Just to let you know, you are not the only graduate who has to deal with multiple private student loans. It is difficult to manage your financial condition with multiple loans on your back and other expenses to take care of. How can you remedy the situation? Have you ever thought of going to consolidate your private student loans?When you are doing so, there are 3 things you need to look out for.1. Loan consolidatorUnlike federal student loan consolidation, private loan consolidators charge various interest rates for your loans. The interest rate charged is according to the market rate. So, when the market rate is low, you can enjoy low interest rate. But when the market rate shoots up to the maximum cap, you will have to bear the burden.And to get your business, different loan consolidators will offer different benefits when you consolidate your student loans with them. Some of them may offer higher interest rate but they might offer lucrative packages that can benefit you in the long run and vice versa. So, you have to look into your need before you talk to the loan consolidators.Lastly, you have to be extra careful when you are applying for online private student loan consolidation. This is because there are a lot of agencies which claim to consolidate your loans are actually referring your loans to firms that really consolidate student loans. You can actually get better interest rate when you deal directly with the responsible firms.2. Extra cost and penaltiesWhen you are consolidating your private student loan, you will also want to be clear of the extra cost that is involve in your consolidated loan. Some loan consolidators might charge you for an application fee and some might charge you processing fee for credit history check.And to let you know, many loan consolidators are withdrawing their pre-payment penalty (penalty that you need to pay when you settle your loan before the agreed loan period). So, be sure that you ask the loan consolidators about this and if they are unwilling to withdraw this for you, you can always look for another loan agency.Although you can enjoy incentive with on-time payment, what if you are late with your monthly payment? How much penalties are they going to charge you? You have to be clear on every detail of your loan consolidation.3. PromotionsAnd since the loan consolidators are competing for your business, it is common that they will run promotions once in a while to draw in new business. So, when you are talking to the loan agencies, remember to ask them about the promotions. It will be good to have some incentive to lighten your burden.Sometime the loan agency will not inform you about the promotions. After all, they are affecting their profit when they run the promotions. So, you have to take the initiative and keep yourself update so that you can get on the boat before the expiry date.
