Are you looking for certain inside information on government student loans statute of limitations sol

Overcoming Student Loan Debt Via Loan Consolidation

Six years after starting school your son or daughter has a Masters degree from a top notch university such as Brown, Duke, or Gonzaga. Years of hard work and reaching for their best has paid off as your offspring has landed a plum position with a research company in the Dallas area. That $50,000 per year starting salary certainly is competitive but your adult child has one big problem: student loan debt in the neighborhood of $106,000! Yes, school is done but much debt remains; enough so that it could take a full 20 years to retire his or her obligations.

Nobody wants to be saddled with too much debt, unfortunately many university graduates are faced with that proposition. Eventually, additional types of loans will need to be considered including loans for a new car or a first home; having student loan debt on top of it all of that can make it very difficult to make payments on that new car or house.

There are some options you need to know about at this point in the student loan repayment game. These options include:

A Direct Consolidation Loan Yes, chances are your adult childs student loans are through a variety of lenders making it difficult to juggle different payment due dates throughout the month. Thankfully, you can consolidate these loans into one payment to just one lender saving the hassle of sending out multiple payments throughout the month.

Variable Repayment Plans Unlike the standard student loan, borrowers can elect to repay their students loans by choosing a variety of repayment plans. If you consolidate your loan through the U.S. Department of Education, you have as many as four repayment plans available to you. These plans include: a standard repayment plan where your repayment amount stay fixed for ten years; an extended repayment plan where the monthly bill is lower but the repayment period is longer from 12 to 30 years; a graduated repayment plan where you have 12 to 30 years to repay your loan and where payments bump up every two years; and an income contingent repayment plan that is based upon your salary and can be spread out for as long as 25 years.

Of course, former students must know that if they choose a student loan consolidation loan at any time during their 180 day grace repayment period that starts upon their graduating from school, then the repayment on the consolidated student loan must begin at once. Therefore, if you are considering consolidating your loans you may want to time it so that you are either ready to make your first payment ahead of time or have the consolidated loan kick in after your grace period has expired. Yes, you may have to make payments to a variety of lenders until that happens, but once the consolidated student loan has been approved then you will only have to make one monthly payment.

So, who is eligible for a government student loan consolidation? Well, if you have at least one Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) or Direct Loan that is in its grace, deferment, repayment, or default status than you are eligible for this type of loan. In addition, you can consolidate a PLUS loan, a Perkins loan (provided that you also have a direct loan or FFEL loan too), and you can even consolidate some health profession loans.

Finally, in many cases you are allowed to change your repayment plan options as time goes by. Perhaps the standard repayment plan was working well for you, but you since married and had a child. You may find that mortgage payments are putting enough of a squeeze on your finances, therefore an income contingent repayment plan may be the best choice for you at this time. Regardless, you have some options available to you when you select a direct consolidation loan, options that several different student loans may not have made available to you.

So, should you consider consolidating your student loans? That answer is yes if you are looking for more options than what you have available to you now and you are looking to save money, reduce your hassles, or extend your repayment period. Please visit the U.S. Department of Educations student loan site at LoanConsolidation.Ed.Gov to learn more about the options which are currently available to you.

(c) 2006; You may republish this article to your website with the following author resource information and link left in place.

Matthew C. Keegan invites you to learn more about personal finances via his Credit Card Venue website.

More Useful Resource and Updates on government student loans statute of limitations sol

• Options for Reducing Student Loan Debt (Washington Post)
  When she graduates from Columbia University next year with a master's degree in public health, Erin Wheeler is hoping to get a job in international reproductive health.



• Recent college graduates fight load of debt (Blairsville Dispatch)
  Loan consolidation options are more limited now than they were for students who graduated college a few years ago. The U.S. Department of Education is nearly the only loan consolidator in the nation as many lenders have suspended consolidations because of the credit crunch.



• Student-loan consolidation choices shrink (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
  Kari Schoeneweis will face more than $60,000 in student loan debt when she graduates from Carlow University in spring. he plans to do what her older siblings did and consolidate her loans to reduce the monthly payments.



• Demand for student loans on the rise; cash is short (Austin American-Statesman)
  Carlos Richardson , a sophomore studying psychology at Austin Community College, hasn't had to take out student loans ? yet.



• Student-loan consolidation choices shrink (Centre Daily Times)
  Kari Schoeneweis will face more than $60,000 in student loan debt when she graduates from Carlow University in spring.



• Campus clips (Chico Enterprise-Record)
  Here are some brief happenings at Chico State University and Butte College: Money on Target for kids Students in Free Enterprise at Chico State received a $5,000 grant from Target.

• Creditloan.com - Student Loans
  Provides finance articles on student loans, including direct and government loans, tips, and advice.



• Can the Government Seize Federal Benefits To Collect Student Loans ...
  ... the federal government was withholding part of their sole source of ... eliminated the statute of limitations with respect to student loans and thereby ...



• Federal Student Loans: Terms and Conditions for Borrowers
  ... type of loan, the federal government establishes by statute the ... important to note that there is no statute of limitations on student loan collections. ...



• TUSDM: Student Handbook
  ... ADA, ASDA, offices of the Federal Government, and local, state and federal courts. ... that are in the sole possession of the maker and are not accessible ...



• liibulletin: Lockhart v. United States
  ... then the government will be able to collect overdue student loans by withholding ... any statute of limitations on collection of outstanding student loan debt. ...



• 07 Student Handbook
  includes grants, loans, part-time work, and scholarships. The estab ... 2. Promote student government through sharing of ideas and ...



• Eternal Student Loan Liability: Who Can Sue Under 20 U
  removed any statute of limitations for student loans. ... is no longer a statute of limitation on student loans, and none has existed since April, 1991. ...