Student loan consolidation programs are pretty easy to locate. Finding the program that has the lowest rate may be a little more difficult. In order to be eligible for a consolidation loan you will of course need to have outstanding loan balances. The student loans that you have at present may have high interest rates and will take years to repay. This means a huge amount of money in interest over the years not to mention fees that may have been hidden in the contracts. Student loan consolidation programs can potentially save the student a great deal of money.The federal government usually offers much better interest rates than the private loan concerns can provide. When you locate a possible loan source you can easily use the online calculators that are available for free to determine the true value of the potential loan. Using the calculator you can easily see what the monthly payments will look like and how much the interest will add to the loan over time.Private Banks do offer student loan consolidation programs. Their interest rate is called Prime Rate and what you will ultimately end up with in a contract will most likely be a little higher than this. You can find Prime Rate online to get a good idea of what you are looking at when you are looking into student debt consolidation loans. A good place to start is by approaching the bank that holds your checking account and asking them if they offer student loan consolidation. Then you might inquire about any discount they have for you being that you use their bank for your accounts.There are companies that do specialize in consolidation of private student loans. These are companies that are in the business of making a profit so be very careful about any offers they may make. It is possible that they will have their best interests in mind rather than yours. That does not mean they will not have a good deal, it just means you need to be very prudent in your choices.If the loans that you already have are federal then the consolidation needs to be a federal consolidation program. On the contrary, if your student loans are private funding then you will need private student loan consolidation programs. The interest rates at are currently being offered can be researched online by searching for ‘student loan consolidation_ interest rates’. When you know what the going rates are then any offers for consolidation programs that come your way will be easy to spot as a good deal or not. Finding the best deal is your primarily goal so the offer with the lowest rate of interest with a reasonable time for repayment will be your best choice. If the loan is a low interest but will take an exorbitant amount of time to repay this is not a great deal.You now know what the best deal will be for you so it is just a matter of shopping around and comparing the terms of the loans. Finding student loan consolidation programs at lower rates becomes just a matter of doing the research. It is possible to find the company who will offer a no cost consolidation for the student loans. There are many different types of free programs all offering different rates that will vary with the circumstances of each person who applies. Do not settle for any offer that is not less than what you are currently paying in interest. After all, this and a combined payment that is easier to manage is the whole point of the consolidation loan.