After You Graduate
Managing Your Money
It doesn’t matter whether you’re still in school or out on your own. Money never seems to go far enough.
In this section, we show you some ways to get more out of your Checking and Savings Accounts. We’ll also help you figure out how to make those pennies stretch from paycheck to paycheck in Budgeting.
And because no one seems to be able to get through life without car loans and credit cards, we’ll give you some Tips for Better Borrowing, including how to improve your credit, how to make the best choices when it comes to selecting a loan or credit card, and what to do if you’re having trouble repaying.
After You Graduate
Somehow money takes on a whole new dimension after you graduate. Getting a full-time job, starting a career, buying major possessions, planning for the future. This section can help.
If you’ve used student loans to help finance your education, you might want to look at Repaying Student Loans. It contains some tips that can make repaying your loans easier.
Buying A Car takes you to the Auto Loan section of BankSITE® Online. There you’ll be able to find out how big an auto loan you might qualify for, identify the makes and models that loan will let you get, and learn a pile of tips on dealing with auto salesmen and selecting a loan to get yourself the best deal.
Whether it’s a small condo for yourself alone or a house for your growing family, Buying A Home is the biggest investment you’ll ever make. We’ll help you determine how much of a mortgage you might qualify for. Then we take you through the mortgage process and aid you in deciding what kind of mortgage might suit you best.
These days Credit Cards are a fact of life. But not all credit cards are the same. We’ll show you how to qualify for a card, how to build good credit and how to use credit cards to your advantage.
Retirement looks a long way in the future. But did you know that if you start saving now with just a small, monthly deposit, you can build a big, comfortable nest-egg for when you retire. Our section on IRAs (Individual Retirement Accounts) shows you how to use that tax-deferred savings vehicle to build a more secure tomorrow.
Repaying Student Loans
If you’ve been using student loans to help finance your education, chances are you have several loans, one for each year in school. Now that you’re out of school, you’re probably making several loan payments… possibly to several different places.
If you’re just getting started and having trouble meeting all your expenses, making payments to four different lenders could be a burden.
There’s a way to simplify this and reduce your monthly payments, too. It’s called Student Loan Consolidation.
How Student Loan Consolidation Works
With Student Loan Consolidation you take out one big loan equal to the total balance on all your student loans. You then use the proceeds of that loan to pay off the other loans.
You end up paying on only one, large loan. Usually the term on the loan is longer, and your monthly payment is smaller. Although this will make repaying your student loans easier to fit into a tight budget, you do pay a price for these lower payments. Because the term is longer, the ultimate cost of the single, consolidated loan will be greater in the end than the combined cost of the loans you consolidated would have been.
Who Qualifies
To qualify for Student Loan Consolidation, you must have loans totaling at least $5000. All Federally underwritten loans, except PLUS loans, are eligible for consolidation.
How To Apply
Loan Consolidation packages are available from the same lenders who provide Student Loans. Click on Banks Near You to find a bank near you who can help.
To apply for loan consolidation you must be either in your grace period or have begun repaying your loans.