Tips for a Student Loan Refinance

By Michael Considine

These days, most students finish their education with a degree and a whole pile of loans to pay back. Usually, there are multiple loans from more than one lender at several different interest rates. If this is the position you are in, you may want to look into student loan refinance.

Basically, when you refinance your student loans, they are consolidated with one lender. Usually, this is at a lower interest rate. You may also extend the length of time you will take to pay the loan back. With both these options, your monthly payment will then be reduced. If extending the length of your loan, however, you will pay more in total by the end of your repayment.

The best time to refinance your student loans is while you are still in your grace period. You will generally have six months upon graduating before you need to start paying your loans back. Do your research and decide on a loan company before you begin repayment for the best deal.

So many offers will come to you in the mail, as well as those that are advertised online, it can be difficult to decide where to go. You will need to look over the offers carefully. Some could actually end up costing you more money. Make sure that the company you decide to go with is properly licensed. It does not hurt to ask friends who have graduated before you and may have been in a similar position for recommendations.

Write down all the loans that you have and their interest rates. The loan consolidation companies will ask you for this information. If you have both Federal and private loans, you will want to consolidate them separately. Federal loans normally have a much lower interest rate so if you join them with your other loans you will lose money.

Request a copy of your credit report. Loan decisions are partially based on credit history. If yours is bad, you will probably not be offered as good an interest rate. Do what you can to improve your credit rating before you go through your consolidation process.

As you are comparing different programs, ask about what types of incentives they have. There are often discounts available for making automatic payments. Paying on-time is another way you may be able to save. Usually, there is a set number of on-time payments you need to make to qualify for and retain the discount.

Do you research carefully ahead of time, as you can normally only refinance your loans once. You need to be sure you have the best deal you can get. Also observe the customer service you are receiving. Some companies are impossible to get on the phone, for example.

Student loans are easy to accumulate as you are going through school. Most of us take them out without thinking too much on the future. But the day of repayment comes sooner than you think. The six month grace period after graduation flies by quickly. Do yourself a favor and begin looking into a student loan refinance before that day comes.

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