Student Loan Consolidation Deadline Nears
June 16, 2006 - Posted in College Loans, Education News, Financial Aid, Student LoanJuly First could be a very expensive date, for anyone still paying off a student loan for college. Interest rates on federal student loans will rise by about two percent, but you can avoid the cost increase, if you take action quickly and consolidate your loans. The climbing interest rates have recent college graduates thinking about their loans. “A couple of weeks before I graduated, I started to think, those student loans are coming,” says Clarke College graduate John Thornton.
On July first, interest rates on students loans through the government will go from 4.7% to just over 7%. Rising interest rates on their loans is something that students have known about pretty much all year long. But just in case they missed the message, financial advisors on college campuses throughout the country have really been pushing the consolidation issue. “We posted announcements on our student porthole for students to be aware and we’ve also had some concerned faculty who have contacted their advisees and told them about that,” says Loras Collage financial advisor Julie Dunn.
In addition, Dunn says by now, graduates have received tons of information from companies that will consolidate and refinance the loans. For graduates like Thornton, paying off the debt is becoming a priority. “It’s pretty much one of the things that kinda rests in the back of your head that you really never think about…of course you have to when you graduate,” says Thornton.
Right now students enrolled in school can consolidate the loans they have before they graduate. However, after July first, that option will no longer be available and students will have to wait until after they graduate.