Federal Student Loan
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    Federal Student Loan

    When you are headed to college you have a lot of decisions to make.
    You will need to figure out which school you want, apply for as many
    scholarships as you can, and of course find alternative college funding
    just in case the scholarships don't pan out. When you are looking for
    student loans you will need to make certain you are getting the best deal
    out there. The federal student loan or Stafford loan is a government loan.
    This type of loan has the lowest interest rates and the best repayment
    options. You see most loans will wait for the repayment until after you
    have graduated college. Generally with a federal student loan you will
    wait at least two to six months before the loan enters repayment after
    graduation. You will also have the option of consolidating all of your
    federal student loans into one payment with a fixed interest rate.

    Most college loans are going to have a high interest rate around 8 to
    10%, with the federal student loan you are looking at 2 to 4% maybe 5%
    as the market changes a little. It will depend on what the banks are
    doing at the moment and where they need to recoup money. However
    the federal student loan wants the up coming students that are college
    age to go on to higher education. That is one of the most important items
    in congress today- how to make higher education more available. So the
    federal student loans will always keep the interest rate lower than other
    college loans.

    You also have the option with a federal student loan of obtaining a parent
    loan or PLUS loan. This loan is called the Parent Loan for
    Undergraduate Students. It will also have the lower interest rates and it
    will be taken out in the parents name rather than the student. With
    federal student loans the student usually takes out the loan with their
    parents' as cosigners. The Plus loan is different both in the way it is
    obtained and the repayment status. The Plus loan is usually given out in
    two parts according to the college semesters. The tuition is paid first
    before the student will see any of the loans. Then the student can obtain
    what is leftover to help pay for books. With a plus loan the student never
    gets more money than the tuition and cost of books. After 60 days the
    parents will then have to start repaying the loan. So in most cases the
    federal student loan is more helpful to the students in interest rates and
    repayment only. The federal student loan will not be a very large amount.
    Again it will be for books and tuition, possibly housing as well.

    To obtain a federal student loan the parents and student must fill out the
    FAFSA paperwork each year. This paperwork tells the government how
    much income the family has and how much they can put towards
    schooling. It will also tell them the school the person will be attending so
    they may look at the tuition costs for a fair amount of money to give to the
    college student.