Borrowers should now take advantage of student loan consolidation and reconsolidation while they still can reduce their monthly payments, according to NextStudent, http://www.nextstudent.com/, one of the nation's premier education funding companies. Reconsolidation will no longer be an option after March 31.

Due to the passing in February of the Deficit Reduction Act signed into law by President Bush, major cuts and changes to the federal student loan program are set to take effect on July 1. Reconsolidation originally was scheduled to end July 1. However, the Department of Education recently changed the date and will not accept reconsolidation applications after March 31 so that it can complete all paperwork by June 30. Borrowers must send in reconsolidation applications by March 30 so that the Department of Education receives them no later than March 31.

According to NextStudent, student loan reconsolidation only is available until March 31 to borrowers with a balance of $10,500 or more. Through the program borrowers retain the effective interest rate that was in place on their original consolidation. Reconsolidation also allows borrowers to receive the benefit of interest discounts from lenders -- discounts previously not available when consolidation first was offered.

The student loan reconsolidation program offers incentives for borrowers who want to save thousands and help ease their monthly payments. NextStudent's reconsolidation program offers renewal of Title IV benefits such as forbearance and deferments; availability when there is one or more lender; and re-extension of the monthly payment term, which lowers the monthly payment and is dependent upon a borrower's balance. Borrowers can lock in a 1 percent rate reduction after 36 consecutive on-time payments and receive a 0.25 percent rate reduction when they set up automatic withdrawal if they sign up for reconsolidation before March 31.

About NextStudent

NextStudent, http://www.nextstudent.com/, listed at No. 15 on the Top 100 Consolidating Lenders for fiscal year 2004, is dedicated to helping students and their families find affordable ways to pay for college. NextStudent offers one-on-one education finance counseling and has a portfolio of highly competitive education lending products and services including an online scholarship search engine, low and no-cost federal student loans (http://www.nextstudent.com/), parent loans, private loans, student loan consolidation (http://www.nextstudent.com/consolidation_loans/consolidation_loans.asp) programs, student loan reconsolidation programs and college savings plans.

The NextStudent Scholarship Search Engine, one of the nation's oldest and largest scholarship search engines, is updated daily, available free of charge, completely private -- and represents more than 800,000 scholarships worth $2.8 billion.

For more information about NextStudent and its student loan reconsolidation program, please visit the company's Web site at http://www.nextstudent.com/.

Contact: Rob Lawson

NextStudent

800-658-6801, ext. 15406

rlawson@nextstudent.com

http://www.nextstudent.com

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Source: prnewswire