A student loan debt consolidation loan allows you to combine your federal student loans into a single loan with one monthly payment. The repayments of a student loan debt consolidation loan can be significantly lower than the payment required under the standard 10-year repayment option. Under the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program, banks, secondary markets, credit unions, and other lenders provide the student loan debt consolidation loan. Under the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program, the federal government provides the student loan debt consolidation loan.
Most federal education loans are eligible for inclusion in a student loan debt consolidation loan, including subsidized and unsubsidized Direct and FFEL Stafford Loans, SLS, Federal Perkins Loans, Federal Nursing Loans, and Health Education Assistance Loans. However, private education loans are not eligible for inclusion in a student loan debt consolidation loan.
To find out which loans can be included in a student loan debt consolidation loan contact the Direct Loan Origination Center's Consolidation Department if you’re applying for a direct student loan debt consolidation loan. Contact a participating FFEL lender if you’re applying for a FFEL student loan debt consolidation loan.
It is worth noting that you are still eligible for a student loan debt consolidation loan after you graduate, leave school, or drop below half-time enrollment. You can also get a student loan debt consolidation loan while you're in school. You must, however, be attending at least half time and have at least one Direct Loan or FFEL in an ‘in-school period’ which generally means that you have been continuously enrolled at least half time since the loan was disbursed. There are a number of conditions that need to be met for you to qualify for a student loan debt consolidation loan, especially if you are delinquent or in default and your loan holder will be able to give you all the necessary information.
If the same holder holds all the FFEL loans you want to consolidate, you must obtain the student loan debt consolidation loan from that holder, unless you haven't been able to get a loan with income-sensitive repayment terms that are acceptable to you. To be eligible for a William D. Ford direct student loan debt consolidation loan, you must have either a direct Stafford subsidized or unsubsidized loan that will be included in the student loan debt consolidation loan or have at least one Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program Stafford subsidized or unsubsidized loan.
There are certain laws issued for people that have bad credit and to know these laws is important to protect all those involved in your life. The Federal Legislation and several other agencies including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) protect you from collection agencies and creditors. If you have bad credit you really want to read this article especially if you are being harassed by creditors or else threatened. First, we are going to look at what steps debtors can take to protect their status. Debtors have the right to ask collection agencies or any source hassling them for debt collection to stop hassling them. You must contact the collection agencies immediately and request that they stop communication with your completely. It is important to word your letter wisely avoiding giving them ammunition against you. You can do this if your collection agency has claimed a lawsuit against you, or if the date has ended, where the creditors can no longer contact you. If the collection agency has written several letters or made several phone calls threatening you with a lawsuit, you can write an informal letter asking the agencies to stop nagging you. If you have a current debt, it is wise to negotiate with the creditors, since some may reduce your balance or even dropped the debt completely. If the debt is older than seven years, it is important that you DO NOT communicate with a collection agency regarding the bill. At the seven-year period, the account should have been removed from your credit report. If it has not these people are in violation. There are several reasons why creditors will disregard lawsuits. Some of those reasons include reductions in their chances of winning the suit. If your debt is old then collectors avoid paying high attorney fees to collect the balance. Therefore, knowing is glowing when you have bad credit. If you owe a debt, you have the legal right to protect your self against creditors. The best solution is stop ignoring the problem and finding a solution to repair your credit. Problems do not go away, rather they add up more problems. Credit repair is a deduction so you do not want to add on more than you can take.
Collection agencies under the law cannot correspond with you by sending mail to your address with symbols or labels. Collection agencies cannot call your mom and dad, or any family member regarding your debt. The collection agencies are obligated by law to cease communication if you have been subpoenaed to court. Collection agencies are under law to avoid calling debtors after 9pm or before 8am. (Some laws state that the collection agencies cannot call after 10pm and before 5am.) If you have an attorney and the collection agencies know this and calls anyway, immediately file a complaint to the proper agencies regarding the action. It is important to document all information when you are in debt. This can protect you when the moment arises. If you have a job and a collection agency calls your work environment he or she is in violation of the law. (Note: If your employer allows calls, the law may not be effective)
Collection agencies are prohibited from impersonating law enforcement or government officials in an effort to collect a debt. At no time is a collection agency allowed to make available to the public information regarding your debts. Collection agencies are prohibited from sending letters, making phones calls, or acting out any form of communication that insinuates false impersonation. It is also against the law for collection agencies to repeatedly call your home requesting you or threatening you to pay the debt. If a collection agency phones your home, they must comply by the law and identify their name and the companies name within one minute of the phone conversation. Finally, collection agencies are prohibited to list debtors on the ‘deadbeat’ list. Many laws and regulations apply to both collection agencies and debtors. Therefore, when you know the law you have strength to protect your self and a possible solution to avoid the law. If your credit is bad, the first step to a resolve is paying your dues and knowing the laws.
Information is this email is for information purposes only. Always contact your lawyer if you need legal advice.
If you are in debt and nagged daily by creditors you might want to understand your credit files to repair your credit. If you are delinquent in payments your credit score is affected, and often you can’t get a loan. There are exceptions but if you are able to get a loan or credit card you will be paying high interest rates. Your credit file determines your faith in life. If you are credit file has a low score most landlords, lenders, or providers will turn you down when you apply for a loan. Credit files are often found in the computer systems are maintained by credit bureaus. If your credit file indicates you are a low risk then you most likely will get a loan, apartment, credit card, or whatever you apply for. Credit scores are a ‘numerical’ system that determines a person’s credit rate and score. Credit scores generally rate anywhere from ‘300 to 850’ otherwise the scores are higher if a person has an outstanding credit rate. If you apply for a loan and the lenders are unable to find your credit file you are often viewed as a mishap. This means that you haven’t established a credit history and no one can really tell if you are a good or bad risk. This is why it is important to establish credit at an early age. If you apply for department store cards, credit cards, gas cards or other items that offer you a credit, then you are on your way to establishing a credit history and your file will be on record. The problem with applying for credit cards or loans, or any type of credit, is that when we start out our parents are often co-signers. This means if we do not make payments our parents are obligated to repay the debts. The truth is that when we apply for a job, apply for an apartment, or take out an insurance policy we are establishing credit. Your credit files are often stored in TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. The law protects us to a degree when it comes to credit repair. To understand all the legalities, as well as how our credit file affects us is important to repairing our credit history. Credit Bureaus are coordinated and monitored by the Federal Trade Commission beneath the requirements of the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and follows up with the State Laws. If you have credit files with inconsistencies the Fair Credit Reporting Act protects you in the sense that it requires the credit bureaus to delete or make the information obsolete on your credit file. This protects you if you are a victim of Identity Theft, or any other false accusations made against you. The Credit Bureaus are required by the laws to list accuracies on credit files by gathering the appropriate information against you or on your behalf. The laws protect you in the sense that it regulates the credit bureaus by only allowing them to list negative reports against you for a limited time. The laws also regulate who can see your credit files. If you are applying for a loan, license, public assistance, insurance, landlords, and courts can request your credit files without your consent. However, if you are applying for a job under certain circumstances the employers will need a written authorization form from you. Utilities are under the law and these providers cannot deny you services even if you have bad credit. As you can see there are a wide range of services that can check your credit file. The downside is each time your credit is checked points go on your files. The more points added to your credit file affects your credit so you want to be careful and only apply for what you need. If you have bad credit and trying to repair your credit be sure to request copies of your credit files, understand your score on your files, and if you suspect you are a risk it is best to apply for loans or credit cards after you have cleared your credit report.
It is hard to avoid noticing the massive growth that there have been in debt consolidation companies over the past few years. Initially, debt consolidation companies were some of the biggest advertisers on the internet and now they have more TV commercials than some of the most well-known brands. However, a number of these debt consolidation companies are being sued by numerous attorney generals, the FTC and the IRS over their supposed ‘non-profit’ status.
One of the worst debt consolidation companies has actually had a federal lawsuit filed against it and the FTC and five individual states have filed separate lawsuits against the company. This company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy but the reality is that they have not gone out of business themselves, they have simply changed into so many other companies that they are most likely around in some form.
Interestingly, many companies do not call themselves ‘debt consolidation companies’ anymore because of the bad press that all of the legal action against this first company generated. You may hear of ‘debt negotiation’ companies or ‘debt settlement’ companies who are basically ‘debt consolidation companies’ who are using illegal tactics and should be avoided.
You can check out any debt consolidation companies, or any other company for that matter, with your local consumer protection agency and the Better Business Bureau in the company's location. Be aware that debt consolidation companies with a good rating may mean absolutely nothing. In fact, over 75% of the complaints received by the Better Business Bureau do not count against the company's rating if the complaint is considered resolved. The Better Business Bureau has no authority to investigate complaints against debt consolidation companies, nor resolve them.
One particular word of advice is to avoid any debt consolidation companies who have a registered address in Maryland or Florida. This is because these two states do not regulate debt consolidation companies. There are so many debt consolidation companies available that if you really feel that this is the best course of action for you then avoiding those in Maryland or Florida should be simple and will save you the worry of dealing with a disreputable organisation.
You can find a number of websites that offer a customer review section for debt consolidation companies. This is worth checking out to see if customers of any of the debt consolidation companies that you are considering signing up with have had problems dealing with them in the past.
A recent report found that many non profit debt consolidation agencies have a reputation for charging high fees and giving bad service to the majority of their customers. A large number of non profit debt consolidation agencies offer credit counseling services that give improper advice, have deceptive practices, charge excessive fees and abuse of their non-profit status. The truth is that non profit debt consolidation agencies are a growing business and over nine million people have some contact with a consumer credit counseling agency in one form or another each year.
There are a huge number of aggressive firms masquerading as non profit debt consolidation agencies that give consumers less access to real debt counseling options and push their debt consolidation loans as the best option when it is not always the case. Many state and federal regulators have not yet uncovered the truth behind a lot of the more unscrupulous non profit debt consolidation agencies.
Of course, not all of the non profit debt consolidation agencies are a threat to consumers. Some non profit debt consolidation agencies are above-board and have pioneered consumer-friendly practices, such as flexible hours, electronic payments and easy access by phone and by Internet. However, consumer complaints against non profit debt consolidation agencies have risen sharply. One of the main issues regarding bad non profit debt consolidation agencies is deceptive and misleading practices. Some non profit debt consolidation agencies do not make consumers' payments on time, deceptively claim that fees are voluntary or do not adequately disclose fees to potential clients.
Many non profit debt consolidation agencies have excessive costs. Most non profit debt consolidation agencies charge fees to set up a Debt Management Program and to maintain it on a monthly basis where this was once a relatively cheap process. Some non profit debt consolidation agencies charge as much as a full month's consolidated payment, which is usually hundreds of dollars, simply to establish an account.
Some non profit debt consolidation agencies abuse their non profit status and are increasingly performing like profit-making enterprises. All non profit debt consolidation agencies in the industry have tax-exempt status but some of these agencies work as regular for-profit businesses with aggressive advertising and selling of Debt Management Programs and a range of related services and reap high revenues which enable them to pay their executives salaries that are much higher than average for the non-profit sector.
It is important to look very carefully at any non profit debt consolidation agencies and ask for feedback from friends or relatives if you are considering signing up for one of their programs to make sure that they really are offering you the best service.