Getting College Funding Without The Need For A Cosigner - By: Don Saunders

With the cost of education continuing to rise from year to year it is becoming increasingly difficult to find the funds necessary for college and more and more students spend more time worrying about raising the money needed than they do working at their studies. As if this were not bad enough in itself far too many students find that once they have left college they are left with so much loan debt that it quite simply drags them down and will probably take many years to repay. Now, if this paints a grim picture then for far too many students the problem of funding an education is increased by a requirement to raise the necessary funds without the availability of a cosigner for their loan applications.

College funding these days is not merely a matter of turning to a single source of finance for most students but is a matter of building a portfolio of funds from a variety of different sources.

The first port of call for every student should be to try to find grants and scholarships. Most students simply overlook this source of effectively free money altogether and yet you would be surprised at just how many grants and scholarships are available these days. In a lot of cases of course the sums of money available are reasonably small but even so can be very useful as a part of your total funding plan.

The next port of call ought to be federal loan funding through schemes such as Stafford and Perkins loans which you can get as both unsubsidized and subsidized loans. Perkins loans especially useful because of their low rate of interest but are also the most difficult loans to get and require students to show financial hardship.

Unhappily at this point despite the fact that you will have begun to build your portfolio it is unlikely that this will give you sufficient funds and you will need to start casting your net wider and will have two paths to follow.

If you are able to obtain the assistance and support of either a parent or guardian then they could apply for a federal student PLUS loan to cover the difference between the funding you have been able to source yourself and the total cost of attending college. Student PLUS loans are conditional upon the guardian or parent having a fairly good credit history but the requirements are less stringent than those applied by private lenders.

If you do not have a guardian or parent to whom you can turn or simply decide to go it alone then you will need to seek a loan from a private lender and just how easy this will be will depend to a large extent on your personal credit history. In almost all cases lenders will be quite happy to offer you a loan as long as your credit history is good and will require you to have a cosigner if you have no credit history against which they can make their decision or have a poor credit rating. However, with more and more people with a poor or bad credit rating these days there is also an increasing number of lenders who are prepared to offer loans without the requirement for a cosigner and so it is merely a matter of shopping around.

A poor credit loan without a need for a cosigner will of course cost you more than a normal good credit loan although if you take your time and shop around with care you will obtain a loan at a fair rather than exorbitant interest rate.

About the Author

TheStudentLoansCenter.com provides information on all aspects of college financing including student loans with no cosigner

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Don-Saunders/17211

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