What to Look for in a Student Loan Consolidation

The key lies in finding the best borrower benefit package (Typically rate reductions offered for on-time payments or auto-debit payments) with the least amount of small print and misinformation. There are so many marketing gimmicks out there; "no fees," "grace-period rate reductions," "principal reductions,"etc. Thankfully there are comparison sites, such as "Simple Tuition" that are helping make the search somewhat easier, while companies such as "theLoanster.com" are offering best-in-group benefit packages.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Financial Aid Administrators endorse rate decreases

Dallas Martin, President of the National Association of Financial Aid Administrators released a letter today endorsing the proposed Democratic plan to lower fixed rates on student loans by half over the next five years.

"On behalf of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA), representing student aid administrators at approximately 3,000 postsecondary institutions, I am pleased to inform you that NASFAA supports passage of H.R. 5 and we encourage all your colleagues to vote for the bill," Martin wrote. "Reducing total loan costs for subsidized Stafford loan borrowers is one of the most beneficial actions Congress can take. Cutting in half subsidized Stafford loan interest rates is a highly targeted policy providing financial relief to the neediest of our federal student loan borrowers."