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Do you need help to pay out your college or school career expenses?  If so, the Federal student aid programs could be the solution you are looking for.  Most of the aids for such students looking for managing their academic career related expenses come from the federal government programs.  They are administered by the Federal Students Aid or FSA branch of the United States Department of Education.

However, loans always mean repayment and you will have to repay after your academic career comes to an end and professional career starts.  That will be the point when you may require student loan consolidation. You need not fall into the trap laid by unscrupulous traders who offers to search loan consolidating plans for you for fees.  Applying for the loan consolidation provided are free and even the help extended by the federal government towards this end are free.

Are you eligible for the federal student loan consolidation program?

To be eligible for the assistance you need it is necessary that you demonstrate the financial needs.  Other eligibility criteria are -

1. You must be a US Citizen or eligible non-Citizen.
2. You must have a valid social security number.
3. You should meet any other criteria as fixed by the state or federal laws for the time being in force to be eligible for such student’s aids.

Checking out your status vis-à-vis the above criteria will tell you whether you are eligible for the federal student’s college loan consolidation.

Is Federal Student Loan Consolidation the right move?

Availing Federal loans to complete your academic career smoothly is fine.  However, some day you will have to repay those loans.  Many people consolidate student loans to get read of heavy payments and unwarranted loan burden. However you must understand what is a loan consolidation before you take a decision to do so.

Ordinarily federal student loan consolidation is a process to pay off the combined balance of your outstanding federal student loans.  In the process a new single loan account is created with a fixed rate of interest.  Now the lender is only one and you pay one consolidated premium per month.  The advantages of such consolidation are that you pay lower interest rates normally and sometimes the principal is also reduced. Due to lower interest payment your savings are more and you can invest the savings either in paying back the loans quickly or for some other fruitful purposes.

Loans that can be consolidated –

Loans like Stafford, PLUS, Perkins, Health Professional Student Loans, Health Education Assistance Loans, Nursing Student Loans, National Direct Student Loans, SLS loans, and Federal Insured Student Loans can be consolidated.  Other loans may not be eligible for the federal college loan consolidation program.  You must check with the authorities and your lender to find out. You can also obtain assistance by surfing on to http://www.nslds.ed.gov/nsldsSA to confirm about the type of loan you have.

How to apply

If you desire to consolidate student loans you obtained during your academic periods, applying will be pretty easy.  Simply log on to sites like www.edfed.com on the web and apply for such loan consolidation free of cost.  You can lock in the payable interest rates to the current lowest at 6.75% which will be much lower than what you might be presently paying with divergent premiums to your lenders. You can also obtain the benefits of extended repayment term with lower monthly premiums that could extend to 25-30 years for repayments.

No credit checks are made about your credit rating when you make such application. For extending your repayment period under the loan consolidation plan you will not be charged with any penalties.

Several alternative plans of student loan consolidation are available to you –

You may avail one of the following alternatives while consolidating your student loan.

* Equal monthly payments plan;
* Interest only for first two years plan and increased payment from third year onward with a part of the principal repayment commencing.
* Leveling to a common premium in the sixth year after paying only interest for two years and lower premium with small portion of principal and interests for next four years;
* Adjusting your payments on the basis of your annual income by determining your eligibility every year afresh;
* Equal installments every month for 25 years;
* Selected graduated extended repayment plan for 25 years; from the 3rd or 6th year onwards.

For availing the benefits of extended plans your loan must exceed $30,000.

Federal student loan consolidation can give real benefits to you

With a single consolidated loan you are not only saved from the difficulties of keeping accounts and repaying several lenders in separate premiums, but also benefit by lowering the interest rates and saving thousands of dollars in the process.  If used judiciously the federal student loan consolidation program can be very suitable to dig you out of the problems of heavy loan burden.