Friday, September 21, 2007

Find Out How to do College Loan Consolidation

For the good majority of those that have attended college, there are debts to be paid off after you’ve graduated. Tuition costs continue to rise and sometimes it takes more than one loan to pay for those additional costs.

When you’ve had your graduation ceremony, have or have not gotten a job, and six months have gone by you will be expected to start paying those loans back. A college loan consolidation can make that repayment easier on you and your bank account.

There are many companies and banks that offer student loan consolidations. These will take all loans that you have taken during your time in college and combine them into one lump sum. That lump sum will be given one interest rate that will often be less than the interest rate that you’ll get from the loan repayment plan you’re given when you’re close to graduation. You will be able to make smaller payments and work toward the ultimate goal of paying off your student loans.

As you are looking for a student loan consolidation company, be fully aware that there can be huge differences in how their program operates. Be sure to compare costs and interest rates especially. Also be on the lookout for those companies who charge a fee for early pre-payment of the loan they give you, which only serves to lock in the interest that they will be collecting from you on this loan.

Most of the loan consolidation companies will offer an interest rate that is preferable to the one you are paying. If you have more than one student loan, you are paying that interest rate more than one time every month. When it comes right down to it you may end up paying far more than the amount you borrowed if paid over a long period of time.

The consolidation loan will give you the benefit of only paying an interest charge one time per month. This interest rate may be 4 or 5% whereas the student loans that you will be starting to pay back at the end of your six month grace period may be 7 or 8%. Many of the consolidation companies will not have a penalty for early payment, but some of them might. Be sure to find out if this is a penalty before you agree to the consolidation. Be well aware of the details of your payback agreement before you sign the papers for the loan.

Each student loan consolidation company will offer something to appeal to you as a way to earn your business. Find the one that will work the best with your needs and will charge you the least amount of interest. This can save you thousands in the long run and make the payback of your student loan as simple and pain free as possible. Since your goal is to pay off your student loan, the last thing you want to do is rob Peter to pay Paul with another loan, which leaves you in the same situation you are now!

Debt Consolidation Services - How Best To Control Debt Collectors

Debt collectors ringing your telephone off the receiver and sending abusive letters can fray anyone's nerves, nonetheless you have various types of protection and many techniques available to you to deal with them.

Your options for dealing with debt collectors.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act sets guidelines for what debt collectors might or may not legally do when trying to collect a debt, they can not, for example call prior to 8:00am or after 9:00pm nor can they threaten to garnish money in states in which it's illegal or harass you with constant telephone calls if you tell them to stop, for more information you may access the Act at the FTC website.

As a result, you have considerable alternatives, you may simply refuse to accept the call, many modern answering machines allow screening of your calls before picking up and if you have telephone caller ID/call blocking you might be able to screen the telephone call out altogether. Should you elect to take the telephone call, you can demand that you not be contacted again in the future, and the agency is legally obligated to quit telephone calling, Should you've sent a Cease and Desist Letter.

Firstly, you should consider paying the debt, If you can and If you actually owe it, you took on the loan in good faith and the creditor is entitled to be paid, notwithstanding, If you are seriously short of funds, you may couple this with negotiating for a reduced rate. Should you adhere to the commitment, the phone calls will cease, debt collectors, despite their sometimes bad attitude, are just performing a service for which they get paid they may move on to others, once the agreement is in place.

Importantly, be sure you keep a diary of any telephone calls made or accepted, and note any different terms agreed to, note down if you've demanded they quit telephone calling you, especially should you have been telephone called at work, you may tape the call should that be legal in your state, sometimes it requires notifying the other person that you are doing so. Very few debt collectors will make any statement that's out of line, Should they know they're being voice taped, that recording or diary are often especially important, Should you have negotiated a reduction in the debt.

Most debt collectors have the ability to accept substantially less than they're asking for, naturally, since they receive payment a percentage of what they collect, they're going to try to keep the total amount as close to the initial total amount as possible, notwithstanding they may accept less should you press the point, a large majority of debt collectors know that 40% of $1,000 is better than 100% of nothing. Part of the agreement should include a commitment on the debt collector's part not to put any additional black marks on top of what could already be on your credit report. You should take that one step similarly and insist they report instantly any payments you do make and to adjust any total amount owed.

Acquire in writing the agreement prior to you sending anything more than a token good faith payment, it's ok to forward a little money to demonstrate the seriousness of your commitment to the agreement, forward too much and they have little incentive to make the effort to comply with the terms binding them.

Debt Consolidation - Understanding Credit And Debt

Debt consolidation involves transferring the balances from multiple accounts with relatively high interest rates to one account with lower interest. A debt consolidation loan does not reduce debt so much as restructure it in beneficial ways.

Debts are either secured or unsecured. Secured debts are tied to a tangible asset like a car for a car loan or a house for a mortgage. If a borrower stops making payments, lenders can repossess the car or foreclose on the house. Unsecured debts are not tied to an asset. The most common types include credit cards, medical bills and signature loans.

Debt and Credit

Most people get into debt difficulties because credit is easy to get and hard to control. Here are some warning signs that debt may be getting out of hand:

- you can only make the minimum payments on your loans and other debts each month.

- you apply for new credit cards to pay off old ones, thus rotating, but not retiring, your debt.

- you are near the limit on all your cards and accounts.

- you are being denied new loans because of your bad credit history.

- you have had to resort to bad credit financing.

The rule of thumb when using credit is known as the 20/10 Rule: Don’t borrow more than 20% of your annual net income and don’t let your loan monthly payments get higher than 10% of your monthly net income. For example, if you take home $4,000 a month, your total payments on credit debt should be no higher than $400 (excluding your mortgage and second mortgage).

Learn more about other steps you can take, in addition to debt consolidation, by visiting www.badcreditsecondmortgagenow.com. There, you can also get a free quote on a debt consolidation loan to see if it could be a step in the right direction for you.