When students graduate from college, they start thinking about how to pay back their loans that financed their cost of education. A number of financial lenders are offering student loan consolidation services aimed to ease the financial burden of borrowers.As the economy attempts to recover from the crisis, authorities have set lending rates at record lows to make credit affordable and accessible to more people. As a result, student loan rates right now are also low.This is particularly beneficial for those who have received more than one loan while they were studying in college. By consolidating their student loans, borrowers are able to reduce their monthly payments thus allowing them to allot some of their cash for other expenses.While these loans are designed to aid students in their educational expenditures such as books, tuition, and cost of living, they actually come in two forms: federal and private.The federal loans are those sponsored by the federal government while the others are provided by private institutions. In general, however, private student loans cannot be consolidated with federally sponsored loans.Nevertheless, there are lenders that target borrowers who would want to refinance their private loans. Even if these kinds of services cannot use the low rates being offered when refinancing federal loans, they can still offer benefits to the borrowers.The benefit includes making just one payment every month and, since the terms of the loan have changed, it reduces the amount the individual has to pay on a monthly basis. The catch, of course, is the resulting higher interest payment throughout the life of the loan.A number of institutions have provided private student loan consolidation services in the market including Chase, Wells Fargo, and NextStudent. When looking for a lender to refinance the loans, a few questions need to be asked such as whether the interest rates are fixed or variable, whether there are any fees involved, and whether there are penalties in the prepayment of the loan.Consolidating federal loans, on the other hand, can reduce the monthly payment up to half and lock-in on a low fixed interest rate.Additionally, the borrower can bundle all the loans into one manageable loan resulting to just a single monthly payment. They will be able to obtain of the service without additional application fees, origination fees, and prepayment penalties involved.It provides the option for borrowers to select from the various terms in repaying their consolidated loans up to 30 years. Several lenders have also provided this kind of service.Consolidating student loans is a wise approach in obtaining more flexibility in managing personal finances particularly in this environment where many continue to be in financial turmoil.