Silent Steps

If you are presently looking for college financing then here are 10 things which you should think about carefully before you commit yourself to a loan:

1. Start by looking carefully at the award letter that you been given for your course and determine just which need based loans you are qualified for and how much money these loans would provide.

2. Then, look at your overall financial picture including things like education costs, the provision of any scholarships for college or grant money and money being provided by your family and work out how much money you need to borrow.

3. Do Not borrow more than you need. Regardless of the amount of money that a lender offer you, never borrow more than you need for your short and medium term needs.

4. Look at student employment as an alternative to borrowing.  Although working at a job while in college might seem like an extra burden it can be a lot better than struggling with high loan repayments after college.

5. Apply for a student loan as soon as you can.  You want to make sure that you get the loan you need and that your money is in place before your bills start arriving, so do not hang around once you know how much you need to borrow and go ahead and get your application in without delay.

6. Be careful to follow the instruction on any loan application to the letter as mistakes may well result in your application being rejected or to a delay in you receiving your money.

7. If you are applying for Stafford or Direct student loans then do not be surprised if the amount that is paid to the college is less than the amount you signed for because a fee of up to four percent will be deducted from your loan. This deduction will be made before the check is sent to your college.

8. Once you have taken your first student loan you should begin to keep a track of your borrowing so that you know just what your monthly repayments will be in the future. It is all too easy to be lulled into a false sense of security while you are at college and not making repayments, but you might well be in for a shock once you have left college and have to start making monthly repayments. You will find a number of student loan calculators available which will handle the complicated mathematics for you.

9. If you find, having taken on as much federal loan debt as you can, that you still need additional loans from a private lender then take professional advice before starting your search for additional funding.

10. If you decide to take on additional private loan funding then you will have to carefully rework your budget to account for the servicing of any additional loans while you are in college.