PHOENIX, March 21 /PRNewswire/ -- NextStudent (http://www.nextstudent.com/), one of the nation's premier federal student loan consolidation and education funding companies, is pleased to now offer to qualified borrowers a 2.75 percent fixed student loan consolidation rate, with benefits applied.

The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 recently passed and brought with it major cuts to the federal student loan program along with changes that will negatively impact federal student loan consolidation rates and regulations. Changes are set to take effect July 1, so eligible borrowers now can lock in low rates and reduce payments as much as 70 percent.

According to NextStudent, in-school borrowers can receive a student loan consolidation rate of 4.75 percent, allowing them to avoid the July 1 increase on their federal student loan rates. The company's borrower incentives include: one easy payment, no prepayment penalties and a longer payment term.

The student loan consolidation program (http://www.nextstudent.com/) has no fees or costs and is beneficial for borrowers who want to reduce or postpone monthly payments before the July 1 rate increase when it will become more difficult to consolidate. NextStudent offers eligibility determination in one minute to borrowers who want to prevent interest rate hikes on their student loans.

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, parent loans, private loans, student loan consolidation 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 new 2.75 percent fixed student loan consolidation rate, please visit the company's Web site at http://www.nextstudent.com/ .

Contact: Rob Lawson 800-299-4639 rlawson@nextstudent.com

This press release distributed by PRWEB (http://www.prwebdirect.com/), a service of eMediaWire.

CONTACT: Rob Lawson of NextStudent, 1-800-299-4639, or
rlawson@nextstudent.com

Web site: http://www.nextstudent.com/