How do I go about consolidating my student loan?

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.