College Loans in New Mexico

Get a Low Interest, Low Monthly Payment Plan

* Due to changes resulting from the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, NMSL no longer issues federally-guaranteed student loans.  Instead, these loans are secured directly from the United States Department of Education.  The following entry is maintained as a historical reference, and to provide information should lending programs restart in the future.

New Mexico has gradually been building its reputation for its not-for-profit agency, New Mexico Student Loans. NMSL is the marriage of two educational agencies, both focused on bringing more higher education opportunity to the historically underprivileged state.

NMSL Federal Family Education Loans

When you need a low-cost, reliable guaranty agency for your federal loans such as the Stafford, Perkins or PLUS loans, NMSL can extend competitive interest rates as well as promise you’ll not pay any loan fees. You can apply directly through NMSL.

NMSL Alternative Loan

Once federal loans are said and done, most students require considerably more financial aid to pay for their tuition. Many students take out private loans through commercial lenders packaging a glossy “student loan” deal. Yes your private bank probably has one waiting and ready for you, but these types of loans are high-end and attached to premium interest rates and tight credit eligibility rules.

State-sanctioned non-profit agencies on the other hand are able to make their loans from tax-exempt bond money that the state typically has put aside for education and other necessities. While the state saves millions in federal taxes, those savings can be passed along to student loan borrowers. This is the reason an agency like New Mexico Student Loans can eliminate loan fees and cut interest rates for good customers.

Link Loan

The Link Education Loan is the NMSL’s answer to a private, alternative student loan. The money empowers students to bridge the difference between federal loans and the actual college tuition, regardless of the program, with a comparatively low cost loan tool. Students may qualify to borrow the full balance of their tuition after federal loans have been disbursed. And the program is open to state residents or those attending a college or university in the state.

Applying

Once you leave federal loan land and cross over into alternative or supplemental loans, you are then in credit territory. This means that in order for you to borrow on your own merit, you must have some credit to speak of and it must be in decent order. But if you have neither, you can apply for a Link Loan with a co-borrower willing to sign on the dotted line with you. And the application process can be handled right online with quick turnarounds on approval.

When you need a co-borrower you may use a parent, another relative, a close friend, whoever you know who trusts you and who has a strong credit record. Typically speaking the better your credit or that of your co-borrower, the better positioned you are to be approved for very attractive interest rates.

Repayment

Some private alternative loans require you to begin making immediate payments on the interest as soon as the loan is disbursed to your college. The Link Education Loan allows you the flexibility to defer all payments until after the now ubiquitous six-month grace period following graduation or when you leave college. However, when you begin repayment of your loan you must pay on time or risk defaulting. In fact, you can earn even deeper interest cuts for consistent on-time payments and for setting up a repayment program that is automatically taken out of your bank account monthly. Both of these practices save NMSL money that they can then pass along to you.

When You Are Unable to Make Payments

There are a number of reasons why borrowers are unable to make student loan payments. You may be going back to school, lost your job, or are earning less income than what allows you to make payments. Let’s face it most students graduate with multiple loans, all of which come due around the same time. Statistics still show that students are not finding jobs that allow them to manage their debt. So, thankfully consolidation loans and deferments are pretty commonplace.

Borrowers apply for deferments for situations like income loss or a return to school. You can take up the issue of deferment with an account manager at NMSL who is trained to help you plan for such instances.

When you have multiple loans and are just ready to pare them all down into one neat monthly payment you may apply for the consolidation loan. Consolidating spreads out your payments over a longer period of time, but may exponentially cut your monthly expense.