Are your debts becoming too much of a burden for you? Well, your country can help you deal with this crisis in the form of government debt consolidation loans.
Although, there are many debt consolidation loans that you can consider to can help pay multiple creditors through a single monthly payment. Your best option still may be the several government backed debt consolidation loans that the federal government offers its citizens due to various reasons.
What are Government Debt Consolidation Loans?
These loans are made available by the federal government to help you pay multiple loans and creditors using similar principles of debt consolidation like any other private program. The loan allows you to consolidate multiple loans into one. This way you only need to make one single payment each month rather than three or four.
As you already know, in most cases the loans are high-interest unsecured ones; therefore converting them in to secured loans is bound to be beneficial for the borrower as it leads to low interest rates. They save you money and make your financial planning and budgeting easier.
Debt Consolidation for Federal Student Loans
Students who have multiple federal student loans to fund their educational expenses can benefit from government backed debt consolidation loans. Government backed loans help make repayment of the loans feasible for student or parents - without the hassle of having to deal with multiple loan payments every month.
There are many loans offered by the government that are designed to help out students. There are two programs under the Higher Education Act (HEA) which can allow consolidation loans. One program is Direct Consolidation Loan Program and the other is FFEL or Federal Family Education Loan program.
In the program, the Direct Consolidation Loan program, the US Department of Education helps students through debt consolidation loans to pay off education loans. After that, a new loan is issued to the student which contains the consolidated amount of all the old loans.
In case of the FFEL or Federal Family Education Loan Program, the borrower is provided with a new consolidation loan which can be used to pay off any loan that the student might have and not just educational loans.
Government Student Loan Repayment Plans
The government debt consolidation loan programs offer four different plans to the borrower, they are:
1. ICR or Income Contingent Repayment plan
2. Extended payment plan
3. Graduated payment plan and
4. Standard plan
Each plan provides the borrower with different features to meet the requirements of the individual. This provides flexibility which is a key factor in any debt consolidation program.
Consolidating your debts can help simplify your repayment process, as all of your existing loans may not have similar payment dates and terms. You pay back different types of loans with the help of one single loan. The amount that you would need to pay every month should be lower and the pay-back may also get stretched to ease the repayment process. At the end of it all, getting a government debt consolidation loan also increases the chances of paying back your loans on time.
