All You Need to Know About Consolidate Student Loans

Do you have several questions in your mind like what are consolidated student loans? How to consolidate student loans? What is the best way to consolidate student loans? Should I consolidate my student loans? If yes, then you are at the right place. Here we will tell you all about consolidate student loans. 

Are you aware of the fact that more than 45 million Americans have student loan debt right now? Some people take only one student loan whereas some need to take several student loans to get their desired educational qualification. 

If you have taken several student loans then it might be difficult for you to repay all of them on time. You might also miss the repayment of some debts or you might not have enough income to repay all the debts on time. That is when consolidated student loans come into the picture. 

What are Consolidate Student Loans? 

If you have several student loans but cannot repay them on time then you can consolidate your student loans. This process makes the repayment easy. You can consolidate all your student loans into a single loan and then repay them in monthly installments. The interest rate on these loans is the average of all your student loans. You can consolidate both private and federal student loans.

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It has its own benefits and drawbacks. On one hand, all your student loans are converted into one big loan and you have to repay it in single monthly installments which makes it easy to handle and track. On the other hand, it increases your loan term and you might also miss on various other benefits like loan forgiveness. 

Pros and Cons of Consolidating Student Loans

It totally depends on you if you want to consolidate student loans or not and it has its own advantages and disadvantages. 

How to Consolidate Student Loans?

There are various institutions that provide consolidated student loan services. You can go to your local bank or any private service provider to consolidate your student loans. Different institutions have their own terms and conditions. There’s no one process for it. 

If you go to a bank then they will check all your credit details, your credit history, and all your loan details before providing this service to you. But if you go to any private institution then they might consolidate your debts even on bad credit.

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If you have taken private debts or are going to a private institution to consolidate student loans then you might have to pay some extra fees as well. It can be a one-time fee or a monthly fee. If you are going for a private consolidated student loans provider then you must do your research. See which service has a lesser fee and a low-interest rate. Then make your final decision. 

How to Consolidate Federal Student Loans? 

If you have taken some federal student loans then you can combine all these loans into one Federal Direct Consolidation Loan. This process will combine all your federal student loans into one. Your loan repayment will become easy. You will have to pay a monthly amount instead of several.

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You need to keep in mind that this would not decrease your interest rate but you would have to pay an average of all the interest rates on all of your federal student loans. This process might take some days. 

Here is the list of the steps that you will have to follow in order to consolidate your federal loans: 

• Collect all your important documents like your verified ID, account statements, student loan details, and other relevant information. You might also have to provide details of your income and other personal information. 
• Go to the website studentloans.gov and fill out the Direct Consolidation Loan Application and Promissory Loan. You can also go in person. You need to enter your full name, address, phone number, SSN, date of birth, and other required information. 
• Now submit information regarding which loan you would like to consolidate. Mention the details of those loans like when you took that loan, how much have you already paid, how much is left, the full name of the loan holder, etc. 
• Mention the details of the loans that you do not want to consolidate. 
• Read all the new terms and conditions carefully.
• Now sign and date the note. Your application would not proceed without it. 

How to Consolidate Student Loans with Bad Credit?

If you have bad credit then it might be difficult to consolidate your student loans but some private institutions might still help you with it if you do the following: 

• Improve your credit by repaying the current bills or loans on time. 
• Get a co-signer with a better credit history who can take the responsibility of paying your loan with you. 
• Increase your income, the more your income is, it will be easier to consolidate your student loans.  

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1- Should I consolidate my student loans? 

Definitely. If you find it difficult to repay several loans then you can consolidate your loans and make one payment monthly. It has several benefits such as all your student loans being converted into one, you do not miss the payments of several loans, it is easy to track, and you have to make one monthly payment instead of several. 

Q2- How can I consolidate my federal student loans? 

Go to the website studentloans.gov and fill out the Direct Consolidation Loan Application and Promissory Loan. You can also go in person. Fill out the form and mention the details of the loans that you want to consolidate and sign on it. The process can take some days.

Q3- Which banks consolidate loans? 

Many banks like Discover, SoFi, PNC, Citizen Bank, etc. consolidate loans. Do your research and choose the bank that has the best terms and less fee. 

Finally

If you are worried if you will be able to repay all your debts or not then you can consolidate student loans. Through this process, all your student loans will convert into one and then you can easily repay it with a single monthly payment. The process might take some time but it will definitely make your work easy.