There are a number of student loans out there. Many of them do not require you to have an excellent credit score, or even no credit history at all. Federal student loans are a good example of some of the best student loans for bad credit.

However, federal student loans have borrowing limits. If you have to go beyond this cap, you might want to consider taking a private student loan from a bank, credit union or online lender. 

Most private lenders will require you to have a credit score of 690 or above. However, since our objective here is to talk about the best student loans for bad credit, there are two viable options for you to consider

The first one is accepting you will pay higher interest rates and taking a private loan. Some lenders don’t have co-signer or credit scores requirements. Nonetheless, you must know there are only a few lenders like that. You are going to have to search for them.

The second option is taking a private loan with a co-signer who has good credit standing. This is especially useful if you want to limit the amount of interest you will be paying on the borrowed money.

Here are a few things you should consider when shopping for the easiest student loan to get.

Knowing how to choose between the best interest rate options you qualify for is essential for identifying the best student loans for bad credit. You should get to know all the fees such as origination, prepayment or late payment. In case you can’t afford a payment and need to postpone, it is also important to have a lender that can do that for you. For this and various other reasons, the lender should be easy to reach by phone, email or live chat in case you have issues with billing or customer service.

You don’t want your payments to follow market oscillations and vary from month to month. If you have the choice, opt for fixed interest rates to keep your payments the same throughout the whole payment period.

When you borrow for multiple years, it’s important to know what kind of payment you will be facing. There are student loan calculators available online to help you with that. Also, once you’re done with school, it may be possible for you to refinance private student loans at to a lower interest rate. To do that, however, you will need a 690 credit score or higher plus an excellent payment history.

These offer the lowest interest rates you will find, and they come with repayment plans which are income-driven, as well as forgiveness programs. To apply you must fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid as well as for free aid like grants, work-study and scholarships.

If your co-signer has a steady income and good credit, your odds of getting approved for private loans with competitive interest rates are significantly increased. That’s because, in the event of you defaulting on your payments, your co-signer most likely won’t.

Although these are harder to get and certainly charge higher interest rates, if your future income potential is high, you may have good odds of getting approved for this loan. But only do this if none of the other options are available to you.

Unlike private loans, federal direct loans offer borrowers a number of flexible repayment options and protections to prevent default. They are also the only way for you to get access to Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

Loans can be subsidized and unsubsidized, the first one being more facilitated than the latter, but also requiring applicants to meet certain conditions. 

As of the time of writing, all eligible borrowers receive fixed rates of 5.28% for direct unsubsidized loans for graduate or professional students, and 3.73% for direct unsubsidized loans and direct subsidized loans for undergraduate students.

The loan term is 10 to 30 years and amounts vary between $20,500 to $138,500 depending on borrowing conditions. There’s also an origination fee of 1.057%.

Ascent offers student loan options with and without a co-signer. Having a co-signer in good credit standing with you will earn you 11% lower interest  rates.

In case you don’t have a co-signer, Ascent offers credit based and future income-based loans. The first one offers better rates compared to the latter, and borrowers must meet minimum income requirements, as well as have a credit score of 680 or above and 2 years of credit history. Income-based loans are available only to juniors and seniors with a 2.9 GPA.

Also known as Funding University, Funding U offers loans without a co-signer, albeit in only 37  states. Make sure yours is included on their list.

The company makes its lending decisions based on the borrowers’ academic success, taking into account the likelihood that the applicant will graduate on time, as well as making a projection of the total student debt and estimated earnings after graduation.

Funding U has stricter requirements for freshmen and sophomores, but they may also qualify. In order to apply you must meet the following criteria: 

Now that you are much more informed about student loans, how about getting to know a worthwhile credit card option for students? Just click the link below and we’ll take you there.