If you’ve got Student Loans, you need to be aware of this deadline and the opportunity it presents.
The Department of Education is offering the opportunity to consolidate student loans from a private lender with student loans held directly by the Department of Education. The opportunity to consolidate these Direct Student Loans as well as any Family Federal Education Loans (also know as FFEL Loans) is going to expire on 6/30 and I think that it’s an amazing opportunity to simplify your financial life, as well as potentially benefit from other federal student loan program benefits such as forgiveness programs that are not available to loans issued by private lenders
A few key benefits:
This program would allow you to have one servicer and one payment for all of your eligible student loans. That’s a huge benefit. I’m always recommending to clients that they simplify their financial lives and consolidate accounts when possible, and this is a great opportunity to do just that.
You can save on interest. Loans consolidated in the program will receive a 0.25% interest rate deduction on any private loans that are consolidated. The interest rate is fixed for the life of the loan, so you’ll lock in your current terms. (If you sign up for automatic debit from your bank account, you can save another 0.25%. That’s easy savings.)
Eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. If you work for a public entity or certain 501(c)3 not for profits, you may qualify for the balance of your loans to be forgiven after making 120 contiuous payments. This is a huge benefit for those of you that work in education but don’t qualify for the teacher student loan forgiveness programs, or for others who work for other not-for-profits.
To consolidate your Student Loans, go to www.studentloans.gov and log into your account. If you’re eligible, you’ll have a message in the “Alerts” box on the top right of the page. Here’s a link to the Department of Education’s Frequently Asked Questions about the program.
If you have any questions, please contact me and I’ll do my best to help you out!
