If over time you have accumulated multiple loans it may be wise
to consider consolidating those loans into one single loan.
There are a variety of ways in which this may be accomplished.
Student Loans Multiple student loans must be handled in
different ways depending upon whether they were funded
originally as private loans based on personal credit or as
federally insured loans. Private student loans may be
consolidated in the same way that any private loans are
consolidated. Federally insured student loans were placed with a
private institution but they were guaranteed against default by
the federal government. This type of loan has strict guidelines
about how and when it can be consolidated.
A federally insured student loan cannot be consolidated with
credit card debt or any other kind of consumer debt. Private
student loans may in some cases be consolidated with federally
insured student loans but doing so is highly inadvisable. Once a
private student loan has been consolidated with a federally
insured student loan it then falls under the same strict
guidelines as the federal loan.
Further, federally funded student loans will only be
consolidated at an interest rate equal to the weighted average
of the rates on all the loans being consolidated. At present
that rate is capped at 8.25% but with all interest rates on the
rise, this cap may soon be increased. In addition, loans must be
consolidated within a certain time period after the student
either graduates or leaves school without graduating. Also,
federally insured student loans cannot be consolidated a second
time unless a newly funded student loan is rolled in with the
loans that were previously consolidated.
Multiple Home Mortgage Loans If your home currently carries both
a first and a second mortgage you may want to think about
consolidating the two. This is especially true if your credit is
good and the interest rates on the current mortgages are more
than two percent higher than current mortgage rates. However,
there are other factors to be pondered when considering this
type of loan consolidation.
Refinancing your home carries certain closing costs. In order to
avoid having to pay any out of pocket costs, these closing costs
will be financed as part of your new consolidated mortgage loan.
You should examine the affect that the refinancing will have on
the cost you pay over the lifer of the loan. Consolidating your
home mortgage or refinancing that mortgage multiple times can
actually be more costly than just sitting with the current
loans. This is especially true if you will not be staying in
your home more than three to five years.
Multiple Personal Loans You would choose to consolidate multiple
personal loans for the same reason you would consolidate
multiple home mortgage loans; that is, if the interest rates you
are currently paying are significantly above the currently
available interest rates. Again, in order for a loan
consolidation of this sort to be viable, you must have good
credit and the cost of the multiple loan consolidation must not
outweigh the savings you would accrue.
About the author:
If you would like to read more of my personal articles like the
one listed above, please visit my
loan
consolidation blog. Thank you for your time, and I hope I
could be of some help!
