Higher Education and School Loans

The easiest way to reduce your student and school loan debt is to consolidate student loans. School loan consolidation results in lowered debt and payments if the average interest after consolidation is lower than it is before. This is really just refinancing one or a group of federal student loans, at a lower interest rate - just as refinancing a mortgage loan at a lower interest rate would reduce monthly payments and the total amount paid.

There are two basic kinds of school loans - private and federal. Federal school loans are almost always at a much lower interest rate than you could get for an unsecured private school loan. Because of the nature of the federal loans, you should never consolidate both private and federal loans into a single private loan. Because only federal loans carry government backing, they can be refinanced at a much lower interest rate than can privately financed school loans. So when you come to consolidate school loans, do the federal loans together then look at consolidating your private student loans.

References and Links

1. Student Loan Consolidation - General information and eligibility information for student loan consolidation, with lenders and other student loan companies
2. Consolidate Federal Student Loans - Details on federal student and school loans, with resources and student loan comapny lists for consolidating your federal student loans.