Combine Your Loan Bills into One Payment with Great Lakes
Consolidation Wizard Prompts Borrowers for All the Right Answers
Great Lakes Educational Loan Services is a student loan guarantor and servicing agency for student loan lenders. Countless borrowers manage accounts directly through Great Lakes. In fact, services include loan and account management including the Federal Family Education Loan Program consolidation loans.
Federal Loan Consolidation
Federal student loans may all be rolled into one. Instead of multiple monthly payments you have one much more affordable payment. Federal consolidation loans are pretty standard in their criteria. Since July 1, 2006, interest rates are fixed based on the “weighted average” of the interest rates as of the date you apply for consolidation. That rate is capped at 8.25. Also since July 1 federal loans are ineligible for consolidation while students are in school. However, new grads within their six-month grace period may be rewarded with discounted interest rates.
Great Lakes Encourages Borrowers to Consider All Angles
Great Lakes offers valuable information on loan consolidation. Borrowers considering the option should examine the reasons for a consolidation loan:
- Are your monthly loan payments unmanageable?
- How many lenders and loans do you have?
- How many payments do you have remaining?
- Does your personal life require you commit to other monthly financial responsibilities?
- Do you realize that consolidation also means you’ll pay more in the long run, in exchange for lower monthly payments now?
Consolidation Assistant
A service of Great Lakes is the Consolidation Loan Assistant. The “wizard” type program is designed to prompt applicants in a series of loan-related questions that boil down the consolidation process into easy online measures that allow applicants to e-Sign the form, removing the mess of paper applications possibly completed in error. Use the Assistant especially when you are unsure about the loan consolidation process.
Loan Consolidation—All About Good Timing
Great Lakes goes to great lengths to offer consolidation tips in the margins of their website. Especially important are the tips that trigger borrowers to consider the timing of their consolidation loans. The site underscores the savvy use of loan grace periods: apply while you’re in your new-grad grace period so you get the best interest rate possible, and Great Lakes will “show you how to delay processing” of your consolidation application so your payments don’t come due until the end of the grace period.
