Finance: Use Your Credit Cards Responsibly

Use Your Credit Cards Responsibly

Written by David Medlock

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•Look for Rewards: If you can, try to find cards that offer rewards for using them. Some cards offer free gasoline, frequent flier miles, cash back or other incentives for using repparttar

card. •Pay Your Bills on Time: Late fees can cost anywhere from $20 - $40 for one late fee. This adds itself onto your balance and if you don’t pay it off immediately, you will pay interest on repparttar 112021

late fee as well. Late fees can put you in repparttar 112022

whole very quickly and many credit card companies may increase your interest rate repparttar 112023

very first time you are late with a payment. Needless to say, it can be very costly to be late on your payment. It doesn’t look good on your credit score, either. •Don’t Go Over: Some cards may allow you to go over repparttar 112024

credit limit you’ve been given to some extent. But, when you do this they may hit you with $20 - $40 charges, just like late fees. Again, this is bad news. It also does not look good on your credit report to have maxed out credit cards.

Credit cards can very quickly get you into a lot of trouble. But, if you avoid impulse purchases, pay them off every month and make your payments on time, they can reward you for purchases and help you build up a solid credit score. Just use your cards wisely and remember that you should be in control of your credit, not repparttar 112025 other way around.

David Medlock owns GetSomePlastic.com, a premier provider of online credit card applications and instant approvals. GetSomePlastic.com always encourages responsible use of credit cards and informed decision making in financial matters. http://www.getsomeplastic.com

Student Loan Consolidation – How does it Work?

Written by Vanessa McHooley

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- You are in your six-month grace period following graduation or you have started repaying your loans -You have eligible loans totaling over $7,500 -You have more than one lender -You have not already consolidated your student loans, or since consolidation you have gone back to school and acquired new student loans

The following types of loans can be consolidated:

-Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans -Federal Subsidized and Unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loans -Direct PLUS Loans and Federal PLUS Loans -Direct Consolidation Loans and Federal Consolidation Loans -Guaranteed Student Loans -Federal Insured Student Loans -Federal Supplemental Loans for Students -Auxiliary Loans to Assist Students -Federal Perkins Loans -National Direct Student Loans -National Defense Student Loans -Health Education Assistance Loans -Health Professions Student Loans -Loans for Disadvantaged Students -Nursing Student Loans

Where can I get a consolidation loan? You can consolidate your loans through any bank or credit union that participates in repparttar Federal Family Education Loan Program, or directly from repparttar 112020 U.S. Department of Education. The loan terms and conditions are generally repparttar 112021 same, regardless of where you consolidate. You may want to check first with repparttar 112022 lenders that hold your current loans.

If all your loans are with one lender, you must consolidate with that lender.

If you decide to consolidate your student loans, remember that you can only do so once unless you go back to school and take out more loans. Therefore, you will want to make sure you get repparttar 112023 best deal repparttar 112024 first time. The interest rate will be repparttar 112025 same from all lenders, but some lenders may offer future rate discounts for prompt payment and a discount for having monthly payments directly debited from your account.

Can my spouse and I consolidate our loans together? You can consolidate your loans together, but it is not a good idea for a couple reasons:

-Both of you will always be responsible to repay repparttar 112026 loan, even if you later separate or divorce -If you need to defer payment on repparttar 112027 loan, both of you will have to meet repparttar 112028 deferment criteria

When should I consolidate my loans? You can consolidate your loans any time during your six-month grace period or after you have started repaying your loans. If you consolidate during your grace period, you may be able to get a lower interest rate. However, since you will lose repparttar 112029 rest of repparttar 112030 grace period, it is a good idea to wait until repparttar 112031 fifth month of repparttar 112032 grace period before consolidating. The consolidation process usually takes 30-45 days.

This article is distributed by NextStudent. At NextStudent, we believe that getting an education is repparttar 112033 best investment you can make, and we're dedicated to helping you pursue your education dreams by making college funding as easy as possible. We invite you to learn more about how to get Student Loan Consolidation at http://www.NextStudent.com .

My goal is to help every student succeed - education is one of the most important things a person can have, so I have made it my personal mission to help every student pay for their education. Aside from that, I am just a pretty average girl from SD.

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