Saturday 31 October 2009

Getting a Student Debt Consolidation Loan

Student debt consolidation loan means having the multiple student loans replaced with a single loan with a lower monthly payment scheme to be paid over a longer repayment period. Though a student debt consolidation loan is beneficial, it is important to know its pros and cons before signing up for one. The huge students’ loans have an impact on your future decisions and on your credit history.

There are many types of student loans, but the most common student loans are the private and federal loans. It is not advisable to go in for student debt consolidation loan by mixing these two loans together. Instead, it is better to consolidate the federal student loans and then the private loans, separately. This is because when consolidating both these kinds of loans, the federal loan benefits will all be lost.

However, the private student loans are more lenient in their requirements for debt consolidation. There are not that many rules to follow if you choose for student loan debt consolidation. However, you may have to pay a little more as your monthly installments here because of increased interest rates. So once you opt for student loan debt consolidation, you are rid of the headache of making numerous payments every month. With student loan debt consolidation, you have to only pay a single payment. Moreover, this amount is usually lower than the installments you had to pay for all your loans clubbed together.

Friday 30 October 2009

Some Key Fact to Know About the College Student Loans

The resource of funds for a college loan does not change the expectations of the student who is awarded that loan. Every lender of a college student loan has certain obligations.

Every lender of such a loan needs to supply the borrower with certain information. For example, anyone who receives one of the college based student loans should receive a detailed repayment schedule.

A person who is awarded one of these student loans should also be provided with information about the balance owing on the loan and the payment options. Once the borrower has paid the loan in full, then he or she should get written confirmation of that fact.

A student provided with money through a college student loan should look into the possibility of getting a graduated payment schedule. Some private lenders of college student loans allow or early repayment of that loan, without charging a prepayment penalty.

While any student can request deferment on a loan, or forbearance on a loan, the student making that request cannot assume that it is granted. The student must continue making payments on his or her college loan. Moreover, the student must keep the lender informed of any changes to his or her vital information.

A student can maintain a reputable credit score if he or she fulfills all the above-mentioned obligations.

Thursday 29 October 2009

Are You Confused for Student Loan Repayments?

Once graduation completed and grace period starts you should begin searching for a job. If you have obtained student loans during your college studies, grace period will be the best time for you to choose a Student Loan Repayment. It is important not to panic about paying back the debt you owe. It is important that by using a trustable student loan payment calculator you will be able to find the best repayment plan available to work with.

The student loan repayment plans available are designed to help students to repay their loans in the most flexible way possible, on a case to case basis. The followings are the most popular types of loans.

Level / Standard Repayment Plan

Graduated Repayment Plan

Income Sensitive Repayment Plan

Extended Repayment Plan

As understood you should choose a repayment plan based on your financial capabilities.

The other thing is that consolidating student loan debts is wise for any student that has obtained more than 1 student loan and owes more than $7,500 in total. Student loan consolidation programs help you reduce the interest you are supposed to pay and help you get a fixed rate. It is always clever to compare a few offers from at least 3 different lenders before consolidating loans or applying for one.

Wednesday 28 October 2009

Some Tips Regarding Student Loan Consolidation

You have invested a lot of time into college, and now you have graduated. You now have an opportunity to put all that learning into practice. But, what about the student loan? Today, student loan consolidation is becoming more and more necessary. Read some tips for student loan consolidation given below.

By consolidating a student loan, you basically put all of the separate loans into one big loan. This in effect makes it possible to get better rates. This is so, because more you borrow, the less interest you have to pay.

There are benefits and negatives when you consolidate a loan.

Below we have mentioned some of these benefits and negatives are:

Benefits:
1. If you have several federal student loans, you can get a better rate by putting them into one student consolidation loan.

2. It is a big benefit of student loan consolidation is that it is easier to manage. Student loans that come at various times in the month can really cause havoc on your finances. Having a repayment date for one loan makes life easier.

Negatives:

1. The problem with the time thing is that if before you found it easy to deal with small amounts of loans that is spread out, one big loan may not help you.

2. Secondly student loan consolidation is not available to everyone. So if you have less student debt, then you may not be able to consolidate your student loan.

So you have to do is to do some research regarding this before choosing one particular student loan consolidation program.

Tuesday 27 October 2009

How to Save Money – 20 ways

Saving money is at the heart of all of your financial goals. Want to get out of debt? Want to save for retirement? Want to just make ends meet each month? Here are 20 ways to save money.

Computer Screen savers does not reduce energy consumption. Automatic switching to sleep mode or hibernate is better.

Consider buying a laptop. They use less energy than desktop computers.

Consider buying LCD monitor. They use less energy than CRT monitor.

Stop renting the cable modem. You can buy a cable modem for cheaper cost in the future.

Plug your computer and other electronic into a good UPS. So can save money by not buying a new circuit board that is fried.

Use open source software like Linux Operating System and Open Office.

Upgrade an existing PC rather than buying a new one. Usually it is cheaper to upgrade. But if your computer is very old, you need to buy a new one.

Use low energy light bulbs, compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Clean your AC air filters. A dirty air filter reduces airflow, causing it to work harder and use more energy.

Look dishwasher for the ENERGY STAR label that uses less water and less energy.

Defrost freezers. Frost buildup decreases the energy efficiency of the unit.

Go to work by using bus, or maybe riding a bike.

Check your engine and tire pressure. Having unequal pressure can greatly affect the car's fuel economy.

Avoid rush hour traffic as much as possible. Stopping in traffic can burn up lots of gas.

Drive at constant speed to save gas.

Use the correct grade of the oil which tells about the viscosity. If you use the wrong grade, you may increase the friction in your engine, and uses more gas.

Saturday 24 October 2009

Information about Student Loans

You have seen that for many students, the dream of getting a higher education just isn’t possible without the financial aid of a student loan. Fortunately, there are many opportunities out there to apply for and receive a student loan and also give you all the knowledge you need to choose the best student loan for you. Below is some information I have given on regarding information about student loans.

There are two types of sources for getting student loans generally such as: the federal government and private financial institutions, such as banks. Both require repayment of the loan, but that’s where the similarities end. Let’s take a look at both federal and private student loans.

1. Federal student loans are sponsored by the government and account for the biggest chunk of educational loans.

Federal loan programs mainly contain the parts as: The Perkins Loan, The Stafford Loan, and The Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students, also known as PLUS.

A big advantage of this type of student loan is that it covers any remaining balance not covered by other forms of aid – in essence the loan limit covers your entire educational expense.

2. Second type is private financial institutions such as Banks. This is a loan from a financial institution that takes into account your creditworthiness, not your need for aid. Your credit is reviewed by lenders and if approved, you can get a substantial size student loan in minutes.
As I have mentioned above, you have several choices when it comes to student loans. Make sure that you choose the best option getting informed on these choices, and picking to student loan that best fits your needs.

Great Ways to Student Debt Recovery

So you are studying on student finance schemes & about to leave your college. You might be getting worried over how to pay for the student debt you owed as soon as completing your education. It is not your problem alone as great many students face the same dilemma after their education gets over. Here are given a few words of suggestion & tips that will prove useful in paying off debt thereby leading to complete student debt recovery.

Consider Saving Money
At the first instance the idea of saving money sounds attractive but it is not easy enough. More than that such money saving idea never strikes any student’s mind. Even if you’re in college or recently completed your education you can get a lower paying job or seek employment on a part-time basis in your locality so that you would be in a position to pay off your student debt installments with your paycheck.
Understand the Financial Aid Process
Take time off to honestly analyze your financial situation while you're still in college, or have recently graduated. Some sort of financial aid always contributes to majority of student debt comes from some sort of financial aid. By apprehending your financial status, you can make an organized payment plan. You can consult with your financial advisor if you’re on a financial aid.
Be Responsible & Stop Throwing away Money
Not all student debt is a result of taking out money to aid in the education process. Many students find themselves in debt due to irresponsibility. If you're caught up in the “college life” and you're throwing dollars around every chance you get, stop and think about the debt burden you owe.
Recover from Student Debt
By following the above mentioned steps like saving money, understanding your personal financial situation, and avoiding money overspending, debt recovery can be achieved easily.

Friday 23 October 2009

Student Loans for Unemployed Students

Student loans are usually given at a low interest rate as it is strictly meant for education purpose. Students normally take the student loan for a particular time period and amount depending upon their specific requirement. They take only that much amount that they would be practically able to pay back. Student loans can also supplement scholarships, grants and personal savings.
There are broadly four types of student loans depending on their source:
1. Government Student Loans – Government student loans are issued by the Department of Education and are granted directly to the students. The students need to repay the loan with interest only after their studies get over. The government student loans usually give students a low interest rate. The amount of money a student can borrow is usually decided by the lender.
2. Parent Student Loans – Parent student loans are issued to the parents of dependent students. Here the parent is liable to make the repayments on completion of his/her child's study.
3. Private Student Loans – Private Student Loans are generally issued by private institutions like banks, lenders, etc. Like other student loans types, they finance the studies of the student by granting a loan, which is to be repaid on completion of the studies. Here rate of interest is found higher than the government student loans.
4. Other Loans - Other sources of student loans could be something like a home equity loan, which offers tax benefits.
The interest rate varies on the basis of secured or unsecured loans. For the secured loans interest rate is usually low and it is taken by a parent and family house is used as security. While in unsecured loans interest rate is slightly high.

Thursday 22 October 2009

Ongoing Effort to Save Student Loans in US

As the economy enters into a deep recession phase, the global financial market is feeling the heat inclusive of the education financing sector. Student loans have become beyond the rich of everybody as anybody can hardly pay for the more than tripled price hike in the premiums available on bonds in the last one year. It somehow encourages loan investors to look out for safest assets that can return value for their investment.
As one solution to the problem, the Treasury Department in US plans to create a conduit to buy existing and new student loans from banks. To support this endeavor, the conduit will then issue asset-backed commercial paper.
During the economic crisis, the student financing market has been in turmoil. Since May, the Education Department has been lending money to banks and buying up student loans. This initiative has helped with some of the securities, but lenders have been unable to refinance the older loans.

The Treasury Department in US has taken a bold new step in an attempt to give away investor’s fear & give them reassurance that the securities that are backed by student loans will remain liquid. Once this new conduit begins functioning smoothly, it's anticipated that the Education Department's efforts, which were originally planned to be temporary, will cease.

The Education Department's program was helpful, but rather limited. It was only extended to lenders with cash on hand. Under the new arrangement, when the conduit purchases old loans, many of the lenders who had been forced out of the action will be able to return.
The previous student loans management program as run by the Education Department was useful but rather restricted. It was only aimed at to extend support to lenders with cash only. Under the new provision, when loans will be purchased by the conduit, most of the lenders who had been out of action for quite some time can get back to work further.

Tuesday 20 October 2009

Consider over Reasons for Avoiding Debt Negotiators

The debt-settlement companies or debt negotiators usually engage in deceptive marketing practices and do little or nothing to improve consumers’ financial impending. Following tips will help you avoid such debt negotiators & manage your borrowing in a successful manner.


There are very few debt settlement negotiators out there that are reliable enough. They charge astronomical fees which could go towards paying creditors or in some cases an attorney.


Most of the debt settlement companies prefer to advertise themselves as "law firms" & not non profit organizations because the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has been going after these people. They are actually profit based organizations who keep debtors guessing as to where their money is going & never provide them with the credit counseling they claim for.

What these companies do is suck you in with millions of dollars in advertising and promise you so many things they can not usually do such as:

1. To get your creditors to forgive, stop, lower or delete interest, over limit and late charges which is quite impossible unless you enter into a settlement with your creditors for a hefty amount or they offer you concession as available in severe hardship conditions.


2. That they can get lawsuits stopped. Some of these companies will send really nasty threatening letters to the creditor’s attorneys trying to "bully" them into stopping or dismissing a lawsuit and the chances of that are very slim to none.


3. When they promise to settle your debts for "pennies on the dollar" Well, this is not impossible but highly unlikely. They might get your debts settled for .50 on the dollar at BEST, but why pay a company 100's SOMETIMES 1000's of dollars to do the SAME thing you could have done by hiring out a local attorney who almost charges the same.

Friday 16 October 2009

How to Get out of Debt? - Learn The Tricks!

At one point in my life I was under heavy debt. So I know how it feels when your phone won’t get any respite from answering creditors’ umpteenth number of calls. You make excuses to pay by this day which again gets postponed to some other day. I had a hard time during that period. But somehow I was able to overcome that obstacle. Since the tips worked for me, I feel that can work for any of you under debt. If you are spending sleepless nights spent by getting worried about how to come out of your debt, then the following tips are just for you!

Make a list of your debt amount

It might sound weird, but often we get a momentary respite after paying one debtor just to realize that we have someone else to pay too. So the purpose of making a list is to get all of your debts in one place as well as some of the interest rate that goes along with it.

Starting working on your debt

Instead of getting worried, it’s worth trying to find out ways to get rid of your debts. If you have to worry about your debt, set aside 30 minutes every day for worrying, and schedule the next 30 minutes to actually work on getting out of debt.

Schedule one day to pay bills

Set aside one day every month where you just focus on paying all your bills and taking care of everything. Again, this will allow you to spend a lot more of your time focusing on fixing the problem and earning more money as opposed to worrying about the logistics of how to get out of debt.

Thursday 15 October 2009

Advice on How to Avoid Debt

Thanks to the expansion of the credit economy, most of us are now buried under in one way or the other. Some of the most commonly considered debts are credit card debt, house loans debt, and student debt. Debt situation gets worse when you are unable to pay off the debt in time and the interest rate keeps on mounting. After certain time duration, the debt amount becomes so high that it’s almost tough to pay it off. At that time legal action can also be taken against you.

So to avoid such extreme condition, it’s very important to start paying for your debt early. In case of any delay, contact your creditors and intimate them about any late payments. It is also important to record all payments that have been made and also the future payments that are to be made. To make things simpler, all documents and accounts should be organized, and a budget that you can stick to should be made when dealing with your debts.

Consulting an expert would be the best option, if you have any kind of debt issues in reference to your local area. Some usual areas consist of credit card debt, bank loans, property loans, college loans and rental debts. The essential point to understand here is that you can easily find support for any kind of debt issues, and that you are not alone in these kinds of situations. All you need is a right suggestion to go ahead and solve the debt issue.

Wednesday 14 October 2009

How to Get a Waiver on Student Debt?

Student loans take care of most of our educational expenses during our tenure as students. But usually after six months from graduation you need to start repaying your government student loans. You can stretch the time period to an additional six months period but not more than that. But you can get a partial waiver or a full pardon of your debt payments provided you meet certain requirements. But for that you need to have a thorough idea about the kind of student debt that can be waived. It’s because all student debt can not be waived.
Only government student loans and certain private subsidized student loans can be waived. There are circumstances under which the government has reasons to partially or totally overlook student debt. The idea is that the borrower compensates the forgiveness by providing certain services that are otherwise hard for the government to get. Private student loans can be renegotiated, consolidated but not waived completely. Thus, you need to analyze how is your debt composed in order to see if you can benefit from a student loan waive or you should resort to other debt reduction and elimination means.
Once your education is completed, you can start your working on your choice of profession. There are certain careers that will provide you with this benefit as the government needs those professionals working on specific places. Among these professions you’ll find: members of the armed forces, teachers working fulltime on certain districts, special education teachers, etc. which will help you to access the debt waiver. Those of you have gone through law school, if you undertake a law enforcement job as a prosecuting solicitor or work in correctional offices, you’ll be eligible for a partial or full waiver on your student debt.

Tuesday 13 October 2009

Consolidate Student Loans: - Is It a Good Option?

Many of you might be wondering if consolidated student loan is a good option or not? Well, Student loan consolidation is a great way to reduce the debt especially when you have finished your studies but yet to get into a job. With education getting expensive, most students have no other way than to rely on student loans to take care of their educational expenses. But things get worse when they fail to payoff the debt. The interest rates keep on increasing which makes the matter even worse.

The principal of the loan will not be affected in consolidate student loans, but students can lock in the interest rates to a fixed rate so as to reduce their monthly payments and make it substantially better. In this way, you can reduce your monthly payments by up to 40 percent. In addition to this, you can also stretch out your payment time to decrease your monthly payment amount even further.

Consolidate student loans are similar to housing refinancing loan scheme in many aspects. However, for consolidate loans, during the initial six month grace period; you must start making your payments right away. Otherwise it might be difficult especially in the cases where you are still jobless even after completing your graduation. Although you can wait until just before the grace period ends to consolidate and still receive the lower rates. Only hitch about consolidated loan is that once you have consolidated your student loans, you can’t un-consolidate them again under any circumstances. Hence, it’s recommended to consider your choice carefully before opting foe consolidated student loans.

Monday 12 October 2009

All about Student Loans

Today quality education comes with a price tag. Right from the school days, parents find it hard to meet the various educational costs. That’s why students in colleges prefer to take help of student loans to fund their education. In fact student loans are the most preferable options for many students pursuing higher studies in undergraduate, graduate, medical, law or research oriented courses.

Student loans basically take care of all the fees like tuition fees, dormitory fees, canteen fees, and library fees and in addition they are also used to buy computers, books and other educational materials. Of the three types of loans, federal student loans allow the students to obtain loans in comparatively lower interest rate. The interest rate can even be lower than the national interest rate can also be consolidated after the student graduates, thus allowing the student loan repayment plan a bit longer time. But there are several federal forms to be submitted while applying for loans.

But in private student loans, there are no federal forms to be filled. But students have to submit their credit histories. However, the interest rate here are a bit expensive than federal loans. In parents’ loans, parents apply to encompass any additional cost for their child's financial aid which is not covered under general student loans. The interest rate is fixed in such loans.

Saturday 10 October 2009

Student Debt: - An Issue to be Considered Seriously

Many people take student loans for granted and don’t bother to pay it off in time. They feel student debts can hardly put them in bankruptcy condition. Although it can’t but it can certainly put you in bad credit situation. If you don't pay off your debts, this bad credit can haunt you the rest of your life. Bad credit report means no new car, no new home, and virtually no hope of ever borrowing money from creditors again which is a pretty serious matter. Hence if you have taken the debt situation lightly until now, it’s high time to take it seriously.

Ignoring your student debts won't make the debts go away. Rather the debts will worsen your credit score and your selected best rate credit application will get rejected. Even if you manage to get a credit, you will have to pay more for high interest rate and generally you won't be able to enjoy the best option. In addition, delaying the payment could generate more substantial costs in the form of interest and penalties. These costs will be added to your existing debts to make the burden of debts even higher.

There are various ways to handle your debts. Consolidation loan package at the best interest rate will meet your finance needs. By consolidating all student debts under your selected consolidation loan, you could save some money in term of interest rate and it makes easy for you to handle one loan repayment instead of multiple debt payment. Debt consolidation agencies are another option to handle student debts.

Student debts are no jokes, hence take it seriously and get rid of it with your best efforts.

Friday 9 October 2009

Student Debt: - Can they be Re-consolidated?

Can student debt be re-consolidated? This is quite a discussion topic these days. But unfortunately, there is no unanimous answer to this question. Considering the flexibility of financial market, re-consolidation might not be a rule but certainly an exception.

Student debt reconsolidation depend a great extent on the type of student debt you have. For federal student loans, re-consolidation is possible but only once with a few exceptions. But for private student debt, there is no restriction on how many times you can consolidate your debt. However, if your objective is to obtain better interest rates or to reduce your monthly payments, then you will experience more limitations even with private student debt.

There are certain circumstances where federal student debt can be re-consolidated more than once. For instance, if you have obtained an additional federal student loan only after any of your earlier student debt consolidation was completed, then you will be able to add the new federal student loan to the previous consolidated federal student debt loan and consolidate it once again.

If for some reason you had to leave a previous loan out of the student debt re-consolidation process but you want to include it later, then you can consolidate your student debt once again by combining the outstanding consolidated student debt loan with the previous unconsolidated federal student loan. However, this is not a common scenario and occurs rarely.

Thursday 8 October 2009

Guidelines on How to Save Money

Looking for ways to save money? The following discussed tips will be helpful in your money saving initiative.

Start early
Sooner or later, saving is a must. But if you start from early period of your income days, it will help you become financially secure earlier. The saving should start in your twenties ideally. At that stage, you have less responsibilities and family obligations, so you can save more. As time progresses, your income level will increase in direct proportion to your expenses. Of course, your income level in twenties is not same as that of in fifties. And even if you start out saving 10 percent of your after tax income. As you get raises and bonuses, if you stick to the same 10 percent savings, over time, your savings will only grow up.

Automate savings
To strictly adopt the savings procedure, automate your savings. Many payroll providers such as ADP and Paychex provide an auto transfer feature directly to your savings when you get paid. It’s really simple and moreover, you won’t have worry about how much money you need to keep aside for savings. For instance, if you elected to transfer 10 percent of your income to your savings on payday, 90 percent of your after tax dollars would go into your account and the remaining 10 percent would go to your savings account automatically.

Savings often depend upon three primary factors. Like the amount you save, the interest rate of return and the length of time you save. Hence the sooner you start the better.

Wednesday 7 October 2009

Various Aspects of Student Loans

Today, the overall cost of private as well as public colleges are increasing steadily and students desperately try to find out means which will help them fund their education. Student loans are a good option to support their education. These educational loans are used to pay for tuition and other expenses needed for colleges and universities. These loan options are for undergraduate degrees, graduate degrees, and even specialist programs, such as medical or law school.

A student loan can take care of the tuition fees, and can also be used to buy computers, books and other educational materials which are generally needed by a student. The principle behind a student loan is the student loan repayment scheme. As per the scheme, the repayment to the lender must start, with interest, within a certain time frame after graduation.

There federal student loans, private student loans and parent loans are the three main types of student loans available. Federal loan has the advantage as federal laws regulate the interest rates charged for these programs. You can get federal student loans at specified interest rate, which is usually lower than the national interest rate and the loan can also be consolidated after the student graduates, allowing the student loan repayment plan to fall under one large umbrella.

But in private student loans, a student has to submit his credit history. However, there are no federal forms to be filled. The interest rate are a bit costly than federal loans. And in parents’ loans, parents apply to encompass any additional cost their child's financial aid or student loans won't cover. The interest rate is fixed in such loans.

Tuesday 6 October 2009

New Repayment Scheme for Student Loans

In this period of economic slowdown, it’s not easy to pay off the student loans. As per an estimate, the average starting salary for college graduates down 2.2 percent this year. Hence students are having a tough time in affording their student loan payments.

Here is good news for students. Starting from July 2009, students with federal college loans can qualify for a new government program that can reduce the monthly payments on their loans based on their income. As per the income-based repayment program, if the borrower's income is at least 50 percent higher than the current federal poverty line for the borrower's family size, then borrower’s monthly student loan payments will be at a percentage of his monthly income. If the borrower's adjusted gross income exceeds 150 percent of the poverty line, then 15 percent of the borrower’s adjusted gross income is deducted.

Based on a borrower's federal tax return from the previous year, the Income-based monthly payments will be adjusted on a yearly basis. If your income rises, so will be your income-based repayment cap. And when the income-based repayment cap reaches a level higher than what your monthly payment would be under a standard 10-year student loan repayment plan, you can no longer qualify for income-based repayment scheme for student loans.

For those of you who hold subsidized student loans or a federal consolidation loan that included subsidized Stafford loans or Perkins loans, the government will cover any unpaid interest on those subsidized loans for the first three years when you are in income-based repayment. And the longest that you as a borrower can remain on the income-based repayment plan is 25 years.

Saturday 3 October 2009

How to Avoid Debt in Retirement

Life post retirement is completely different than it was before retirement. You are put into a sudden fixed-income lifestyle. Many of us also plan to travel extensively, pursue our long cherished hobbies or engage in some other leisure activities post retirement. But the financial constraints often push many senior citizens to approach financers and creditors and before they could realize they found themselves in heavy debt.

It’s easy to get credit from financers. Many credit card companies even offer unsecured credit to seniors with a lifetime of good credit account. But usually these credit amounts have higher interest rates. Often when you fail to payoff the credit will land yourself in financial mess, it will lead to serious debt condition which can lead to stress, anxiety and might even force you to set aside your retirement dreams and get back to work.

For many senior citizens, the primary source of income post-retirement is typically the interest received from a lifetime of savings. If the interest income is not sufficient to meet all your needs, you can try new ways to bring in more income even at retirement. There are many avenues like electronic gadget workshop, Internet business, gaming parlor and many others like this. You need to find something as per your interest level, something you will enjoying doing. In this way you can increase your income and avoid getting into the debt trap. Plus, this additional work will keep you occupied.

Friday 2 October 2009

Know the Basics of Student Loans

Student loans is a convenient options for those who opt for higher studies but often fail to arrange the required capital to fund their anticipated study programs. Often the period of study might stretch to several years which is another major constraint to meet the expenses. However, there are many financial institutions that are ready to help students for their education programs. Taking student loans is easy, but it’s tough to meet the payoff deadlines. Hence, it’s very much essential to get a clear idea about various student loans and their down payment structures.

There are two major categories of Student loans. The first one is the Federal Loans, which are otherwise known as government sponsored loans. Schools, banks and other student loans lending institutions generally offer federal loans. This type of loan generally carries fixed, low interest rates.

Private Loans are the other type of student loans. Also known as known as alternative education loans, are granted by private lenders. The interest rates of private loans are higher than federal loans. But unlike federal loans, here no forms need to be filled. Moreover, you do not need prove your financial problems for the amount of the loan and there is also no maximum limit. However, you have to show a good credit score to avail this loan facility. If your credit score is not good enough, then getting a cosigner of high credit standing to support your application may achieve those extra benefits for you.

Thursday 1 October 2009

Common Student Debt Related Issues in UK

Every year, information sources are highlighting the issue of rising student debt in the UK out of proportion. The only difference lies in the statistics of reported numbers of students. Higher education in UK is now treated more like typical debt problems, rather than the students’ career investment.

Student Debt Issues

The high costs associated with higher education and student loans and related debt issues, have forced many especially those from lower income group & international students to seriously re-consider their intentions to pursue higher education from a university in the UK.

Student Debt Increases

Rising student debt has put a question mark on the operational efficacy of the UK higher education support machinery. In addition to this, students have also reported issues with information transparency and implicit complexities, which worsens the UK’s student debt misery further.

Student Debt Implications:

* Part-time employment is sought as an immediate solution to the increasing costs of education and decreasing the students’ debt. This is surely going to affect the objective of their education and other academic activities.

* In fear of contributing to student debt problem further, some even stop taking up any higher educations.

* Doubt arises in mind of students on various lucrative loan schemes, as offered by various UK universities & they start weighing criteria mentioned in them for taking up admissions.

* A substantial proportion of students have already started taking a university as a bad investment option, all in reference to the huge increase in student debt in last few years. There is a recent trend of increased trade-off between borrowing money from the local market & utilizing it for student debt.


* Implementation of strategies that could really cut the higher education fee and thus restrain debt problems, have restricted the learning choices available these days.


A prospective student’s attitude towards education related debt problems is to raise eyebrows on the competence and functioning of student debt relief and support systems. If the student debt support system is efficient, then the implications may not be severe & permanent.

Tips on How to Avoid Debt

Debt is certainly avoidable if only we restrain our spending habits. After all, debt doesn’t happen overnight. It is our spending habits that lead to debt. If only we could recognize those habits, we could save a lot of money and also save ourselves from the clutch of debt.

Here are some very common yet mostly ignored points about our spending habits discussed below.

It might sound weird, but most of us have a habit of spending more money than we earn. You might be wondering how is this possible, but if you analyze, you will find this fact is true. There are ways like borrowing from others, dipping into savings, and using credit which help us spending more money than we bring in. As you spend money using credit cards and taking out loans, soon your credit cards will be maxed out, and you can't borrow any more money.

Many of us have the bad habit of using credit cards even for ordinary purchases. The appeal of credit cards is the ability to pay later for items that you buy now. But using credit instead of cash is a bad habit, more so when you don't pay your credit card bills in full each month. Hence for your everyday purchases like groceries, gas, clothes, and entertainment, you should use cash instead of credit cards.

When you use one credit card to pay off your other cards and loan payments, you're not paying off anything actually. It’s like using debt to pay off debt because when you use debt to pay off debt, you end up in heavier debt than you were in the beginning.