How do I go about consolidating my student loan?

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  • Justin Draeger

    Spokesperson, National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators
    www.nasfaa.org  
     

    Justin Draeger is Assistant Director for Communications with the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA). Prior to joining NASFAA, Justin worked as the lead analyst for the Michigan Guaranty Agency. Justin began his career in student aid 10 years ago working as the financial aid administrator for the Douglas J Aveda Institute in East Lansing, Michigan. Justin earned a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Resource Management from Brigham Young University and his MBA in Finance from Baker College. He has presented at several conferences in both the financial aid and business management fields and continues to publish nationally. Justin has been tapped for his expertise on student financing by CNBC, Fox Business News, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Kiplinger, Business Week, National Public Radio, and more.

  • How do I go about consolidating my student loan?

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  • Transcripts

    Host: How do I go about consolidating my student loan?

    Justin Draeger: Yeah, the first thing that you want to do after you are going to consolidate your student loans is figure out where your student loans are at and their current terms and condition. So you want to go out and list all of your current federal student loans. The best way to do that is probably to go to the National Student Loan Data System website hosted by the Department of Education. Once you have compiled the list of all of your current loans and their terms and conditions and borrower benefits next determine which of those you actually you want to consolidate into a single payment. You want to compare how much each of those loans will cost you through the consolidation or leaving them outside of the consolidation. Your school's financial aid office can probably assist you in some of these matter, but by and large you want to do most of the homework yourself. The next thing you want to do is find a consolidating lender that can be as easy as picking up the phone or looking through mail and finding a lender who is willing to consolidate all of your student loans into a single payment. Shop around, make sure you are getting the best deal and examine their borrower benefits to make sure that you are getting what is going to work for you. You can also consolidate directly with the US Department of Education and that is another option that you want to way. Finally, you want to sign a promissory note and that means getting a consolidating lender to send you paperwork where you are actually signing your approval that you want them to pay off all of your other loan balances and combine them into one single loan.

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