what does consolidating a loan mean?
446737
It basically means putting all your loans into one place and then you only pay one person the amount of the loan instead of paying several places.  It is worth considering but you must get a good deal before saying yes.
478460
It is a rate commitment loan. Say by the time of closing you have not closed than you could be charged another fee until it is. Usually it is for 30 days and within that 30 days your interset is set at one rate...K Usually for home loans
290596
many loans are "secured" with collateral -- a car, a house, etc. if a loan does not have any collateral involved (you have not provided the bank with a lien on anything for them to repossess), then the loan is "unsecured," and generally has a worse interest rate than one that is "secured."
1010822
Let's say you have 4 credit cards with varying balances and interest rates.  You take a loan with a lower interest rate than the cards have and pay them all off.  Now you have 1 payment instead of 4, with a total lower payment than the four combined, and probably a shorter time required to pay the debt off.
1134957
You should consolidate now, you are allowed to consolidate if you are in-school.\n\nCurrently if you are in-school your stafford loan rate is 4.7%, consolidation would put you at 4.75%, if you are in repayment your current rate is 5.3% and you would consolidate at 5.375%.\n\nJuly 1st interest rates will increase to 6.54% if you are in-school and 7.514% if you are in repayment.  It will definitely pay to consolidate right now because of the amount of dollars you will save in interest over your repayment.  (Consolidating will extend repayment out over a longer period of time than what you are currently scheduled to repay, so the lender recoups some of the interest that way.)\n\nFind out who you have loans with at www.nslds.ed.gov under the Financial Aid Review tab.  This will tell you more info than you probably ever wanted to know about your loans in one place. (You will need your Dept of Ed PIN to access this information, to have your PIN emailed to you request a duplicate at www.pin.ed.gov)\n\nIt is up to you to choose who to consolidate with.  Emergency legislation passed earlier this month revoked what was called the Single Holder Rule so you can choose to go with any lender you would like.  It is good to find out if you get to keep your grace period, do you get an interest rate or principle reductions for making on-time payments or electronic payments to your account.\n\nThis application must be completed by midnight on June 30th, so act quickly.
1018833
You can consolidate while you are in-school.  Some lenders allow you to keep your grace period after leaving school, others do not. Because interest rates are rising 1.84% July 1, 2006 I would strongly recommend attempting to consolidate before midnight tonight.\n\nThe consolidation of loans allows you to lock the current interest rate in, otherwise the rate will continue to fluctuate as the economy does. Rates are set to rise on July1 to 6.54% for Stafford Loans if you are currently in school/grace period and to 7.14% for those of you in repayment. Right now rates are at 4.7% for in-school/grace and 5.3% for repayment. Consolidation will round your interest to the nearest 1/8 percent so in-school/grace consolidated rate will be 4.75% and repayment rate will be 5.375% (this is for loans borrowed after 1996, rates are slightly higher on loans borrowed prior to fall of 1996).\n\nRepayment will also allow you to extend your repayment out longer than 10 years, lowering your monthly payment. Because of the large jump in interest rates it is highly recommend that students consolidate their loans by the end of the day today.\n\nThe Perkins loan may also be consolidated, it has a fixed (or locked-in) interest rate of 5%. So many students will opt to leave that loan out of the consolidation if the are still in-school so their interest rate isn't made higher in the weighted average of loans and their interest rates during the consolidation process. You can run examples using loan consolidation calculators at www.finaid.org.\n\n You may also want to consider this if you are in education or nursing fields:  When you consolidate a student loan you no longer qualify for the Teacher Loan forgiveness or Nursing Loan forgiveness programs. So yes this a drawback. It would be a good idea to calculate your interest savings of consolidation for the 5 years you are required to work & pay on your loan to qualify for the program versus taking what portion of your loans that will be left at that time that will qualify for the loan forgiveness.\n\nTo find a listing of all your loans you can use the National Student Loan Database www.nslds.ed.gov. You will need to know your Dept of Ed PIN to access this info. To retrieve your PIN you can request a duplicate be emailed to you within 4 hours at www.pin.ed.gov\n\nYou do have the choice of choosing another lender to consolidate with and their are many to choose from. And it is typically easiest to go with your current lender. \n\nMany people on this site are recommending Direct loans. They are reputiable but many other are as well. To consolidate with Direct Loans you can call their phone number 1-800-557-7392 or complete an application on their website www.loanconsolidation.ed.gov. To consolidate at the website you will need your Dept of Education PIN and the amounts borrowed for each loan (and whether they are subsidized or unsubsidized). The PIN can be emailed within 4 hours so if you request it now you can still get your application completed (www.pin.ed.gov).\n\nRemember you only have until midnight on June 30, 2006 to complete the application if you select to consolidate your loans
1061133
Unfortunately, no, you cannot consolidate private and federal student loans. \n\nUnfortunately, student loan interest rates go WAY up on 6/30/06 thanks to Dubya! It is imperative that you consolidate before then. You can refinance just one loan..doesn't have to be multiple.\n\nMyself, I am a grad and need to consolidate my loans before the deadline! So I went on a google hunt (I mean search ;). Eventually, I did find a site that has rated a few student loan consolidators, and says they have checked them out. Here's the web page: http://lendersrated.com/studentloans.htm...\n\nHope it helps you...\nkarateross
450128
There are a lot of companies out there that do "consolidation" loans that I believe you are thinking about.\n\nThis type of loan often gives you enough to pay off all your smaller debts and can give you some extra money on top.\n\nNormally though they require collateral (IE a house) but a lot of the companies do take people with less than perfect credit history.\n\nStick on your TV and you'll soon find an advert for a company of this type.
653527
Essentially, you're correct.   You'd roll the difference into your existing loan.  \n\nReally, it's a dumb way to buy a car, unless you've got yourself a lemon you want to get out from under.   You're paying on a car you own and one you don't own.
1157375
That's too general of a question.  If you've been responsibly paying your debts and have responsibly consolidated to reduce the interest you pay, it's different from the kind of consolidation done in response to credit problems.\n\nWebsites aren't going to be able to answer that question.
223712
Most debt consolidators will negotiate with your creditors to lower your interest rate so you can pay them off (which they will do because if you can't pay your bills and file for bankruptcy they don't get any of their money.) \nBut there are some that will consolidate your debt by paying all of those companies off with a large loan from them. They will give you an intrest rate on that loan that will be lower than what you had on your credit cards (or whatever your debt was from.) \nThey do help, even if the company makes money off of you, you save money as well and that is what helps YOU out.
757166
That probably varies from person to person. My best guess would be that they consolidate when they finally realize they are paying exorbitant interest rates on one or more of their credit cards and that a consolidation loan would lower their overall monthly debt at a lower rate.\n\nChow!!
1176395
ok, stafford loans have a variable interest rate. this means that it can change every july 1. it's possible that in july 2007 the rate would drop or that it might rise again. by consolidating, you are avoiding the risk of higher interest rates. but, you lose your grace period and the possibility of the rate dropping lower than it is currently. im a financial aid officer, if you have questions, please feel free to email me.
1006999
By law, approved consolidators cannot charge a fee.\n\nHere is a list on them which will do bad credit loans: http://lendersrated.com/studentloans.htm...\n\nHope it helps you...\nkarateross
57972
Very few loans are made these days that have transferability.  The loan is made in the names of the original borrowers based on their specific qualifications.  Your loan documents will tell you whether or not you loan can be "assumed".  If it is a fixed rate, chances are very low that it can be assumed.\n\nIf a husband and wife owned a house together, got divorced, and the husband got the house in the divorce settlement, even though the house would be in his name, the loan would still be in both their names, and on both their credit reports until such time the property is sold or refinanced in the name of the husband only.\n\nSo, in short, check your existing documents as to whether or not it allows "assumability".  If you don't have a copy of your loan documents, call your lender and ask.
242535
In order to consolidate you have to find out who your lenders are for each loan. You can do this by contacting the school for which the loans were given. If you have the same lender for all loans then you have to consolidate through them. The school's financial aid office can give you The numbers. You may pay the same place, but the lender could be different. If the lenders are different you have the option of choosing who you use. In that case you could ask the school who they recommend. I personally know that Sallie Mae is a good company that offers consolidation. You could try and call them. http://www.salliemae.com/apply/borrowing/smartloan.html \nthat is their website to apply for consolidation on line, and there is a payment calculator. Just keep in mind that if your loans are in their grace period, and you consolidate before the grace period is over you will have to start making payments.
1019214
As far as I know consolidation is only on govt loans you cant consolidate a private loan.