How Does Student Loan Consolidation Work?
Nowadays, the cost of higher education is getting more and more expensive. Some families may not be able to afford to send their son or daughter for further education. Getting a student loan will help.
There are 2 broad categories of student loans available. Government student loans and private student loans
Government or federal student loans are funded and administered by the US Department Of Education. It is classified under Federal Student Loans Aid Program. They have very few requirements other than you are studying in a US college or university. International students may also apply though approval is on a case by case basis.
Every year, the student loan aid program disburse nearly 60 billion dollars so it is a good choice for get a student loan from the government. Thus the interest rates are pretty low.
Private student loans are funded and administered by banks and other financial institutions. These lenders provide student loans at a higher interest rate compared to federal student loans. Some common student loans available are from Citibank and Sallie Mae
You are allowed to apply for both private and federal student loans for your education needs although I would not recommend it.
For some students who have a few student loans to repay concurrently, it can be a financial drain on their family finances. That is where student loan consolidation comes in.
Student loan consolidation basically consolidates all your student loans into one loan so that it is easier to manage and make payments. When you are getting a student loan consolidation whether from the government or the private market, your existing student loans are paid for and erased by the student loan consolidation lender. The balances are transferred to the new student loan consolidation. Thus you start a new loan and only needs to make a single payment each month.
There are many advantages to using student loan consolidation. The interest rates will be lower since it takes the average interest rates of your previous student loans. Thus due to government legislation, the maximum interest rate cannot be higher than 8.25 percent.
It becomes a lot easier to manage a single student loan and payment are easier. The repayment options are quite flexible. For federal student loan consolidation, you can opt to start repaying after you have graduated from school. There are also several other options.
Another beneficial side-effect of student loan consolidation is that it can also improves your credit score. Since you are effectively clearing all your old student loans and taking a new one, your credit score will increase and is important if plan to take other types of loans in the future.
Ricky Lim works in a finance company specialising in direct student loan consolidation. Visit his site for student Loan
Credit Repair: How Credit Scores Really Work
Not all Scores are Equal
There are many credit scores available, but the only one that matters is your FICO score. FICO, by the way, is an acronym for Fair Isaac and Company, the developer of the score. This is the score that virtually all lenders use. Other scores attempt to approximate the FICO score, but frequently vary by a significant margin.
One Score with Three Names
The FICO score may be referred to by three different names. This is because the three bureaus have branded it for their own marketing. Equifax calls it a BEACON score, TransUnion calls it an EMPIRICA score, and Experian calls it the EXPERIAN/Fair Isaac Risk Model. Because of this you will hear of three different scores, although they are all a product of the same formula.
Why Are Your Three Scores Different?
Your three scores are different because each bureau gathers information from a slightly different mix of creditors. If you were to look carefully at your three reports you will notice that some accounts are missing on each bureau. Timing also plays a roll. A recent change in your credit may be picked up sooner at one bureau than another.
What is Included in Your Score?
Are you working on credit repair? Be proactive. But in order to influence your score it is essential to understand how it works. Here is an overview of the contributing factors.
Pay History
Your pay history is the big ingredient. This category includes installment and revolving accounts, as well as public records and collections. The age of a derogatory item diminishes its impact on your score. The first step in the credit repair process is to examine your report for obvious errors in this category which makes up 35% of your score.
Balances
Your account balances make up the next category. The relationship between the balance and the credit limit on your revolving accounts is a major factor. Anyone involved in a credit repair effort should minimize their revolving balances as much as possible. The relationship between the current balance and the original balance on installment loans is also taken into consideration. This category makes up 30% of your score.
The Age of Accounts
New credit will have a negative impact on your score, and those accounts that you have kept alive and healthy for years have a good impact. Closing old accounts is a common credit repair error to be avoided. This category makes up 15% of your score.
New Credit & Inquiries
New credit and recent inquiries are a factor. Many credit repair candidates open new secured credit cards for the long term benefit. But generally, anyone involved in credit repair should limit new credit activity. Either way you will lose a few points on this one. Fair Isaac weighs this at 10% of your score.
Type of Credit
The type of your credit is the final 10% of the calculation. Fair Isaac won’t define the perfect mix of mortgage, installment, revolving, and consumer debt, but in our experience the key to a long term successful credit repair effort is to be a moderate user of credit, make your payments on time, and try to keep those revolving balances down.
False Credit
As you begin your credit repair effort it is important to have reliable information. Amazingly, the same three credit bureaus that sell authentic FICO scores to lenders also sell unreliable estimated scores to consumers. Every day untold numbers of consumers go to TransUnion’s “True Credit” website and pay for what they believe to be their credit scores. What they get are deceptively named “TrueCredit” scores which vary significantly from the FICO scores used by lenders. Here is the (almost impossible to find) small print from the TransUnion website. “TrueCredit is not connected in any way with Fair, Isaac and Company; the credit score provided here is not a so-called FICO score. The credit scores of TransUnion may not be identical in every respect to any consumer credit scores produced by any other company.”
Real Credit Scores
Are you starting the process of credit repair? Do you want to see your real FICO scores? MyFico.com is the only place that consumers can purchase their authentic FICO scores. Want to save some money? It is handy to know that mortgage brokers typically look at all three FICO scores when pre-qualifying you for a mortgage. If you ask, they just might give you a copy of your report along with all three scores. It can’t hurt to save a few dollars!
Copyright © 2007 James W. Kemish. All Content. All Rights Reserved.
Jim Kemish is the president and founder of Power Mortgage, a Florida mortgage company based in Delray Beach, Florida. Power Mortgage Corp was established in 1989 and serves the states of Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Virginia. Jim is also the President of Sky Blue Credit, a national credit repair business.
Fixing Credit Score – Disputing Accounts Doesn’t Work
There are outdated techniques for fixing credit score that are still being used today. The days of counting to 30 days and asking the credit bureaus to remove an account for not receiving an answer within that time window are almost over. This technique rarely works now. I found this out recently. I had been mailing dispute letters and getting no results.
My old information was leaving me frustrated and with no results. I had to look into information that was more updated and had a track record of working or I was going to have to hire someone to do it for me. I was in no rush to pay someone somewhere in the ball park to nine hundred to fifteen hundred dollars to clean my credit, with no guarantees.
Fixing credit score techniques that worked for me were still in the writing a letter idea. Except that they weren’t just letters disputing the account. There was more to the new techniques than saying it’s not mine. When you send dispute letters many times the accounts get confirmed and it becomes tougher to remove them. What I did was pick up new techniques that work with current credit reporting and collecting laws to help me delete or challenge the validity of the company collecting.
Here’s what I mean. Instead of disputing the account for some bogus reason and getting no results from my efforts I informed myself on legal technicalities that would give me the upper hand on the collection companies. I was able to dispute the accounts because the collection companies were re-aging my bad account and violating my rights. That is grounds for having the account cleared from your credit.
I also went right for the jugular and demanded proof from them that I owed the debt. If the company has nothing more than their own internal records, it’s not enough. They must produce copies of the original contract from the credit company. With so many companies merging and closing, it’s sometimes impossible for them to produce this documentation.
Now the laws are on your side. Take advantage of these technicalities and put your fixing credit score techniques to work. Not all collection companies are going to be this easy but you will be surprised as to how many don’t have the original documentation they need to collect from you.
I’m my case I have removed several collection accounts with this technique. Getting current information was the way to make the disputing work.
Credit repair techniques change. Using the most current techniques to dispute correctly has worked well for me. I understand my credit now and strongly recommend consumers understand this critical aspect of their financial life. There’s a lot of information out there. Below is what helped me the most.
Credit Repair Reviews
How to clean credit up.
Fixing Credit Score
Copyright 2010 Rene C. Alexander.
www.AttractiveCreditSecrets.com http Credit Repair, Increase Credit Score, Improve Credit Score, Credit Restoration, Free eCourse, FREE Credit Repair, Boost FICO Scores, Raise Credit Score, Fix Credit Scores Visit www.attractivecreditsecrets.com and receive a free credit repair…
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