Financial Information
Loan Consolidation: My Situation and the Air Force?
Question : Loan Consolidation: My Situation and the Air Force?
Howdy. After several years of attending different universities and accruing massive debt with still two years until a degree, I am now in the process of joining the Air Force so that I can get a career started and start paying off my loans.
My private loans have totaled up to 40K, and the government/state loans have totaled up to 15K. I am obviously looking into consolidating these loans since I am currently paying four different lenders. My credit is great so I am not worried about that. How should I go about approaching my situation and which lenders would you recommend?
I am also considering going back to college several years into the Air Force, which I will be able to get paid for by the military though. Will this cause any problems?
Hopefully I can get some good info so I can research your suggestions further. Thanks
government debt consolidation loans
Best answer:
Answer by bdazzle
Just be careful. In the loan consolidation industry, some of the companies who claim to “reduce you debt by thousands” actually don’t pay any of your bills until they are close to charge off or being sold to a collection agency, then they make a settlement offer. While you’re paying them each month, they ‘sit’ on most of the money, waiting for the accounts to get so delinquent the companies will accept the settlement. Settlements reflect as the debt was paid less than the amount owed to the bank.
Go with a name brand consolidation company, such as a large bank and you should be protected from some of the risks. There are a lot of unscrupulous lenders out there who will hide fees, charge you very high interest rates if you miss even one payment, or charge you a penalty if you pay back the loan too quickly.
Also, be careful not to consolidate the loans that have low interest rates or good terms; for example, your government loans may have a very low interest rate or be subsidized while you are in school. Don’t lose these benefits by consolidating those loans.
You may also want to consider asking the lenders if you can put your payments on hold or if they have special terms of service members. A lot of businesses will give military service members better rates and deals out of respect. Some government loans even have a loan forgiveness program if you enter the military, so you could automatically lower your debt right there!
It’s definitely worth a call to all of your lenders to see if they have any of these sorts of deals for servicemen and servicewomen.
Going back to school and having the military pay for the rest of your schooling shouldn’t cause any problems. Your debt from before the military will still have to be paid off, however.