60 Second Tips: Consolidation Can Cut Down Your Student Loan Payments

Watch while we tell you how consolidation might help you pay it off sooner and with a little less pain in 60 seconds.
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Video Transcript: 

American college grads are drowning in more student debt than ever. Give me 60 seconds and I'll explain why consolidation might help you pay it off sooner and with a little less pain.

Now, according to the Federal Reserve in 2017 there are 44 million student loan borrowers and they owe $1.4 trillion. Now compare that to the $620 billion Americans owe in credit card debt. Data also show the average monthly student loan payment is $351 and just over 11% currently delinquent on that debt. That's why many are turning to consolidation. There are three big perks to doing this.

First, you may be able to qualify for a better interest rate. That can save you thousands of dollars of the life of your loan.

Second, you might be be able to change the terms of your repayment. Stretching it out will decrease what you have to handover every month, but you could end up costing you more in the end.

Third, if you have multiple loans, you will only need to make one payment per month. That convenience is worth something. Now things can get complicated if you borrowed from the federal government's student loan program.

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TAGS: Debt Management | Investing | Video | Banking | Financial Planning | Consumer Credit | Going to College | Personal Finance | Student Loans

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