Hello All

1. Can any one tell me the advantages disadvantages of the student loan consolidation.

2. I have both federal and private loans, should I consolidate both of them with the same company or deal with each loan separately.

3. In shopping around for best consolidation date deals what should I consider.

thank you very much

the main benefit of consolidating federal loans is to lower your monthly payment. if you have older federal loans they may still have a variable interest rate in which case consolidating those will fix in the rate. consolidating does not save you money if you take the full 20+ years to pay it. It just saves you initially on the monthly payments.

federal and private loans cannot be consolidated together, I also do not know of any company that does both, even separately. Direct loans is the only place I know of that consolidates Federal loans. (1800-557-7392)...or dlssonline.com

Wells Fargo is the only place I know of that consolidates private loans....1800-658-3567...benefit of consolidating private loans is lower monthly payment...and in a perfect world, lowering your interest rate as well.

So to answer your shopping question...these days with this economy...you dont have many options...the 2 above are all ive got

thanks for the replay

1. is it a good tome to consolidate my loans now

2. if I consolidate now is there any formula on when I have to start the payments

Thanks again.

for your private loans i would wait to consolidate until other companies start consolidating again, you may get a better deal when there is more competition. Federal loans (if your interest rate is already fixed) you can consolidate at any time, it doesn't matter. If your loans are variable, you may want to wait on those as well, as most variable rate federal loans are on the higher side right now. They could decrease in the future.

oh if you consolidate your federal loans now, the process takes about 30-45 days... and your payments would begin about 2-3 weeks after the completion date.

it seems you know a lot about this matter

But then how I am gonna know about (when and what) companies start consolidating again to get that good deal since am not in school anymore.

Thanks a lot

That I don't know...you could call around...here is a list of companies that used to consolidate private loans...check in every few months or so...you can also usually tell from their websites...or by googling private loan consolidation:

sallie mae
next student
loan to learn
citibank
wachovia

You can also just check back on this forum and ask me...

thank you very very much

but how am gonna ask you in person..

here is my email: ibourki@gmail.com