Is A Student Loan Consolidation Or Federal Student Loan Consolidation Right For You?


With the cost of education going through the roof, going to college can be very costly. Many students don’t have thousands of dollars to pay their way through college. This is why so many college students use student loans and federal student loans to get themselves through college. When it comes time to pay back their student loans, it can be a real burden and a distraction from their career.

Today’s career minded students can get help with the burden of having several student loans. One can focus on their chosen career, instead of losing sleep over paying several monthly student loan payments. Student loan consolidation and federal student loan consolidation can be the solution with several benefits.

How Does Student Loan Consolidation Work?

Here is typically how a student consolidation loan works. When a student first applied for several loans from several different agencies and student loan providers, they each gave a different interest rate and term for paying back the loans.

The idea of student loan consolidation, is to take all the different student loans and put them into one easy convenient loan. You then only have to make one monthly loan payment every month, instead of several loan payments every month over time.

This saves the student both time and money. Having a lower interest rate and less checks to write every month are a couple of the many benefits of doing a student loan consolidation or federal student loan consolidation.

What About Federal Student Loan Consolidation?

There are several advantages when you get a federal student loan consolidation. You can take advantage of fixed interest rates, lower monthly payments, one payment each month, get payment incentives and new or renewed deferments.

There is usually not a minimum loan balance required with this type of loan program. Also, you have the option of which loans you may want to include and money saving payment incentive plans with some federal student loan consolidation programs.

Another benefit is that you can consolidate your undergraduate loans if you are still in graduate school. You can decide on what loans you want to consolidate from the loans that qualify.

However, federal student consolidation loans can’t include loans you may have received from banks, credit unions, personal loans, consumer debt loans or any other type of financial service loans you may have applied for in the past. They have to be federal student loans to qualify.

8 Helpful Benefits From Student Loan Consolidation

1. Lower Monthly Payments. Depending on your student loan situation and the type of lender you choose, you may be able to lower your monthly payments by up to 50%

2. Having Simple Loan Payments. By consolidating your student loans, you only have one loan payment per month and one check to write. This is very beneficial if you are writing several checks every month to multiple lenders.

3. Having Fixed Interest Rates. With some federal consolidation loans you can have a fixed rate for the life of your student loan. It’s best to do research to see what the best interest rates and term you are eligible for. You can check online to calculate the interest rate on a new student consolidation loan based on the rates of your current student loans. You can then round up to the nearest 1/8th of a percent of the weighted average of the interest rates on your eligible student loans.

4. Extending Your Payment Period. You may have a lot of student loan debt. With federal consolidation loans you may be able to extend the payment term up to 30 years. It’s a good idea to realize you will end up paying more interest over the life of your student loan consolidation. The idea is to get some leverage until your career takes off. You can focus on making money instead of several monthly loan payments.

5. In School Consolidation Programs. While still in school, eligible students can lock in a low rate. This would put you into repayment status, but since you are still in school, you are automatically put into deferment. The drawback of consolidating your loans while in school, is that you lose your 6 month grace period. The solution to this would be to request forbearance for up to 1 year on your student loan consolidation. Here again you can do some research and get more information online.

6. Lower Interest Rate. Student loan consolidation can save you thousands of dollars. You may be using credit cards with 12% to 28% interest trying to keep up with your bills. This can cost you thousands of dollars when you pay the minimum monthly payments on high interest credit card debt. Having a student loan consolidation may be your best option if you can get lower interest rates when consolidating your student loans.

7. New Interest Rates. With a new student loan consolidation, you may be able to get a much better interest rate. Interest rates are now at an all time low. You may have been paying on debt you built up from several years ago, at high interest rates. Things change over time in the financial industry.

8. Help Relieve Stress. With a student loan consolidation you don’t have to worry about several monthly loan payments and due dates. This in itself, can make a student loan consolidation worth your while. You can focus on your new career, instead of those nagging loan payments every month.

Student Loan Consolidation Services And Resources Online To Help You

You can get a student loan consolidation online quickly and easily. The Internet makes research and finding good consolidation loan programs. You can get done in a day, what used to take several weeks. You can learn everything you need to know from information sites that provide the latest news, resources, tools and data in regards to student loan consolidation and federal student loan consolidation.

With knowledge you can be empowered to get the best type of program for student loan consolidation. You can get loan quotes, rates and compare loan companies that are competing for your business. Dean Shainin is a consultant specializing in student loan consolidation. Get valuable resources, tools, information and more articles on student loan consolidation, visit this site: http://www.studentloanconsolidationtips.com

Written by Dean Shainin

4 Alarm Fire in Woodside

As the NYFD battles through the record snow fall to get to a burning auto body shop in Woodside Queens, the blaze escalates to a 4-alarm fire. With historic snow fall the fire department finds it even more difficult to get the blaze under control. Luckily the auto body shop was in a commercial section of Woodside and there were no houses adjacent to the fire. With the fire starting a little before 7:00 am Sunday morning tirering fire fighters still fight the blaze at 4 hours later. Luckily there were no reports of injuries due to the fire.

Written by A. Wallace

Blizzard of ‘06

As the first blizzard of the year rolls in, we brace for 1 to 2 feet of snow. Despite all the warnings all over the radio and TV there are many people still driving. The blizzard hit as hard as expected (we still have a few more hours to go before it is over), it has brought on many problems. Emergency service vehicles are taking longer to get to their calls, and concerns of power outages is setting in. The snow does not seam to be that bad to look at it, though due to low temperatures it is only a covering over a deep layer of ice making walking and driving dangerous. The blizzard has also brought on an unexpected problem, flooding. It seams that the on Beach 77th street in Rockaway Beach where the new homes being built, the entire street is flooded with as much as 7 inches of water in some parts. I am happy to say that as of yet reports of accidents due to the storm have been very low.

Article and photos by A. Wallace

Take Your Medicine

Have you or a loved one stayed in a hospital within recent history?

Just how much did the nurse giving you your medication know about the medication that she/he was distributing? Did you get it as prescribed? Was your medication handled in a sanitary and/or safe manner? If you don’t know the answer to all of these questions, then here are some facts that you need to know.

During a recent stay at Peninsula Hospital in Rockaway, N.Y., a patient wanting to know about the doses that a medication came in. This question came about when it was realized that a breathing medication that is normally sold to the public with 60 uses was given to the patient with less then 30 uses left. The medication was Advair, though not publicly known, the medication does come in a 28 for institutional use only. Upon questioning the nurse about the amount of uses left, the nurse revealed that she had no idea how many usages came in a disc. The nursing supervisor had to come in and be asked to in order to obtain an answer. During past hospital stays the same patient had to instruct the nurse on staff how to apply a medication that is given in the form of a patch, was asked by another nurse to open medication that was in a foil pack (the nurse could not open it) and was told to take a pill that fell on the floor (in front of the patient) then was picked up and handed to the patient. Naturally the nurse was informed to get a new pill. I know these situations to be fact because that patient was non other then my mother.

This brings up the question that if I was faced with the above situations and they took place in front of myself and/or other family members, what goes on when we are not watching? It is the hospitals responsibility to have someone distributing medications that has knowledge of what medications they are handling, how to administer the medication and handle it in a proper and sanitary manner. The hospitals are also responsible for the conduct of their staff and should take action when situations like this are presented. However they are not taking care of their responsibilities and leave it to us to see that we are properly taken care of. Therefore, if you or a loved one has to stay in a hospital, be sure to ask a lot of questions. Never assume that the staff knows what they are doing and if you do not get an adequate answer, get a supervisor or doctor to answer your question. Also ask why the nurse could not answer the question and be sure to follow up on what measures are being taken to train the staff to be able to provide patient’s with answers. Make any complaints (should they be needed) in writing. Verbal complaints are not worth the air needed to express them and will gain no results.

So take your medication, but know hat you are taking.



Written by

A. Wallace

Take Your Medicine

Have you or a loved one stayed in a hospital within recent history?

Just how much did the nurse giving you your medication know about the medication that she/he was distributing? Did you get it as prescribed? Was your medication handled in a sanitary and/or safe manner? If you don’t know the answer to all of these questions, then here are some facts that you need to know.

During a recent stay at Peninsula Hospital in Rockaway, N.Y., a patient wanting to know about the doses that a medication came in. This question came about when it was realized that a breathing medication that is normally sold to the public with 60 uses was given to the patient with less then 30 uses left. The medication was Advair, though not publicly known, the medication does come in a 28 for institutional use only. Upon questioning the nurse about the amount of uses left, the nurse revealed that she had no idea how many usages came in a disc. The nursing supervisor had to come in and be asked to in order to obtain an answer. During past hospital stays the same patient had to instruct the nurse on staff how to apply a medication that is given in the form of a patch, was asked by another nurse to open medication that was in a foil pack (the nurse could not open it) and was told to take a pill that fell on the floor (in front of the patient) then was picked up and handed to the patient. Naturally the nurse was informed to get a new pill. I know these situations to be fact because that patient was non other then my mother.

This brings up the question that if I was faced with the above situations and they took place in front of myself and/or other family members, what goes on when we are not watching? It is the hospitals responsibility to have someone distributing medications that has knowledge of what medications they are handling, how to administer the medication and handle it in a proper and sanitary manner. The hospitals are also responsible for the conduct of their staff and should take action when situations like this are presented. However they are not taking care of their responsibilities and leave it to us to see that we are properly taken care of. Therefore, if you or a loved one has to stay in a hospital, be sure to ask a lot of questions. Never assume that the staff knows what they are doing and if you do not get an adequate answer, get a supervisor or doctor to answer your question. Also ask why the nurse could not answer the question and be sure to follow up on what measures are being taken to train the staff to be able to provide patient’s with answers. Make any complaints (should they be needed) in writing. Verbal complaints are not worth the air needed to express them and will gain no results.

So take your medication, but know hat you are taking.



Written by

A. Wallace