Stafford Consolidation: Eligibility for Stafford Loan Consolidation
When you are looking to consolidate your Stafford loans, or any of your federal loans for that matter, you need to know a few things about the consolidation loan process. Many lenders court borrowers, who have a number of outstanding loans, are delinquent or who have bad credit.
Before you take up one of these lenders on their sweet offer for a loan that can save you over half of the amount you currently pay (or at least owe), you need to find out if you loan is actually eligible for consolidation.
There can be a number of factors that make you unable to get your Stafford loans consolidated. While Stafford consolidation can be a simple and straightforward process, you can waste a great deal of time and effort by applying for consolidation you can never get.
Rules for Stafford Consolidation of Student Loans
- Generally, all Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) and Direct Loans are eligible to consolidate. Stafford loans fall under the Direct Loans program. You simply have to be out of school or less than half time to begin repayment.
- You can consolidate most easily and most beneficially during your Stafford loan’s grace period. You will get the absolute lowest rates available and save yourself thousands.
- Direct Loan (which includes Stafford loans) consolidation is available to students who are currently enrolled as long as you have a loan under the program as a part of your current financial aid package.
- You can combine loans for Stafford consolidation as long as they are all federal loans. Often they have to be under the same lender or at least the same program. You will have to check with the consolidation lender to be sure that all of your loans can be consolidated together.
- If you want to avail the opportunity of income-sensitive repayment for your Stafford consolidation and your current lender does not have that option, you can have it through a Stafford consolidation loan.
The rules for Stafford consolidation, as with any government funded educational program, are always in flux. When you have outstanding loans under the US Department of Education’s loan programs you must keep those types of changes in mind and get updates on them. When you are ready to consolidate your Stafford loans you will be able to do so with a bit of knowledge about the process and be sure to get the best loan available. Rather than wasting time looking around and applying at many lenders, you can choose the best Stafford consolidation loan for you.
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