Going to college, faculty, graduate school, master or MBA is a great investment in your studies and the future. This transition life phase will provide all the necessary skill sets and features as stepping into professional life, as well as substantially increasing the earning potential. Going to study is no cheap investment in one’s future.

There are two main types of student loans available for prospective students: federal or private. There are several types of federal loans and their connected repayment programs which can save a considerable amount of money throughout an entire student loan. Sometimes, the federal student loan is not enough to cover all the implications and student costs, and additionally, there is a possibility of taking out private student loans to complete the financial necessities of a student throughout all the university years.

The benefits of a federal student loan:

• Easy to apply

• Inherit benefits

• Low-interest rates

• Deferment and forbearance protection

• Great variety of repayment options  

Great Lakes Educational Loan Services is a financial institution based in Madison, Wisconsin, part of the Great Lakes region in the United States of America; which offers student loan servicing nationwide. Is forms part of nine private companies, that contract with the U.S. Department of Education to manage the billing of federal student loans.

Practically, Great Lakes is a student loan provider, which collaborates closely with the ED, to help you access your federal student loans. In case of federal student loans accessing, the Department of Education assigns one of its collaborating companies to handle this servicing on its behalf.

This procedure is repeating independently of how many loans do you access during your studies.

Like any other student loan servicer, Great Lakes provides the necessary tools and resources you need to successfully manage the accessed loan, from the day you first have access to your funds, until the last payment rate is received, including the consolidation of the student loans.

Fulfilling or updating the profile or contact information

Constantly checking the student loan status

Details on payment amounts and due dates

Addressing billing issues or errors

Switching the student loan repayment plan

Applying for a pause in payment

If multiple federal student loan payments, with multiple interest rates or multiple servicers, are becoming a problem, it is time to reconsolidate the study loans. For study loans reconsolidation, the U.S. Department of education is allowing the student to choose the consolidation servicer provider for this task, under a specialized government program. The Direct Consolidation Loan program allows the student to consolidate all the credits into one and select the service provider as an individual unique choice.

Great Lakes student loan consolidation offers a wide range of options for repaying or consolidating the student loans, as well as, ways to temporarily suspend your payments. The possibility of a new repayment strategy can involve changes that work best for each one of the students’ situations, only with Great Lakes student loan consolidation.

Direct consolidation loans can be used by borrowers with already existing federal student loans to easily blend them into a single loan. 

The loan consolidation through Great Lakes replaces the previous loans by having them held by a single servicer.

The easiest way to consolidate the study loans payments with Great Lakes is to use its online portal, while creating an account, fulfil it with the required personal information, which must include the social security number and date of birth of the borrower. Choosing from a wide range of options, and to make the procedure even easier, you can sign up for automatic payments which will automatically deduct the payment from the main bank account. Great Lakes will automatically enrol any candidate in its standard repayment plan, with fixed monthly payments on a period of 10 years, if not applying or qualifying for the other repayment options. This could help manage the payments according to the determined budget and qualify for public service loan forgiveness.

Even though Great Lakes does not have high good quality reviews from borrowers through online forums, it does not have any negative information published, which continues to put it on top of the student loan servicers.

It is important to know that the government federal loan programs might vary and the rules can change over time. It is needed to identify which program loans suit an individual. Although it is always better off with a governed loan, there might be needed to consolidate certain loans under the Direct Loan umbrella to qualify for some of the benefits that Great Lakes offers.