College Loan Consolidation

Changing Rules for College Loan Consolidation
College loans consolidation is by no means stagnant. The rules and understandings surrounding student loan consolidation are in flux and sometimes change yearly. It sometimes seems that the lenders are conducting an experiment to see what types of rules will be generally acceptable and which simply will not work.

Whether the loans are federal or private does not seem to matter, things change and lenders just have to get used to it. Some rules that the government and private agencies started out with seemed to be fine and working for years, but some accounting wiz will come up with a way to change the rules to benefit the lender. On some occasions the rule change benefits the borrower but these are few and far between.
Changes to College Loan LawsFederal loan changes make the news more often than private because they affect a greater number of borrowers overall. Private lenders can make and change their own rules anytime they like. Changes that have been made to college loans consolidation rules include:
In-school Status Consolidation – borrowers can only consolidate loans that are already in grace, repayment, forbearance, deferment, delinquent or default status. This means that any loans you currently have accumulating that are paying for your present education cannot be consolidated. Effective July 1, 2006
Reconsolidation – existing consolidation loans can be reconsolidated (into a Direct loan) if they include an FFEL or Direct loan or are an FFEL consolidation loan that is attempting to avert default. In plain English, if you have one of our loans we can help. Effective July 1, 2006
Joint Consolidation with Spouse – married couples cannot join their consolidation loans together as a single federal loan. Effective July 1, 2006
Freedom of Choice – the US Department of Education declared that up to 40% of students with federal loans will be unable to choose their college loans consolidation lender. This is dependent upon loan type and local consolidation options. Effective March 31, 2006
Options for College Loans You can choose to take up the government and various private lenders on their consolidation offers and risk getting caught in the tide of changes to the rules. You can also choose not to consolidate at all and repay your loans one by one. This will require your being in contact with the original lenders and hammering out agreements on loan repayment alternatives.
Many issues are negotiable depending on the lender and it only takes a moment to ask. Whichever road you take, make sure it is only after having researched all possibilities and answered all questions.