Beginning next month, the two largest federal college-loan programs, Stafford and PLUS, will go from variable to fixed interest rates. Still, you should shop around for student loans.

Lenders can’t go higher than the fixed interest rate: 6.8 percent for Stafford and 8.5 percent for PLUS. However, they can go lower; many will, in the name of competition for students’ business.

Many lenders will reduce the interest rate by 0.25 percent if they can automatically withdrawal loan payments from a customer’s bank account.

Sallie Mae and My Rich Uncle Student Loans are just two companies that have special offers.

When looking for a good rate, students should first check their schools’ list of preferred lenders.

Students who go to a school that is not a member of the Federal Family Education Loan Program cannot shop around. If a school gets loans directly from the government, students have to borrow from the Education Department.

Source: ohio.com

This entry was posted by Taman Siswa on Sunday, June 25, 2006 at 4:16 pm and is filed under College Loans, Education News. Tags: College, College Loans, Education News, Loans, Student, Student Loan, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.