Consolidated student loans are calculated by taking a weighted average of the loans being consolidated, and are then rounded up to the nearest 1/8 of a percent. So for example let’s say that a student has a couple of stafford loans that were originated on or after july of 2006. If only these loans are consolidated the new resulting interest rate would be 6. 875%, a statistically insignificant increase, but the student would gain the advantages of only having to pay a single lender, and often gets extended time for pay back. In the case of consolidating mixed loan products, like say a combination of perkins loans and stafford loans, the resulting interest rates will always wind up somewhere in between.

Consolidating your student loans through the us department of education is free and anyone can apply. However if you realize you will benefit from student loans consolidation, or are seriously in over your head and facing default, you may want to consider using the services of a professional lender that specializes in student loan consolidation.

They have the ability to look at multiple loan programs available from multiple lenders and not just the programs available from the federal government. Consolidated student loans are made by private lenders and are reinsured by the federal government. This bill would make three temporary changes to the guaranteed student loan consolidation program in order to make it more comparable to the direct student loan consolidation program. These changes would be in effect for new consolidated loan applications from the date of enactment of this bill until october 1, 1998. First, the bill would make borrowers eligible to include direct student loans in their guaranteed consolidated student loan. Under current statute, borrowers with both guaranteed and direct student loans can only combine their debt into a direct consolidated student loan. Second, the bill would allow students to retain their interest subsidy benefits on all subsidized loans included in the new consolidated loan. This provision is already a feature of the direct consolidated student loan program. Currently, borrowers with guaranteed consolidated student loans retain subsidy benefits only if they combine only subsidized student loan debt. Third, the bill would make the interest rate on guaranteed consolidated loans the same as far direct consolidated loans. Learn more here for student loan consolidation companies and about consolidate federal student loan for first timer!