what is the interest rate if you chose to consolidate your student loans?

Answer 1

If you get a federal student loan consolidation, you'll pay a fixed interest rate that is the weighted average of your current rates (rounded up to the nearest 1/8 of a percent).
So if you have $10,000 at 7.2% and $5,500 at 6.8%, the consolidated rate would be 7.125%, not that much of a savings.
At this point consolidation would make sense for three reasons
1) you're in your grace period with rates .6% lower than when you start repayment and you want to lock that lower rate.
2) you have federal student loans with multiple lenders and want to simplify to one payment a month
3) You think short-term interest rates are going to continue to rise, but that would put you at odds with lots of professional economists.
If your loans were made prior to fall 2006, they have a variable interst rate that changes every July 1. The odd thing is that it is set from a short term interest rate (91 T-Bill) from the end of May, so for the whole month of June it can be calculated with 100% certainty whether the rate is going up or down and by how much. So wait until June to find what direction it's going. If up, consolidate before July; if down, after July.
Loans from fall 2006 and later, have a fixed interest rate and consolidation is pretty much useless, except for the multiple lender situation.
One last thing, the only thing you can consolidate into a federal student loan consolidation is federal student loans. If you have a private (also called alternative) loan, do not consolidate it with the federal loans, because the consolidated loan will also be a private (not federally backed) loan and will not have terms nearly as good as what the feds support.

Answer 2

Totally depends on the terms of the particular loan. Be careful.... shop around to at least 4 different lenders, before committing. Read the fine print, the early payment terms, and beware of variable interest rates. Inflation is coming and a low 'teaser' rate is going to go up a lot in a year or 2. Get a fixed rate that's at least 2% lower than you're paying now. Be really cautious about using any lender that is recommended by your college. Read the news, the school is probably getting kickback and you're not getting the best deal.

Answer 3

Go to the link below to get all the current rates and information about student loans consolidation.

http://salliemae.com/