College students are often cautioned to avoid private https://loansbear.com/cash-loans-in-st-charles-md-20603/ unless absolutely necessary, urged instead to take advantage of all other financial aid options first.
The advice is sound. Generally speaking, private student loans, which are offered by banks, credit unions, and other private lenders, don’t offer the same level of borrower protections and benefits that government college loans do.
As a student, you should seek out grants and scholarships first — money for college that you won’t have to repay — before taking on college loan debt. Then, if you’re still going to need college loans, you should, in general, make sure you’ve maximized all your available government loans before you consider taking out a private student loan.
Interest Rates & Repayment Options
Federal education loans have fixed interest rates and more flexible repayment terms than private loans. The Department of Education offers income-based repayment options that keep your monthly payments at a figure you can afford, repayment extensions to give you more time to repay, and loan deferments and forbearances that can temporarily postpone your college loan payments if you’re facing financial hardship.
If you go to work in the public sector, you may also be eligible for the discharge of some or all of your government loan debts.
With private student loans, on the other hand, your interest rate is almost always variable, and private lenders aren’t required to provide the kind of repayment flexibility that comes standard on federal college loans.
The current foreclosure crisis that began mushrooming, in part, because of adjustable-rate mortgages should be enough to make anyone leery of adjustable-rate loans on anything.
But it’s worth keeping in mind that when interest rates are low, as they are now, adjustable-rate private student loans can have a lower interest rate than their fixed-rate federal counterparts.
If you have excellent credit, or if you have a parent or co-signer with excellent credit, you may qualify for the lowest-rate private college loans, which currently carry interest rates that are as much as 3-percent to 6-percent lower than the rates on federal student and parent loans.
Interest rates are destined to rise as the economy continues to recover from the recession, so private loan rates won’t always be this low, but if you or your parents are in a position to pay that private student loan off relatively quickly, you may be able to save money over a government-issued college loan.
