After School: College Loan Consolidation Options
Michalis 'BIG Mike' Kotzakolios

Student loans offer people without the means to pay cash for an education a way to finance college costs and associated expenses. It’s not often the most desirable way to pay for college, but in many cases it is necessary. After all, who has $15,000 to shell out for one year of college study? Then, once your education is over, what can you do with your student loans?

College loan consolidation is a popular way to save money on student loans. If you take out a student loan to help pay for your education, chances are you took out more than one loan. A college loan consolidation takes multiple school loans and combines them into one. There are a couple of benefits to this. First, instead of paying separate loans, you only need to pay one loan once per month. Second, the college loan consolidation payment is often lower than the sum of the separate loans.

Why would one consider a college loan consolidation? Educational costs are extremely high. The total balances of one’s education loans can exceed the price of luxury cars and even houses. Graduating from college does not always translate to getting a high-paying job from the start. For many graduates in the workforce, student loan payments eat a large chunk of income, with little left for living expenses. A college loan consolidation can offer relief in the form of lower payments. A college loan consolidation can also offer relief in the form of lower interest rates. Interest rates can vary widely among different student loans. Chances are, at least one of your loans has a higher rate than what the college loan consolidation offers.

The bottom line is you can save money from a lower monthly payment, lower interest rate, lower total of payments, or a combination of the three. When you consolidate into a lower interest rate, you reduce the interest you pay over the life of the loan. Additionally, consolidating your loans can save you time. Juggling multiple student loans can become complicated. You have to keep track of which payments go to which lender. A mistake can cause you to underpay one loan while overpaying another. A consolidation eliminates this by allowing you to keep track of just one loan.

To really increase the convenience of a consolidation, you can have the monthly payment deducted directly from your bank account. As long as you know not to use that payment amount for other expenses, you needn’t worry about being late or underpaying your loan. As an additional incentive, many consolidation loan lenders offer further rate reductions for borrowers who take advantage of an automatic payment feature. When this incentive is offered, there really is no reason not to utilize an automatic payment feature.