Calculating education costs with a special device

Students in the US will be assisted in finding the lowest 'blended' interest rate for their college loans, including alternative sources of financing such as friends and family. The new service aimed to help US students was introduced by Virgin Money.

The Lender Blender, the newly launched online calculator enables a student to evaluate all potential sources of funding and concoct an overall blended interest rate. After a student’s giving selected the sources to finance education the tool takes the weighted average to determine the user's potential blended rate.

With this tool students are offered information from multiple sources from a one-stop shop.

"The 'blended' rate is the most important number families should pay attention to when developing a college financing strategy," says Su Joun, student loan product manager, Virgin Money, "After exhausting traditional education savings and financial aid options, they should take a hard look at all potential options-including less conventional approaches and work to understand their total borrowing costs."