Consolidating student loans?

[Anonymous]

Has anyone done this? Was it an easy/fast process? Is there a way to tell if you will save money before you actually go through with it. I know you can only do it with federal loans which is the majority of what I have. Interested to hear from others' who have done this recently.

[Anonymous]

First, get your loan information from NSLDS. http://www.nslds.ed.gov/nslds_SA/

Then use this online calculator to estimate what your payment would be on a new Direct Consolidation Loan. https://loanconsolidation.ed.gov/loancalc/servlet/Controller?controller_task=startCalculator

Also, research which repayment plan you would want to select for the consolidation loan. http://studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/consolidation

It should be pretty painless but your loan servicer will likely change.

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP. I went to the website but it doesn't have any of my interest rates listed. I guess I have to do each one separately then on the calculator. What a pain but thanks for the great info.

[Anonymous]

I consolidated all of my federal loans because I had 3 different servicers and 3 different due dates (one servicer had 2 separate due dates). I prefer to review my bills each month (and pay extra into the account) instead of setting up automatic bill pay- and I was fine for a while but then made one late payment because it is hard to keep track of all these loans and due dates. Anyhow, I was surprised that the process was so involved. The application is kind of long and you have to have references and stuff- essentially you are asking someone to take you on as a lender. But it all went OK and it took maybe 6 weeks? to get the approval and then another month to have the account all set up. I totally recommend it; it is a relief to have it all in one place.

The only way you will save money is if you are locking in a low rate on a variable interest rate loan. You can also save a bit by lowering your interest rate (by .25%- which would have saved me like $200 over 10 yrs) if you sign up for automatic payments.