Credit card balance transfers enable a person to pay off his old bills by opening a new credit card. It can be considered as a refinance, as your old credit card balance is paid off, and you start off with a new credit card balance with a new rate and terms.

Let’s look at a quick example

Let us suppose that you have an American Express Card with a balance of $1,000 and a 20.99% APR. Whereas you can get a new Visa card with a credit line of $5,000 and 0% APR for 12 months.

If you choose the balance transfer offer using your new Visa card, you’ll pay off the $1,000 balance which you had with American Express with your Visa credit card, and the balance on your Visa card will become $1,000.

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Lenders use your credit history to determine how much of a risk they’re taking by lending you money or extending a line of credit. Thus having a bad credit history can keep you from getting good rates on loans or, particularly in this economy, any loans at all. And if you’ve ever been denied for credit, then you must know how lousy it feels to be discriminated because of past mistakes.

How to improve your situation?

But although it is a fact that lenders need to protect themselves, this doesn’t mean that you have to settle for predatory practices. There are other ways to improve your situation without getting trapped with dishonest lenders.

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A good news for past, current or future loan takers with a new amendment to renegotiate your monthly student loan repayment bill to a maximum 15% of your discretionary income.

These new benefits will be affected from 1^st of July. This will regulate the student loan payments for millions of Americans. These benefits were signed into law in 2007 as part of College Cost Reduction and Access Act. They include:

• Low interest rates on need-based (subsidized) federal student loans. From 1^st of July the interest rates on subsidized federal student loans will decrease from 6% to 5.6%. That’s 2^nd from four annual cuts in this interest rate and it will continuously decrease down to 3.4% till 2011.

• Affordable monthly college loan payments plan for borrowers. The implementation of this new Income-Based repayment program will be effected from 1^st July, which allows borrowers to pay just 15% of their discretionary income (15% of what a borrower earns above 150% of the poverty level for their family size). The current or future borrower whose loan payment will be greater than 15% of their discretionary income is eligible. After 25 years in the program borrowers debts will be completely forgiven.

• Pell Grant scholarships covering the average tuition at public universities. The maximum Pell Grant scholarship for the 2009/2010 school year will be $5,350 which is $600 more than last year’s award and funding will be provided by both the College Cost Reduction and Access Act and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Read the full story

As a result of far-reaching changes in financial aid grant and loan programs low-income students and recent college graduates may reap dramatic gains which will begin form July 1st.

While attention has been received by some of the gains such as a significant hike in Pell Grants. Among all other changes one of the most significant changes is the introduction of income-based repayment. With these incomes based repayments students can considerably reduce their monthly payments which are based on their earnings. This has been done to help particularly the graduates in low-paying public service jobs.

It has been said by Edie Irons who is the spokeswoman for the Project on Student Debt in Berkeley, Calif that it is estimated by them that hundreds of thousands will take advantage of this, but it is not automatic, students shall have to apply to avail this.

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