Refi Student Loans - Bad Idea?

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Many students refinance their student loans to lower their monthly payments. This can be a good thing for all borrowers. Before you consider refinancing, however, it's important to first determine how much debt you actually have and how much your monthly payment would be with refinancing. Many students have multiple student loans, with balances on many different credit cards and other lines of credit. To get a better idea of how much debt you actually have before you consider refinancing, here are some quick tips.

First, understand exactly what type of student loans you currently have, what terms and conditions you are currently paying on each one and how much each loan costs in total. Knowing the difference between private and federal loans is critical. If you refinance a federal student loan, specifically into a private loan, most likely you lose all the lender protections built into federal loans. This means that you will have to pay interest on the loan even if you don't pay it. You will also lose the privilege of having lower interest rates for a certain period of time and have to pay to have your privileges restored.

Next, make sure you don't have too much debt on your credit score. Some student loan refinance lenders will look at your credit score before offering you a refinance loan, and your credit score affects your eligibility for refinance loans in a variety of ways. For example, a higher credit score will allow you to get better interest rates. However, if you have too much debt, a high credit score will mean that you will end up paying more interest over the life of the loan. This is why it's important to keep your debt down by working on your credit score first before getting involved with any student loans.

Finally, don't refinance just because you don't want to deal with payments anymore. When it comes to real student loans, there are usually benefits to doing so. First of all, since you won't have to deal with payments anymore, this can give you some money for other necessities. Another benefit is that your student loans will be easier to manage because the repayment period isn't going to be as long.

When you refinance student loans, you will usually end up paying less money overall than you would have paid if you had simply used the cash you had on hand when you took out the original loan. However, there are a number of different factors affecting your interest rate. For instance, if you have a poor credit score, then your interest rate may be higher than someone with good credit. Additionally, if you have too much debt, you may get a lower real rate than someone who doesn't have as much debt. Keep this in mind before you refinance.

In short, while real student loans aren't always a bad thing, they can sometimes be. Before you refinance your student loans, make sure that you are doing it for the right reasons and not just for the money. This way, you will end up saving yourself money instead of spending it. If you are trying to consolidate or pay off multiple debts, then read student loans may be for you, but only if you take the time to do the research first.​
 
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