NextStudent, the Phoenix-based premier education funding company, offers some of the most aggressive student loan benefits in the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). NextStudent passes along savings to their customers in a bid to assist students and their parents in funding their college dreams and managing their student loan debt.

Over the past three years, FFELP lenders have helped 4,653,000 students and parents consolidate their federal student loans (http://www.nextstudent.com/student-loans/student-loans.asp). As a result, borrowers not only locked-in at low fixed interest rates and lowered monthly payments by up to 60%, but also saved thousands of dollars by receiving generous discounts such as NextStudent’s 1 percent LOCKED interest rate reduction after the first 36 on-time payments on consolidation student loans.

However, these benefits are being threatened by student loan legislation currently under review in the U.S. Senate.

New Legislation May Threaten Student Loan Rights Currently, if a student attends a college that works with the FFEL Program, those students can choose the lender through which to fund their student loans (http://www.nextstudent.com/). Even if that college offers a student a list of preferred lenders, it is still the student’s right to choose through whom to fund their student loans, even if a specific company is not on that school’s preferred lender list.

However, if the current student loan legislation becomes law, the U.S. government will offer colleges, not students, incentives to work with the Federal Direct Lending Program (FDLP), which does not pass along any real savings to students. Furthermore, the Federal Direct Lending Program is currently in a $16.5 billion deficit, most of which will be passed along to the taxpayer.

New Legislation Counterintuitive Student loan companies have gotten a lot of bad press over the last couple of months. Although it may appear counterintuitive, this new student loan legislation does not promote, but instead discourages, competition amongst banks. Many student lending companies may be put out of business and less savings will be passed along to the students and their parents.

NextStudent believes that getting an education is the best investment you can make, and it is dedicated to helping you pursue your education dreams by making college funding simple. Learn more about Student Loansand Student Loan Consolidation (http://www.nextstudent.com/) at NextStudent.com.