Federal Student Loan Consolidation

   Many students end up with more than one student loan to get them through college. At some point the student will have to ask themselves if its worth consolidating their loans. Some of the questions one will have to ask is: Are your monthly payments manageable? Did you exhaust your deferment and forbearance options? So many monthly payments that are hard to keep track of? Do you need the convenience of sending a single monthly payment? What are the interest rates on your loans? Do you have variable interest rates? How much time is left on your loans? All these questions can help decide if you need to consolidate your loans. If you just cant meet the monthly cost, consolidating will bring the monthly cost down at the expense of making the loan time longer and total cost higher. Maybe you want to pay out the same amount of money but have it go to one place. Maybe you want to change a variable interest rate into a fixed rate. On the other hand if your close to paying off your student loans you should not consolidate.