, or higher instalments with lower total payout and faster culmination of repayment of loan.

During the period of consolidation loan the interest rate is normally fixed which will normally be lower than rates of interest of original loans. But then by consolidation of school loans you lose some of the benefits that original loans could have given you. For example certain loans can be forgiven before completion of their terms. But if that loan is one of the consolidated loans this particular relief will not be available. The agencies consolidatiing school loans provide certain benefits to the borrowers. The recipients of consolidation loan that repay thier instalments in time could be eligible for such benefits. Though it is convenient to approach the original lender for consolidation of loans, this is not mandatory. You can go to other authorised agencies also. But you can have only one agency for consolidation of all eligible federal school loans.

ACS School Loan

ACS school loan

ACS or Affiliate Computer Services is a Fortune 500 company that renders information technology outsourcing and business process outsourcing to numerous business concerns and government departments. ACS services Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) on behalf of various banking companies and financial organizations. Few of the loans serviced by ACS are Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans and Consolidation Loans. ACS is not a loaning institution but provides services connected with loans to lending institutions. You can apply for ACS Student loan consolidation straightaway from ACS website. All school loans are not consolidated by ACs and they have specified the loans that they can consolidate. Particularly HEAL (Health Education Assistance Loans) loans are not consolidated by ACS.


Federal student loans can be consolidated only during grace period or after repayment starts. There are no fees for consolidation of loans and no penalties for earlier payment of consolidation loans. Private loans cannot be consolidated with Federal loans. Interest for consolidation loan is derived by taking weighted average of rates of interest on the loans being calculated, rounded to closest eighth. It stays fixed for length of the consolidation loan and cannot surpass 8.25%.


The full term of the consolidation loan can vary from 10 years to 30 years depending on the total owed balances of all school loans, regardless of whether or not they're included in consolidated loan. Four types of repayment plans are available for ACS student loan consolidation. In the standard plan repayment instalment amount remains frozen for the length of the loan. Another plan is graduated repayment in which the monthly instalments continue to increase at pre-determined intervals. This way there will be less burden on the student borrower at first who's just completed the educational course. The instalment amount will grow as the student starts earning more as expected and is able to pay the higher instalment amount. Then there is income-sensitive repayment plan in which the payments are aligned every year based on the anticipated income of the borrower. The last plan is extended repayment plan which is available for borrowers with $30000 or more loan sum. Therein plan the normal term of 20 years can be extended to 25 years.



Consolidation of loans is a convenient way of dealing with them. With all the loans consolidated into one loan you've to worry about only one repayment agenda very month. The rate of interest of consolidated loan is figured based on weighted average of individual loans being consolidated. At any rate it cannot increase 8.25%. Higher term of consolidation loan figures out to lower monthly instalment as compared to the total of monthly instalments of separate loans before they were consolidated. However it should be understood that for longer term of loan the interest has to be paid for longer time. Over period of time this can mean higher pay out even with low interest rate. Considering all the factors it's better to have ACS school loan consolidated than to address each school loan individually.


Full information on ACS school loan consolidation can be found on their website and by getting through to them on telephone numbers given in their website:


www.acs-education.com/CS/Jsp/consolidation/conHome.jsp