[Student Loans Without Cosigner] Obtaining College Funding With No Cosigner
October 27, 2011 – 2:48 amArticle by Donald Saunders
As education costs continue to rise each year it is becoming increasingly difficult to source the funds necessary for college and a lot of students spend more time worrying about raising the money needed than they do concentrating on their studies. As if this was not bad enough far too many students discover that once they have left college they are saddled with so much loan debt that it quite simply drags them down and will probably take years to repay. Now, if this paints a grim picture then for far too many students the problem of financing their education is compounded by a requirement to raise the money needed without having a cosigner for their loans.
College funding nowadays is not simply a matter of looking to a single source of finance for the majority of students but is a matter of creating a portfolio of funds from a range of different sources.
The first action for all students must be to try to find scholarships and grants. Many students ignore this source of effectively free money altogether and yet you would be surprised at just how many scholarships and grants are on offer nowadays. In many cases of course the sums of money in question are relatively small but nonetheless can be very useful as one part of your total funding plan.
The next port of call should be federal loans through schemes such as Perkins and Stafford loans which are offered as both unsubsidized and subsidized loans. Perkins loans especially useful because of their low interest rate but are also the hardest loans to obtain and need students to show particular financial need.
Unhappily at this point despite the fact that you will have begun to create your portfolio it is unlikely that it will give you sufficient funds and you will need to start casting your net wider and will have two paths to follow.
If you can get the assistance and support of a guardian or parent then they may apply for a federal student PLUS loan to cover the shortfall between the money which you have been able to find yourself and the actual cost of attending college. Student PLUS loans are subject to your guardian or parent having a reasonable credit history but the requirements are generally not as stringent as those applied by private lenders.
If you do not have a guardian or parent to whom you can turn or decide to go it alone then you will need to obtain a loan from a private lender and exactly how easy this will be will depend very much on your personal credit history. In the majority of cases lenders will be quite happy to offer you a loan as long as you have a good credit history and will ask for a cosigner if you have no credit history on which they can base their lending decision or have a bad credit history. Nonetheless, with more and more people with a bad credit history these days there is also an increasing number of lenders who are prepared to offer loans without the requirement for a cosigner so it is simply a matter of shopping around.
A poor credit loan without a need for a cosigner will naturally cost you more than a normal good credit loan but if you take your time and shop around carefully you will obtain a loan at a reasonable rather than extortionate interest rate.
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Tags: College, Cosigner, Funding, Loans, obtaining, Student, Without
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