You may see loan offers coming to you even before you have your high school graduation. It might seem like it’s a blessing that you are receiving so many offers to help towards your higher education. However, you should think about the following tips before you get into a student loan.
Learn about your loan’s grace period. This is generally a pre-determined amount of time once you graduate that the payments will have to begin. This will help you plan in advance.
Always be mindful of specific loan details. You must watch your balance, keep track of the lender, and monitor your repayment progress. These details are imperative to understand while paying back your loan. It will help you budget accordingly.
Don’t eschew private student loans for financing a college education. While you can easily find public ones, they have a lot of competition since they’re in demand. Private loans are available, though perhaps not in the volume of federal ones. Look at these loans at a local college since they can cover one semester worth of books.
Know how long the grace period is between the date of your graduation and the date on which you must start repaying the loans. Six months is usually the length for Stafford loans. Others, like the Perkins Loan, allot you nine months. Other kinds of loans may have other grace periods. Be sure you know exactly when you will be expected to begin paying, and don’t be late!
Making monthly payments is often difficult for those whose budget is tight. There are loan rewards programs that can help with payments. Look at programs like SmarterBucks and LoanLink via Upromise. They will make small payments towards your loans when you use them.
To get more from student loan money, try taking as many credits as you can. Full time is 9-12 hours, but you can go as high as 8. The will assist you in reducing the size of your loans.
Never sign anything without knowing what exactly it says and means. You must, however, ask questions so that you know what is going on. This is one way a lender may collect more payments than they should.
It is very important that you correctly fill out all student loan documents to ensure the timely process of them. If you give wrong or incomplete information, it can slow down processing and you may not be able to start when you planned. This can put you behind by a year.
PLUS loans are a type of loan option for parents and graduate students. They have a maximum interest rate of 8.5 percent. This is a higher rate than Stafford or Perkins loans, however it’s better than most private loans. It might be the best option for you.
Make sure that you try to get scholarships when you go to college. Try and save money wherever you can, looking into grants or scholarships to help with the cost. The Internet is your friend here; you can find a lot of information on scholarships and grants that might pertain to your situation. Start your search early so you’re best prepared.
Stay connected to lenders or people that supply you money. This will keep you informed about the loan and aware of any stipulations to your payment plan. It is also possible that the lender offers you advice with regard to repayment.
Get an on-campus to help you make ends meet. Doing this can help provide you with money from a source other than loans to help pay for your education, not to mention that you also wind up with a bit of extra spending money.
College comes with a lot of choices involved, but most aren’t as important as what debt you take on. Borrowing excessively at high interest rates can cause serious problems. Therefore, keep in mind the advice in this article as you start your college journey.
This is a limited-time offer. We are not able to guarantee availability if you wait!
