As college graduation season comes to a close, the newly anointed degree holders will finally have to face a new reality – life with a hefty education debt.
By the time they graduate, about two-thirds of students at four-year colleges and universities have accumulated student loans, according to the Project on Student Debt. That debt load averages $19,200 per student, and many graduates face the prospect of paying back much more than that.
Once all the partying is over, this year’s graduates will start to ask: “What can I do about my student loan debt?”
Well, there is plenty to be done before the debt starts to come due – in about six months for most – but graduates will need to act fast and think through their choices.
One is consolidating their federally backed loans. This decision should be made before July 1. That’s when the federal government will recalculate the interest rate on variable student loans. Although Congress changed the law so that Stafford loans made after July 1, 2006, are fixed at 6.8 percent, there are still plenty of loans out there with variable rates.
The variable interest rate on most federally guaranteed student loans is readjusted annually based on the final 91-day Treasury bill auction before June 1. The new rate becomes effective July 1 and it could increase from the current 6.54 percent.
Under the federal consolidation program, student and parent borrowers can bundle all of their loans into one fixed-rate loan and stretch out the payments from the standard 10 years to 30 years, depending on the debt amount.
You can consolidate your federal loans only once, unless you have new loans that were not included in the original consolidation. You can no longer consolidate while you are still in school. And when you do consolidate, you lock in the weighted average of all your student loans, rounded up to the nearest eighth of a percentage point.
If you decide to consolidate to avoid a possible rate hike, you’ll have to get your application in by June 30. And you really don’t want to wait until then. Another reason to act fast: Graduates who consolidate their Stafford federal student loans during their grace period – the six months after graduation – are eligible for a 0.6 percent interest rate reduction.
So here’s a to-do list for college graduates with debt:
Another excellent resource is www.finaid.org. You’ll find lots of tips on what to watch for in choosing a consolidation lender.
For example, most lenders will reduce your interest rate if you make a certain number of on-time payments. While that reduction for on-time payments is enticing, there’s a catch. You have to be on time all the time for the life of the loan. Miss even a single payment and the discount could disappear.
Considering all the controversy about conflicts of interest in the student loan industry, don’t just rely on the preferred lender list from your school. There’s one important change you may not know about. You can now consolidate with any lender, even if all of your loans are with a single lender. One source for comparison shopping is SimpleTuition Inc., www.simpletuition.com. This company has created a database much like those for finding competing airline rates. The database is limited and lenders pay a fee to be listed.
I know you may have a lot on your plate, with possibly moving and getting settled into a new job. The last thing you may want to do right now is think about your student loans. But you’re in the real world now, so do the real work it takes to find the best consolidation loan deal. After all, that debt is going to be with you for a while.
Washington Post Writers Group
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