Sourcing College Money Without A Cosigner

With education costs continuing to rise each year it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain the funds necessary for college and many students spend more time worrying about raising the funds needed than they do concentrating on their studies. If this were not bad enough all 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 years to repay. If this paints a grim picture then for all too many students the problem of funding a college education is compounded by the requirement to raise the necessary funds without the availability of a cosigner for their loan applications.

Today college funding is not simply a matter of turning to a single source of finance for most students but is a matter of putting together a portfolio of funds from a range of different sources.

The first action for every student should be to try to find grants and scholarships. Many students ignore this source of effectively free money completely and yet you would be surprised at just how many grants and scholarships are available nowadays. In many cases of course the amounts of money available are relatively small but even so can be extremely helpful as a part of your total funding plan.

The next port of call should be federal loans through schemes like Perkins and Stafford loans which are offered as both subsidized and unsubsidized loans. Perkins loans particularly attractive because of their relatively low rate of interest but are also the hardest loans to get and require a student to demonstrate financial need.

Sorry to say at this point although you will have started to create your portfolio it is unlikely that this will provide you with sufficient funds and you will have to begin casting your net wider and will have two paths to follow.

If you are fortunate enough to have the help and support of either a parent or guardian then they could apply for a federal student PLUS loan to make up the difference between the money which you have been able to obtain yourself and the overall cost of attending college. Student PLUS loans are conditional upon your guardian or parent having a fairly good credit rating but the requirements are not as stringent as those applied by a private lender.

If you have not got a guardian or parent to whom you can turn or decide to go it alone then you will have to obtain a loan from a private lender and exactly how simple that will be will depend to a large degree on your personal credit history. In most cases private lenders will be quite happy to offer you a loan as long as your credit rating is good and will ask for a cosigner if you have no credit history against which they can make their decision or have a bad credit history. In spite of this, with more and more people with a bad credit history these days there is also a growing number of private lenders who are prepared to offer loans without the requirement for a cosigner and so it is simply a question of shopping around.

A bad credit loan with no need for a cosigner will naturally cost you more than a standard good credit loan but if you take your time and shop around with care you will find a loan at a fair rather than exorbitant interest rate.