Consolidating Student Loans.....

The last couple of days I have been getting everything together in order to consolidate the 100,000's of thousands of dollars that I have in student loans.....well, it's not that bad.....but close :)  When the last stimulus package was passed, there were several riders to the bill that included rules that effect student loans.  One major, major benefit was the restructuring that effects consolidations.   In the past, to consolidate your current lender had to approve.  This prevented a lot of students from consolidating.  However, the new bill has the federal government in charge of consolidation....makes life easy.

My first task was to find all my student loan information.  It was confusing as all heck.  But what I did find was a wonderful site by the Department of eduction that lists all the student loans you have taken out: http://www.nslds.ed.gov/nslds_SA/.  You will need your fafsa pin. For fun, check it out.  Gives you all the information you need about your lenders so you can contact them if you need to.

Then go to:  http://www.loanconsolidation.ed.gov/.  This site is where you apply for those consolidations.  You enter in all your loan information and can electronically sign your promissary note.......However, the process takes a lot of time.  I have spent 5 hours rounding everything up, and filling in the information but I am not done yet!