Sunday, August 29, 2010

The difference between federal and private student loans

Federal student loans have advantages over private loans. For example, interest on the loan is tax deductable, the loan can sometimes be forgiven for certain types of service, and you can sometimes defer payments on the federal loan if you go back to school.
Private loans don't have these advantages - they are really just loans either secured or unsecured, and you have to pay them back just like any other loan.
So, it's important to not consolidate federal and private loans together. Consolidate all your federal student loans first, then separately consolidate your private loans. If you were to mix the public and private loans you would have to take out a single private loan that loses all the benefits of the federal loans. Keep government student loan consolidation separate from private loan consolidation.

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