Can You Consolidate Direct Student Loans?

Being approved Loans
Direct student loans are issued from the us government to students who apply and qualify. The main kinds of direct student loans are Stafford loans and IN ADDITION loans. However, students also can consolidate other kinds of federal student loans, including Perkins loans and Stafford and PLUS loans disbursed with the Federal Family Education Loan program. You cannot consolidate student education loans from private lenders with your federal student loans with the direct consolidation loan program. Unless you apply in between July 1, 2010 and July 1, 2011, you can't include loans with an in-school status with your own direct consolidation loan.

Multiple Consolidations
You can consolidate your loans more often than once, as long as you add at least one new loan towards the consolidation loan each time. For example, if you already have a direct consolidation loan and you return to school and get a direct Stafford loan, you are able to consolidate these loans together after you finish your own schooling.

How to Consolidate
Obtain a consolidation loan by filling out the application about the federal direct loan consolidation website or printing the applying, filling it out and mailing it in. If all your loans that you want to consolidate are immediate loans, you can apply over the phone through calling 800-557-7392. Continue making payments on all of the loans as scheduled until you have received confirmation of the consolidation loan.

Benefits
One of the major advantages of consolidating your student loans is that you rearrange them into only one loan with one monthly payment. You also can choose a repayment period as high as 30 years, which stretches out your payments over a longer period and makes each payment a smaller amount. Nevertheless, a longer repayment period will cause you to pay for more total interest. In general, a direct student loan consolidation does not lower your interest rate because it's a weighted average of your existing rates, but for those who have a loan with a variable interest rate, consolidating enables you to lock in that rate.