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Direct PLUS Loan for graduate/professional students

admin — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 22:00:03 +0000

Direct PLUS Loans are unsubsidized loans available to graduate/ professional students to help pay for educational expenses up to the cost of attendance minus all other financial assistance. Interest is charged during all periods. For the past 3 years, many young people who are unable to find jobs or find jobs that are in the fields of their study have decided to go back to school to get advanced degrees. Doing so could put them in a better or worse situation. Unless you’re certain of your choosing field of study has a high employment demand, it’s not guaranteed that you’d be better off than you’re now in 2 or 4 years.

In the past, most graduate students in liberal arts or science, technology programs received funding from the school. During the tight budget time, schools are cutting back or simply no longer have the funds to finance graduate students. Many entering students choose to get loans to pay for their advanced degrees. You must conduct enough research before you do that. If you still have undergraduate loans and the new loans that you’ll be acquiring could let you to many years of repayment even if you find a job right away.

What is Master Promissory Note (MPN)?

admin — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:08:03 +0000

The student loans and processes have been getting more complicated. Most of us don’t know what MPN. It stands for Master promissory Note. The MPN is a promissory note that can be used to make one or more loans for one or more academic years (up to 10 years). There are two types of MPNs in the Direct Loan Program: one for student loans and one for parent PLUS loans.

If you are a student borrower under the Direct Loan Program attending a school that is authorized and chooses to make multiple loans under the same MPN for more than one academic year, you will only sign one MPN for student loans. It will be used for all of your Direct Subsidized Loans and Direct Unsubsidized Loans over multiple academic years. For example, if you enroll in college as a freshman and borrow under the Direct Loan Program for all years of study, you may be able to borrow under this one MPN for all years.

If you are a parent borrower under the Direct Loan Program whose child is attending a school that is authorized and chooses to make multiple loans under the same MPN for more than one academic year, you will only sign one MPN for parent PLUS loans. It will be used for all of your Direct PLUS Loans for that particular child over multiple academic years.

Source: U.S. Department of Education

Make sure you make your student loan payment on time

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 03:22:58 +0000

Just like mortgage payments, student loan repayments need to be on time also. Your loan servicer will provide information about repayment and will notify you of the date loan repayment begins. In most cases, your loan payment will be monthly. It is very important that you make your loan payment on time every month. You should treat it as your mortgage payments even if you don’t have mortgage payment yet. If you don’t pay your mortgage payments, you could end up with bank foreclosures. If you don’t pay your student loan payments, you could end up in default, which has serious consequences.

Many new grads don’t realize that the student loan payments are as real as it gets. This might be the most serious financial commitment you’ve made so far. Stick to it and pay it.

Source: ed.gov

There are some loans are ineligible for consolidation

admin — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 22:40:47 +0000

Although most education loans are eligible for consolidation into a Direct Consolidation Loan. There are some private loans that are always ineligible for consolidation. So before you take out any student loans, consider your options and study all fine prints. It’s easy and tempting to get the loans before you enter the programs and thinking it’ll be easy to pay them off later on with good salary. or some of you might think that you’d worry about that later on.

It’s not the same any more. Students who graduate in bad economical times often find themselves looking for jobs and finding none or they’d have to take jobs that are low payed. Many recent graduates find themselves just in that situation. So before you sign any loan papers, talk to a professional. Here are some loans that will not be eligible for consolidation:

Loans made by a state or private lender and not guaranteed by the federal government
Primary Care Loans
Law Access Loans
Medical Assist Loans
PLATO Loans

Source: U.S. Department of Education

Students: save money in your first year of university

admin — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:41:22 +0000

You will have probably heard that your first year of university will be a financial struggle – with mounting debt, the costs of rent and food, it is essential that you do all you can to save yourself money.

There are many ways in which you could save money during your first year of university. Here, we will take a look at just a few:

Find discount vouchers

This is an excellent way for you to save money on your shopping – and sometimes even get things for free. Vouchers are often handed out in shops, round city/town centres but the best place to get vouchers is definitely on the web. There are various websites that offer vouchers and codes, all you need to do is download them!

Vouchers to look out for include:

Buy one get one free vouchers
Vouchers entitling you to money off certain products
Free trial vouchers, etc.

Vouchers codes can help you reduce the amount you spend on your shopping, which should help you lower the amount of debt you graduate with.

Be careful how much you spend on nights out!

Many students like a drink at university, and you may too – but it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. When I was at university, a few of my friends had actually got into debt paying for nights out over the term (using their overdrafts to fund their social life) – so that is definitely something to avoid!

A good way to save money on nights out is to find bars with promotional offers on. Some bars will offer free drinks to the first 100 people who go there, or even £1 specials on certain nights of the week. However, just because they cost less, you shouldn’t drink more – know your limits and always drink responsibly!

Finally, at the end of the night, a lot of students pay for taxis back to their houses/halls of residence – this can often cost in excess of $40, so why not share the taxi with a group of friends, if 4 of you got a taxi home, it would only cost $10 each. On the other hand, why not nominate a driver for the night? (someone who doesn’t drink for the night). That way, you won’t need to pay taxi fares and could save yourself hundreds of pounds throughout the course of your degree, meaning you will lower the overall amount of debt you are building up while at university.

This student debt guide on ThinkMoney.com’s website is really helpful if you are looking for more info and tips on managing your money at university.

Some federal education loans are eligible for consolidation into a Direct Consolidation Loan

admin — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 02:11:27 +0000

If you have several student loans and are overwhelmed by the payment, you need to consider the option of consolidating. If you have a federal education loan, you can consolidate it into a Direct Consolidation Loan. The subsidized loans that can be consolidated are:

Subsidized Federal Stafford Loans
Direct Subsidized Loans
Subsidized Federal Consolidation Loans
Direct Subsidized Consolidation Loans
Federal Insured Student Loans (FISL)
Guaranteed Student Loans (GSL)

Source: Department of Education

There are some student loans you can’t consolidate

admin — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 19:07:41 +0000

This is the perfect time to consolidate your student loans. The rates are low and you won’t see this kind of rates once the economy starts growing again. While most federal education loans are eligible for consolidation into a direct consolidation loan including subsidized loans and unsubsidized loans. There are a few exceptions that some students loans are always ineligible for consolidation.

While these loans may not be included in a Direct Consolidation Loan, they may be considered in the calculation of the maximum repayment period under the Graduated or Extended Repayment Plan. These include but are not limited to the following:

Loans made by a state or private lender and not guaranteed by the federal government
Primary Care Loans
Law Access Loans
Medical Assist Loans
PLATO Loans

So if you are still in school and are planning on taking out more loans or going to Medical or law school, study your options.

Source: U.S. Department of Education. www.ed.gov

Once you leave or graduate your school, you have 6 months grace period

admin — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 01:51:45 +0000

Did you know that when you leave school which includes graduating, withdrawing, or dropping below half-time attendance, you have 6 months of grace period before you have to make student loan payments. This applies to direct subsidized and unsubsidized loans.

But be very careful with one scenario:

There’s no second grace period. If you have an in-school deferment on a Direct Subsidized or Unsubsidized Loan and you have used the 6-month period, there will be grace period. You will be required to make payments right away, whether you graduated, withdrew, or dropped below half time.

Source: Department of Education

Student Direct Loans are better options for you

admin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:35:18 +0000

If you are thinking about taking out student loans, look into the option of Direct Loans. Unlike private student loans, the lender of student direct loans is the U.S. Department of Education instead of a bank or other financial institution. These loans usually have lower rates.You borrow directly from the federal government and only need to contact on Direct Loan Servicing Center.

There’s no need to call different servicing centers even if you receive the loan at different schools. You will have online access to your Direct Loan account. Here comes the best part of these loans which is that you can choose from several repayment plans and you can switch repayment plans if your needs change. For example, if you lose your job and need to modify your repayment amount.

Source: US Department of Education

You have the Borrower Grace Periods no matter what the lender says

admin — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 00:12:06 +0000

You are graduating, or you have graduated for 3 moths and yet there’s no sign of a full time job. You’re still hunting for that job and you’re losing sleep over the upcoming payment of your student loans. You are worried that someone from the lender will call you soon and you will receive a written notice.

Regardless what people tell you, there’s a Borrower Grace Period.
Here’s what it stands for: after you graduate, leave school, or drop below half-time enrollment, you have a period of time before you have to begin repayment. This “grace period” will be

Six months for a Federal Stafford Loan (Direct Loan Program^SM or Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL^SM) Program).
Nine months for Federal Perkins Loans.

It does offer some relief in a bad economy such as this one, but you will still need to find that job soon.

Source: studentaid.ed.gov