Consolidating your federal loans through the Department of Education is free; steer clear of companies that charge fees to consolidate them for you.
dating to relating from a to z review - Is consolidating loans a good idea
Your credit history directly affects the interest rate you are offered, and so does your ability to repay the loan.
Rates do vary from lender to lender, but here is what interest rates on personal loans look like, on average: Someone with poor or average credit may be able to get an unsecured personal loan on the strength of a steady income and low debt levels.
There are dozens of ways to do this, and some include transferring debt to a zero or low-interest credit card, taking out a debt consolidation loan, applying for a home equity loan or paying back your debt through a debt repayment plan.
When researching loan consolidation options, you may come across what’s known as debt consolidation companies.
Someone with excellent credit and a low debt-to-income ratio may be offered interest rates as low as those seen on secured loans.
Almost all lenders will require you to be 18 or older and a legal U. resident, with a verifiable bank account and not in bankruptcy or foreclosure. Some lenders have no minimum credit score requirements, but that does not mean they don’t check your credit report. You may have seen lenders that offer loans with no credit check at all, but they will charge interest rates of 300% or more, as will a payday lender.
Some of these are legitimate, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, however, others are incredibly risky.
That’s because some may be debt settlement companies that convince you to stop paying your debts and “instead pay into a special account,” the CFPB warns.
Student loan debt is extremely difficult to get discharge in bankruptcy, for example, while credit card debt can be shed relatively easily. Shifting student debt to credit card debt rarely makes sense financially, and if you go into it thinking you may eventually discharge the debt in bankruptcy, you're at best betting on yourself to fail, and at worst, committing fraud.