Guide to Consolidating Student Loans at a Fixed Rate

Does school never end? If you are like many former students, you may be struggling under one or more private student loans. One way to save yourself some money and some hassle is bringing all your private student loans under one fixed interest rate plan

Gaining Control

What if all you private student loans were rolled into one bundle? Then you would have only a single monthly payment, to a single lender, at one a single day of the month, at a single fixed-rate interest, and with a single maturity date, or pay-off date. Cool? Yes? Yes.

Lower Payments

If you are smart, when you approach a lender to consolidate your loan, you will finagle a good fixed low interest rate. And your payment to that one lender will be substantially less than the two or multiple payments you were wrestling with earlier, especially if you extend the maturity date.

Fixed Rates

Many student loans when made initially had interest rates that fluctuate with the expediencies of the lending markets and prime rate considerations. With a fixed interest rate, you do not have to worry about the markets. Once you have a rate locked in, your loan stays at that interest rate through the life of the loan. This means no unexpected surprises for your monthly budget.

Credit Rating

Here is another factor in favor of private student loan consolidation -- it can improve your credit standing. Having a bunch of outstanding debts on your credit report does not look too red hot to prospective lenders. What looks really good is a number of debts responsibly retired. With a private student loan consolidation, a better score can be yours.

Federal Student Loans

One downside is that you will probably not want to pull your federal student loans into the same consolidation package, because federal loans usually carry terrific interest rates that may be hard to duplicate in the private lender sector. If you have one or more federal student loans, you may want to consolidate them first. A private lender who sees that you are managing your finances well by doing that, will probably be more willing to lend you money to cover your private loans.

Credit Cards

If you are like most students, school perhaps caused you to incur rather hefty balances on one or more credit cards. If you can prove that those debts were education related, you can probably have those included in your private student loan consolidation plan as well. Your lender should be willing to work with you on this. This would be quite helpful because credit cards carry pretty high interest rates. Again, getting these off your credit report with a paid-in-full designation will only help your credit record.

Negotiating Your Interest

If you are really wise, you will go online and download a free weighted-interest rate calculator. Take it and enter the interest rates and other details across all you outstanding private student loans. This will give you an average of what you are paying in interest. This gives you a negotiating point. You want to get at least the interest the calculator specifies, but talk your way into one lower if you can.

Worth The Effort

Consolidating your student loans may seem like pretty much a hassle. It is worth it just in terms of piece of mind and bringing a little order to your financial life. Of course, what is wrong with having a little bit better cash flow in any given month? That alone is reason enough to opt for consolidation.

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Are Student Loans Still a Good Bet?

In the mid- and late-1960s, there was no doubt among U.S. public policy makers that the federal government should be encouraging more citizens to attend and graduate from college.

Bolstered by the success of the highly popular GI Bill, which paid college expenses for military veterans, federal student loans were hailed as a "GI Bill for all Americans." These low-interest loans allowed students from modest means to attend college in numbers never before seen. The college graduation rate, which had hovered around 7 to 8 percent, steadily climbed to today's rate of nearly 30 percent.

Backing the idea that higher education is nearly universally better than entering the workforce straight out of high school were statistics that showed that college graduates, on average, would benefit from as much as $1 million more in lifetime earnings than students who didn't graduate with a post-secondary degree.

At the same time, however, the cost of a college education began to rise much faster than the rate of inflation, meaning that families began to have to devote more of their overall income to paying for college costs. With annual college tuition climbing into the tens of thousands of dollars, college expenses have outstripped even generous incomes, and students have had to turn increasingly to college loans to pay for their education.

Today, about two-thirds of college students take out student loans to help pay for their education. These students leave college with an average of $23,186 in school loan debt, according to FinAid.org.

This figure is less than the average cost of a new car in 2010 ($29,217), and most new car loans are paid off in five to six years, with an interest rate comparable to the rates on federal education loans.

So why are so many people concerned about the cost of college loans?

Simply put, not all college loans are created equal.

Federal education loans are issued directly by the federal government and carry a fixed interest rate, along with flexible repayment terms and multiple options for postponing or reducing one's monthly payments based on one's financial circumstances. Federal college loans are generally low-cost, low-pressure loans.

Private education loans on the other hand, which are issued not by the government but by banks, credit unions, and other private-sector lenders, are variable-rate, credit-based loans that typically carry higher fees and rates than their federal counterparts. Private student loans also offer much fewer, if any options, for financially distressed borrowers to be able to postpone or reduce their payments.

One major difference between a new car loan and a student loan is the deferment period. With a car loan, payments on the principal begin immediately. A portion of every payment is used to reduce the balance owed.

In contrast, all federal education loans and many private education loans allow students to defer making any payments while they're still in school. The repayment of the loan can be delayed for years while the student finishes school - with no delay of interest charges, however.

Except in the case of subsidized federal student loans - for which the government will cover the interest while a student is in school and which are awarded only to students who demonstrate the most financial need - interest begins to accumulate on college loans as soon as the loans are issued, even if a student is deferring payments.

This accumulation may take place over months or years, quietly running up the balance on a student's school loan debt to alarmingly high levels.

Families concerned with accumulating excessive college loan debt can always decline to take on any school loans. Federal college loans awarded in a student's financial aid package are always optional; students can turn these loans down if they have another financial resource and don't want to take on the debt of school loans.

Students forgoing their available federal college loans at the beginning of the school year, however, may end up passing on this government money only to see their financial circumstances change unexpectedly mid-semester. In cases like these, students may be forced to turn to private student loans to bridge the financial gap.

A good strategy for college students is to first seek out college scholarships and grants and then maximize their available federal student loans before considering a private student loan. Private loans should be considered only as a last resort and only for financial emergencies that arise during the semester that other sources of financial aid can't cover.

Students should develop a clear and detailed plan for how they're going to pay their college expenses for each year they attend classes, especially if they plan to decline the federal school loans in their financial aid packages.

Having a backup plan in place to cover unexpected financial emergencies can also help reduce the need for student loans, as well as the overall cost of a college education.

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