Not many young people care too much about their credit let alone worrying about the intricacies of student loans. After all they have enough to worry about with watching television and gossiping about who is dating whom. Then they find out that because of their substandard credit that they do not qualify for the standard student loans. This is the first devastating blow of reality. Its understandable why most young people would be a little discouraged.
Instead of getting discouraged your first line of defense should be seeking a cosigner. Approach your parents, grandparents, friends, and even loved ones. Normally when you ask someone to cosign you are immediately met with rejection. Be honest and upfront let them know that you need help, and you would like them to cosign to aide in continuing your education. Chances are theyll be more willing to cosign for a college career than a car loan. Whoever it is that you do approach make sure that you have your career plans in hand. Do not approach an individual without an action plan.
Locating a co-signer with a good credit history will be advantageous to you because the lending institution will use the credit history of your co-signer instead of yours to base their decision. This will in turn allow you to receive a student loan at an extremely low interest rate. If a young person has low or bad credit a co-signer may be their best option.
Ok its a swing and a miss You give it your best shot and you still cannot find a qualified co-signer. You next best option for a student loan is to contact banks as well as other lending institutions. Your goal by doing so is to find out if there are any alternative methods of financing your education. Many times these lending institutions will have a high interest rate solution. I bet you seen that one coming a mile away!
Once you finally find a loan that works for your situation dont start to think about it to deeply. Thinking about those high interest rates is not where your focus needs to be at this point in your life. Look at it this way - most college courses take 4-5 years for a student to complete. This is more than enough time for you to reestablish your credit at which time you can refinance your high interest rate loan for one with a much lower rate.
A third option that you should know about is called a combination loan. If you have bad credit due to poor money management i.e. a lot of debt this option may be for you. A combination loan will allow you to consolidate your existing debt and then apply for one big loan to pay all of it off. By consolidation your loans chances are you will end up paying a lower monthly interest rate.
I almost forgot about the Stafford Loan and the Perkins Loan. These loans are geared towards those that are having financial hardships
It is important to keep in mind that even in a worse case scenario, obtaining a student loan or a scholarship is nothing more than a numbers game. If you were to go online and apply for every student loan and scholarship program that you can find you will be approved for a few of them. You will be blown away at the number of available loans and scholarships that you can apply for. The fact of the matter is you just may end up getting a free ride regardless of your financial situation. The key to your success is to avoid being discouraged and to keep plowing forward.
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