July 29, 2010
Is It Wise To Apply For A College Loan Without A Cosigner?
Affordable student loans without a cosigner can be hard to find but it is definitely not impossible provided you know where to start looking.
It is usually recommended that before you ever think about applying for a student loan you try and find money for college which won't require any payments and which can often be found in the shape of scholarships or grants. Your first enquiry should be with the college you wish to attend and then you must search the internet for grants like PELL grants. Any sort of grant or disbursement you can get will cut the amount you have to apply for in the form of a loan.
When you have exhausted these options, the next step should be to start to look at government loans and this basically means Stafford and Perkins loans. These loans which you may be fit for depending on your fiscal circumstances are given with a relatively low interest rate and desirable repayment terms.
Stafford federal loans can offer student loans without a cosigner and do not need any form of background credit check. You can either apply for a subsidized or unsubsidized loan with the former being 'needs based'. Subsidized loans also means the central government will pay all your interest while you are in college and then allow you up to 10 years following graduation to pay off your loan. The loan limits are based on your year level at university and whether you are seen as being either a dependent or independent student.
Perkins loans are somewhat more difficult to come by as they're only given to scholars who have exceptional monetary need. The Perkins loan is issued by the college itself although the funds are provided by the government. These loans are all subsidized and don't require the student to make any interest payments while attending college and, once again, have a 10 year repayment period.
When you've exhausted these options, and presuming that you've been incapable of finding anybody who is prepared or able to stand as guarantor for you, you'll ultimately need to have a look for a college loan which doesn't need a cosigner. It should be stressed this is a last resort option and if you can get a loan based totally on your own satisfactory credit record or with a cosigner this is clearly a much better solution. However, this might simply not be possible and a personal loan without a cosigner might be your one option.
Many banks are prepared to issue loans without a cosigner but this represents a higher than normal risk to the bank which will understandably be reflected in the interest levied on the loan and the final terms of the loan. This is something which youwill have to look at extremely closely indeed because it is very easy to take out a loan of this nature and then find yourself unable to make the obligatory payments after only a few short months.
Remember also that repayments will nearly always start within one month of the loan being issued and you'll need to consider just how you are going to get the cash to make these payments. One mistake that all too many borrowers make is to take a loan that is larger than they really need in order that they can use funds from the loan itself to make their payments. This nearly always ends in disaster. If you're going to apply for this sort of loan then you have to have some kind of revenue from which to make the repayments on the loan and this usually means taking some type of work while you are at college.
The issue with student loans without cosigner support is usually not getting the loan in the first place but repaying it and that is something that you need to consider really thoroughly before heading down this particular path.
Filed under Hispanic Scholarships by Rose
