Student Loan Refinancing

Regardless of which field a student enters, they commonly find that following graduation it is necessary for them to rethink their financial situation and consider student loan refinancing. For some students, this appears to be more difficult if they have taken out private student loans as well as federal student loans in order to fund their education. This is because, generally; private student loans cannot be consolidated with federal student loans.

While this may not seem fair to a student that is struggling to make the minimum payments on multiple loans, the reason that private student loans cannot be combined with federal student loans for the purpose of consolidation is that the holders of private education loans are not eligible for the low rates received by lenders for federal student loans.

This doesn’t mean; however, that there are no options available for students who have taken out private student loans. There are actually numerous options available, with a little thought and creativity.

For example, one option available to students with private student loans would be to take advantage of a home equity loan. This is only possible, of course, if the student owns a home but for those that do, they are able to use a fixed rate home equity loan to pay off their private education loan. This type of strategy offers two important benefits:

• It allows you to take advantage of a lower interest rate
• Gives you the opportunity to lock in the interest rate as opposed to the fluctuating interest rate of a variable interest rate; common with private student loans.

Besides a home equity loan, students might also consider student loan refinancing for a private student loan through one of the many education lenders that are able to handle private student loans. Due to the fact that most of these organizations are not linked in any way to the government, the rates that are offered will generally be governed by prevailing market terms; so it’s a good idea to make sure you find out the following information:

• Cost of origination fees?
• Fixed or variable interest rate?
• Prepayment penalties?

It's always a good idea to investigate various options first before making your selection.  A good such option would be Citibank. 

In addition to private student loans, the education department of Citibank also works in conjunction with the federal government to provide students with access to one of the most popular direct student loan programs, the Federal Stafford Loan as well as the PLUS loan for parents.

The various types of student loans available through Citibank are:

• Federal Stafford Loan
• Federal Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students; also known as PLUS
• CitiAssist Graduate/Undergraduate Loan
• CitiAssist Health Profession Loan
• CitiAssist Health Profession Residency Loan
• CitiAssist Law Loan
• CitiAssist Bar Study Loan
• Federal Loan Consolidation