Student loan consolidation provides students with many benefits even if they are making current monthly payments and not experiencing any difficulty doing so. Students can make their monthly bill payments a lot simpler with a student loan payment to a single lender, and the rate on Federal Consolidation Loans are fixed during the lifetime of the loan.

Ease the Pressure on Your Monthly Budget

By consolidating loans, students will be able to ease the pressure on their monthly budget by 10 to 60 per cent reduction in their monthly budget. In fact, students could also save money by using their student loan payment savings to pay off their credit card debts, and consolidation will also help the students’ credit scores as well as debt-to-equity ratio.

No doubt, expanding the repayment period may result in added total interest payments, but there are no prepayment penalties for faster repayment and thus allows students to pay off the loan in a shorter time frame, and hence save on total interest payments. The interest rate may be calculated by taking the weighted average of the interest rates on each loan that is to be consolidated, and then rounding off to the nearest eighth of 1 or 8.25 per cent, whichever is less.

Though one may need to consult a tax advisor, usually student loan consolidation allows students to deduct tax paid on Federal Consolidation Loans. Student loan consolidation will help the student to lock in a lower rate of interest as well as provides for many other incentive features.

Student loan consolidation is the easiest way to reduce student and school loan debt, and it results in lowered debt as well as payments in case the average interest after consolidation is less than it was before. One can think of it as being refinancing one or a group of federal student loans at reduced rates of interest and it is much like refinancing a mortgage loan at a reduced interest rate that would lessen monthly payments as well as the total amount paid.

The student loan consolidation program will let a borrower combine outstanding student loans and by consolidating loans through a student loan consolidation program there are three benefits to be enjoyed. The first one is that it is very convenient since all loan payments are clubbed into one payment and thus there is less paper work and fewer due dates. Secondly, it will save money for the student since after consolidation only one payment is required which normally is less than combined payments for all loans paid individually.

The third benefit of having student loan consolidation is that it can open up more opportunities for students in the form of new deferment choices and/or added repayment potential. With added flexibility, the student may be able continue pursuing further education and face lesser financial hardships.

Housing finance company LIC Housing Finance Ltd. reported a higher net profit for the first-quarter, backed by all-round performance with a strong asset and income growth.

The Mumbai-based company posted a first-quarter net profit of Rs.212.02 crore or Rs.22.23 per share, compared with Rs.123.84 crore or Rs.14.58 per share in the previous-year quarter. Net profit and earnings per share rose by 71% and 52% respectively.

Net interest income during the quarter was Rs.294.32 crore, up by 69% from the Rs.174.19 crore in the corresponding quarter last year, while other operating income amounted to Rs.40.90 crore, compared with Rs.35.14 crore in the previous-year quarter. Net Interest Margin for the quarter rose and stood at 3.01%, compared with 2.45% for the quarter ended June 2009. The company’s total income, including other income for the first-quarter was Rs.1,015 crore, compared with Rs.782 crore for the same period last year, registering a 30% growth.

During the quarter, loan sanctions rose by 51% to Rs.5,348 crore from the Rs.3,533 crore in the corresponding quarter last year, while loan disbursals were Rs.3,392 crore, up by 40% from the Rs.2,430 crore in the previous-year quarter.

Outstanding mortgage portfolio as at the end of June this year was Rs.40,030 crore, up from Rs.29,254 crore as on June 30, 2009, showing a 37% growth.

Gross NPAs and Net NPAs as on June 30, 2010 stood at 0.92% and 0.35% respectively, compared to 1.51% and 0.65% respectively as on June 2009.

Company Finance Director & Chief Executive R.R. Nair said: “We have commenced the year on a strong note continuing on our good all-round performance with a strong asset and income growth, which we are confident of sustaining along with improved asset quality.”

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LIC Housing Finance, a subsidiary of Life Insurance Corp, is interested in entering the banking business but would wait till the RBI issues its guidelines on the matter before taking a call, company  CEO R R Nair said.

“We are in-principle interested in the banking business but it is too premature to talk about it now. We will wait for the Reserve Bank guidelines on the issue before taking a decision,” Nair told PTI here today.

The Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced in the Budget that the government was open to allowing more private entities and NBFCs into the banking sector.

Following this, a host of NBFCs have evinced interest in foraying into the segment. Among those interested in entering the banking business are Reliance Capital, the Bajaj group, the Tata Group, the Aditya Birla Group, Kerala’s Muthoot Group and the Rhriram Group.

The last time fresh banking licences were issued in 2003 Nair said LIC HF would have to see if it fitted into the guidelines to be issued by the RBI.

“If there is an opportunity and if we are eligible, then we will look at it. We will exercise our option of whether to enter banking or not, then,” Nair said.

The company was known for its speedy decision-making and should it decide to enter banking, then it could do so quickly, he said.

“Our machinery has the capability to move fast — our decision-making process is speedy. However, we will have to study the guidelines before taking any decision,” he said.

Income mortgage protection would allow you the peace of mind that if you should lose your income due to suffering illness, accident or you became unemployed you would not be struggling. A policy would allow you to take out insurance for up to a certain amount of your own income. All providers set a limit to this amount so you have to check before taking out the policy.

One of your biggest payments, your mortgage is of course protected with income mortgage protection. Getting behind on this payment is the worst case scenario for any homeowner as the lender could take you to court and you could lose your home to repossession. You would have to be able to come to an agreement with the lender so that you could catch up on the arrears while also at the same time manage to pay your regular payment.

While income protection would allow you to keep up with the repayments of the mortgage it also protects all of your other essential outgoings. If you have loan/credit card repayments to keep up with then you would be able to use the income from the cover. You would also be able to pay monthly bills that keep up the home such as your utility bills along with your monthly food bill.

Income mortgage protection taken with a standalone provider can be taken for a premium that is based on the amount you wish to protect and your age. A policy would begin to provide you with an income between a period of 30 and 90 days with some providers backdating the cover to the first day of you being unemployed or incapacitated. After commencement the cover would continue paying out for a certain length of time defined by the provider. A policy could provide you with an income for either 12 monthly payments or 24 monthly payments and then it would cease. However this is usually more than enough time to have made a recovery and got back to work or to have found another suitable job.

When looking for income mortgage protection you should not get it confused with income protection insurance. Income protection insurance is a type of insurance similar but it does not payout if you should become unemployed. It would payout against accident and sickness and one of the main differences is that it would payout up to the age of retirement if it was necessary. However there is a longer period of deferment before you would be able to put in a claim on the cover. All policies have exclusions within them and these need checking against your circumstances if you are to be sure that you would be able to claim on the cover. Providing you choose an ethical payment protection specialist to take your policy out with you can be sure that you would have a back up plan to fall back against. Policies are a much more reliable option than relying on help from the State or falling back on savings you have accumulated.

From an assortment of lenders out there, you can choose the best to serve your need for a bad credit auto loan. With scores of lenders working online as well as offline, your search for the ideal lender. With them you can acquire an auto loan that you thought would get out of your reach due to your poor credit score. Though you should persevere to get such an auto loan you can get it quite easily if you provide the necessary information which instills some degree of confidence in the lender about your repaying capability irrespective of the figures your credit report depicts.

Online money lenders and reliable auto dealers don’t show upheaval if they have to deal with people having poor credit against their name. Unfortunately, people stagger without knowing how to proceed and where to approach only because of their unconsciousness about the existence of facilities offered by these institutions to render bad credit auto loans. With the might of Internet, important contacts or leads of persons involved with such firms can be found online provided you know how to research and get close to these details. A mere submission of an online query form or a questionnaire will put before you a sequence of results with which you can make your mind as to whether you need to go for it or not.

After assimilating quite a length of details from your end, people from the respective positions call you so as to make sure whether you’re the right person that they look forward to do business with. Chances are bright for them to check whether you’re employed and enjoy a constant flow of cash so that you don’t fall short of what you’re liable to do – to pay out monthly payments.

My bit of advice for those who throw the net to catch the ideal bad credit auto loan lender is to read reviews shared by people, testimonials written by previous customers and similar stuff on forums scattered all over cyberspace. By doing so, you get a step closer to getting your auto loan needs satiated in conjunction with maintaining a good credit score as you make the monthly disbursement in time. In short, find the lender, make him know your need and have your bad credit auto loan sanctioned without any considerable passage of time.