Loan Consolidation Steps
To consolidate the eligible loans, you would have to sign into your Student Aid site
Once you’ve signed in, hover over the “loan repayment”. The Prepare and Apply row, last option is Consolidate my loans. You will select that.
The consolidation page will show up and you would select start. A list of all eligible Federal Student Loans will be preselected.
The next section is the Grace period and for processing delay you would select to not have any processing delays of the consolidation.
You would select Yes for working full time by a public service organization for PSLF and the servicer that would be selected would be Mohela due to being the only servicer for the PSLF program. You would select continue and the repayment plan sections will be next.
The repayment estimator would need to be filled out with your adjusted gross income from your most recently filed Federal Income Tax Return (1040). You would also need to list your filing status, family size, and state of residence. There is a toggle above the repayment plan options to only show repayment estimates that would qualify for the PSLF program.
At the bottom of the screen is where you would select your repayment plan. Once that is selected you would select continue. If you selected an Income Driven Repayment you would have to pull your income from the IRS.
Please make sure to put your address verbatim or the IRS won’t be able to pull your tax information for the consolidation application.
**If you are married and file your taxes jointly, your spouse’s income will be used, and your spouse will have to sign the consolidation application at the end. If they have federal student loans, they can sign into their student aid account and if they don’t, they can still create an account to sign the application. **
You will read the terms and conditions and mark the box indicating that you’ve read them. Then you would select continue and must enter your personal information. You will have to enter 2 references. They can’t be your spouse, but they can be your friend, neighbors, etc. After the references are filled in you will select continue. This is the last section where you will review all of the information that you implemented on the application. You will then electronically sign the document and submit it.
General Disclosure
GradFin seeks to analyze your current debt, including your student loans and credit card debt, as applicable, and review options that may be available to help you save money including, for example, through a new repayment plan or by refinancing your existing debt. We will focus on the interest rates on each of your current loans, your current loan balances, and current monthly payments, as well as your household income, employment, payment history, number of payments remaining on your loans and FICO score. Our objective is to understand your financial situation and goals and determine the total cost of your debt so that we can then help you compare different loan options that may be available to help you reduce your debt and meet your goals. Our proprietary system allows us to take the financial information you provide and determine whether it is likely that you will be successful in refinancing your debt and meeting your goals. We provide this service without running a credit check and therefore, without potentially negatively impacting your credit rating. Our analysis will only be helpful if you provide us with accurate and fulsome information. In the event we think you would be able to save money by refinancing your loans, we may refer you to a third-party lender. We work with a platform of lenders, and will refer you to the lender we expect, based on our understanding of your finances and our experiences with such third-party lenders, will be well positioned to assist in meeting your goals. We offer this service to you free of charge and without any obligation on your part to refinance your debt. We will receive a fee from the lender with whom you refinance your debt if and only if you successfully refinance your debt with such lender. The fee we receive will vary based on the lender you use to refinance your debt. You are under no obligation to use the lender we recommend. Although we cannot guarantee you will be successful in refinancing your loans with such lender at the rates we expect or at all, we will not refer you to a lender if we don’t think, based on our experience and based on the information you provide us, that you will be able to save money. Approximately 90% percent of the people we referred to our platform of lenders in 2017, were approved by such lenders to refinance their debt. If we do not think you will be successful in refinancing your debt, we will coach you on certain steps you can take to better position yourself to be able to refinance your debt later, whether in three, six or twelve months.
If we refer you to a lender, in connection with any loan application you submit, such lender will request your full credit report from one or more consumer reporting agencies, which is considered a hard credit inquiry. Hard credit inquiries (or hard credit pulls) are required for such lenders to be able to issue you a loan. In addition to requiring your explicit permission, these credit pulls may impact your credit score.
GradFin does not warrant the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of the information we provide and expressly disclaims liability for any errors or omissions in such information. No warranty of any kind, implied, expressed or statutory including but not limited to the warranties of non-infringement of third party rights, title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and freedom from computer virus, is given in conjunction with the information we provide or with our referral to a third party lender. The information we provide you consists of ESTIMATES that may be different than actual amounts. Whether you refinance your loans with a third-party lender to whom we refer you, is your decision and you are under no obligation to refinance your loans with such lender at the time of our referral. You will only be committed to refinance your loans after you agree in writing with a lender to do so.
GradFin does not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.
Limitation of Liability
By using our services, you agree that all access and use of the GradFin Website and information we provide is at your own risk. In no event shall GradFin be held liable for any damages, including without limitation direct or indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages, losses or expenses arising in connection with the GradFin Website or information we provide or any linked site or use thereof or inability to use by any party, or in connection with any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus or line or system failure, even if GradFin, or representatives thereof, are advised of the possibility of such damages, losses or expenses.
State Specific Disclosures
As may be required by your State of residence, you are hereby notified:
1. you have a right to review any file on you maintained by a consumer reporting agency, as provided under 15 USC 1681 et seq. (Fair Crediting Reporting Act);
2. you have a right to receive a copy of a consumer report containing all information in that file as provided under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. § 1681g);
3. you may review your consumer reporting agency file at no charge if a request therefor is made to such agency within thirty days after receipt by you of notice that credit has been denied;
4. A nominal charge not to exceed $5 may be imposed on you by the consumer reporting agency for a copy of the consumer report containing all the information in your file, if you have not been denied credit within 30 days from receipt of your request;
5. However, you may see copies of your credit reports once every 12 months for free by visiting AnnualCreditReport.com, or calling 1-877-322-8228;
6. You have a right to dispute the completeness or accuracy of any item contained in any file on you maintained by a consumer reporting agency as provided under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act;
7. Credit reporting agencies (i) have no obligation to remove information from credit reports unless the information is erroneous, cannot be verified or is more than 7 years old; and (ii) have no obligation to remove information concerning bankruptcies unless such information is more than 10 years old;
8. Accurate information cannot be permanently removed from the files of a consumer reporting agency; and
9. Nonprofit credit counseling services may be available to you in your State.
Representative Example
If you borrow $5,000 on a 36 month repayment term and at a 10% APR, the monthly repayment will be $161.34. Total repayment will be $5,808.24. Total interest paid will be $808.24. Annual Percentage Rate (APR) Disclosure: The Annual Percentage Rate is the rate at which your loan accrues interest. It is based upon the amount of your loan, the cost of the loan, term of the loan, repayment amounts and timing of payments and payoff. By law, the lender or lending partner must show you the APR before you enter into the loan. States have laws that may limit the APR that the lender or lending partner can charge you. Rates will vary based on your credit worthiness, loan size, amongst other variables, with the lowest rates available to customers with excellent credit. Minimum and maximum loan amounts and APRs may vary according to state law and lender or lending partner. We recommend that you read the lender’s and/or lending partner’s personal terms and conditions in full before proceeding for any loan.