Consolidate to cut your student loan costs
The countdown’s begun and you have less than 30 days to take a decision. Of course, as they say, consolidation is not for everyone and you have to weigh the options available to you before you decide. However, if you do think you need to consolidate your loans, then don’t think much longer — you cannot afford that privilege any longer. College students and graduates—and their parents—have until June 30 to save themselves thousands of dollars on their outstanding educational loans.
If you have already taken federal educational loans, you can still benefit. All you need to do is take advantage of a certain legal quirk that allows debtors to lock in last year’s low interest rates before they jump by almost 2 percentage points on July 1. If you are still in school, you can cap payback rates on loans you’ve already taken out at a fixed rate of no more than 4.75 percent. If you let your existing loans continue to fluctuate with treasury rates, you’ll be charged 6.5 percent starting July 1. Usnews.com reports:
Those who don’t consolidate will have to fork over some serious coin. The average student borrower graduates with about $20,000 in debt these days. Graduates who don’t consolidate will very likely see their monthly payments jump from today’s $216 to $233 in July. At that rate, the graduate would pay $2,140 more over the typical 10-year life of a loan.
Read more: You can cut your student loan costs
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