Consolidating Student Loans – What You Must Know to Consolidate Correctly!

So, congratulations you have graduated and now you get to work for an entry level salary and start paying of the largest amount of debt you will probably ever have next to your future mortgage. This would, of course, be your student loans. You should know that this was money well spent and it will pay off very large for you in the future. For right now, though, you need to know the correct way to go about consolidating student loans. Here are the things to consider.First, when it comes to consolidating student loans you need to have all the same payment options you have now with all your federal and private loans. These loans are all very easy to pay back because they give you so many options to protect your credit. You can use a couple of different types of deferments to keep from having to pay your loans for up to 2 years, you can use forbearance for any 6 month period for financial hardship, and you can usually negotiate a lower monthly payment whenever necessary.Second, when you decide you are ready for consolidating student loans you should know you can only really do this one time. This will be a loan that will actually pay off all your loans in order to combine them into one monthly payment with one interest rate and one company to deal with. This is a great way to go if you want to make your life easier and you want to make managing your student loan payments much easier. This will be a lot simpler than dealing with a dozen different payments each month.Last, you need to make sure you get a very comparable interest rate or a better interest rate than the loans you have already have. This will require some shopping around, but the rate will make a very large difference in how much you actually pay back. You also need to make sure that the payment they give you monthly is one that you can afford and that it is less than all the payments you would have with your loans combined. Then, just consolidate your student loans and begin paying them off.