Before you start to consolidate your debts, you need to make sure that you truly understand the financial impact of loan consolidation. There are numerous companies offering various types of loan, and even overall debt consolidation as the one size fits all fix to every debtor’s worries. Student loan consolidation is being offered as the quick and easy solution to all student debt-related problems.
Granted, consolidating your loans can be a quick fix to a number of complicated problems, especially when it comes to student loans. This act can quickly transform your student debt from a confusing mess of loans with multiple lenders, interest rates and loan types into one big loan with one interest rate and one monthly payment. Before anyone considers consolidating any kind of debt, they need to know what they are getting into. Loan consolidation can produce excellent benefits on the right borrowers’ financial portfolio, but it can also wreak long-term havoc on the wrong borrowers’ financial portfolio, as well.
When you have many differing loans with different lenders, you likely have different interest rates as well. Having these debts separate allows you the freedom to send greater amounts of money to the higher rate loans. This will help you pay down your debt faster, and result in a reduced amount of interest paid over the life of the student loans. Loan consolidation has different qualifications for certain repayment options. Keeping your loans separate for the appropriate time frame can provide greater flexibility in your repayment assistance.