Finding The Best No Credit Check College Loans

All too many college students today hit a hurdle right from the start when it comes to finding the money needed for college because they have already managed to get themselves a poor credit report. Luckily however there are various loan and aid packages available that look mainly at need and are not concerned with your credit record. Therefore, this is where you will need to begin looking for funding.

A well established source of funding and one that is chiefly made available on the basis of financial need is the Pell grant. Provided the student and his family are classed as a low-income family a Pell grant is more or less automatic and is made on the basis of the submission of an application and supporting documents.

A student is required to provide proof of the cost of his course (including not only tuition fees but also additional qualifying costs) and will also need to provide evidence of the family's income from which an Expected Family Contribution (EFC) number will be worked out. On this basis a decision will be reached and the grant either made or refused.

As the name suggests, a Pell grant is a gift rather than a loan and it does not have to be repaid. Pell grants are presently for a maximum of $4,731 annually (depending on an assessment of financial need) and, while this will not normally meet the full cost of your college education, it can go a long way towards helping. Nonetheless, the majority of students will need to seek loan funding in addition to a Pell grant and the best form of loan funding initially is a Stafford college loan.

There are presently two different forms of Stafford loan and the first of these is a subsidized Stafford loan on which the government covers interest loan payments as long as you are studying full-time and for up to six months following graduation. The second type of Stafford loan is an unsubsidized Stafford loan on which you are responsible for making all of the interest payments.

Unsubsidized Stafford loans need to be considered with great care because, while you are responsible for making interest payments, you will not need to do so while you are in full-time study and for a period of up to six months following graduation. But, during this period interest will still be calculated on any loan and will merely be added to the outstanding amount of the loan. This means that during a standard three or four year course your loan debt can increase substantially.

Of course, the majority of students would prefer to have unsubsidized Stafford loans but loans are granted according to the funds available and against need so that only a small number of students will qualify for a subsidized loan. The good news however is that the majority of students qualify for unsubsidized loans and, despite their shortcomings, they nonetheless represent one of the very best types of college loan funding available today.

There are of course other types of loan and grant funding available and you have to look around to see just what is on offer and best meets your needs. However for students from low-income families both Pell grants and Stafford loans are invariably the best routes to follow when looking for college funding.