Debt Consolidation

I had all these different student loans from college and was really worried about how to repay them all after graduation. There was the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program (Direct Loan), and several other loans under the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFEL), including PLUS loans and Stafford loans. After my grace period ends I am going to have to start making payments on all of them, which only gives me six months from graduation!

But then I found out that because of the kinds of loans I had, and my grace period had not expired yet, I qualified to have all my student loans refinanced with all new terms using a Federal Consolidation Loan. I had to do something because I could already tell that the combined payments were going to be way too much for me. Plus, dealing with all the different lenders was confusing, so I was glad to be able to reduce them all to one monthly payment that I could afford.

There were a few different options to choose from. I could pay the same low payment and extend the life of the loan out to as much as 30 years, but I really did not want to be paying on it for that long. I picked a graduated payment plan, because it starts out really low right now and I only have to pay interest; then, the amount goes up every two years. I figure, in a couple of years I am going to be making more money anyway, and this way the loan will be paid off faster. And, here is the gravy part: If my financial situation changes, I can change my mind and pick a different payment plan, how easy is that?

This was a lot easier than when I sat in the financial aid office at school and filled out all that paperwork. All I had to do was go on-line at loanconsolidation.ed.gov to find out the details about how it all worked, and then I applied on-line too. They gave me a login so if my information changes, like if I move, I can just go on-line and update everything right there. This is seriously one of the easiest things that I have done, and it has eliminated a lot of worry.