Monday, December 24, 2007

Student Loan Consolidation Rules

In the United States both the Federal Family Education Loan ProgramFFELP) and the Federal Direct Student Loan Program (FDLP) include consolidation loans that allow students to consolidate Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans, and Federal Perkins Loans into one single debt.


This results in reduced monthly repaymentsloans, consolidation loans have a fixed interest rate for the life of the loan. Consolidation loans have longer terms than other loans. Debtors can choose terms of 10–30 years. Although the monthly repayments are lower, the total amount paid over the term of the loan is higher than would be paid with other loans.


The fixed interest rate is calculated as the weighted average of the interest rates of the loans being consolidated, assigning relative weights according to the amounts borrowed, rounded up to the nearest 0.125%, and capped at 8.25%. Some features of the original consolidated loans, such as postgraduation grace periods and special forgiveness circumstances, are not carried over into the consolidation loan, and consolidation loans are not universally suitable for all debtors.

Student Loan Consolidation is a practical repayment tool that bundles all your federal school loans into one loan, significantly reducing your monthly payment. To calculate your monthly savings, try our student loan consolidation calculator... Read more >>
( and a longer term for the loan. Unlike the other