By consolidating your student loans, you consolidate all of your eligible federal loans into one new loan with a fixed interest rate and one monthly payment. Sallie Mae's Federal Consolidation loan lets you reduce your monthly student loan payment by 53% or more.

Eligibility

* Loans from both the Federal Family Education Loan Program and the Federal Direct Loan Program may be consolidated.
* Eligible loans include Stafford, PLUS, Graduate PLUS, Perkins, consolidation loans (when included with additional eligible loans), Supplemental Loans for Students (SLS), Health Professions Student Loans (HPSL), Loans for Disadvantaged Students (LDS), Nursing Student Loans (NSL) and Health Education Assistance Loans (HEAL).
* If you have student loans that are in default, they may not be eligible for student loan consolidation.
* You may consolidate your federal student loans during your grace period, or while you are in periods of repayment, deferment or forbearance.

Features

* Flexible repayment options are available.
* You can manage your account online 24/7.
* You get life-of-loan servicing from Sallie Mae.
* There is no prepayment penalty.
* There is no credit check.
* There is no application fee.
* Valuable borrower benefits that can save you hundreds, even thousands of dollars over the life of your loan.

Loan Terms

Loan Limit
The loans that you are consolidating must total at least $5,000 to qualify for a consolidation loan.

Interest Rate

* The consolidation interest rate is the weighted average of the rates of the loans you are consolidating, as certified by your loan holder, rounded up to the nearest eighth of a percent. Consolidation interest rates are based on the loans' primary interest rates and do not include borrower benefit interest rate reductions.
* The maximum interest rate is 8.25%.

Fees
There are no fees to apply.

Repayment

* Level Payment: You make both principal and interest payments each month throughout a 10-30 year repayment term based upon your initial loan balance. This plan has the lowest total interest cost.
* Graduated Repayment/Grad Choice Account: Allows you to make reduced payments. The payments may be as low as interest only for up to five years, with an increase to standard payments of principal and interest for the remaining payment term.
* Income-sensitive Repayment: Payments are a percentage of the borrower's gross income. The borrower must reapply every year for this plan and payments are adjusted annually to reflect changes in income. With income-sensitive repayment, borrowers have a higher total loan cost than with standard repayment.
* Extended Repayment: If you have more than $30,000 in education loan debt, you may be eligible for a 25-year repayment term and the choice of standard or graduated payments to keep payments affordable. With extended repayment, you have a higher total loan cost than with standard repayment.

Legal

* Repayment begins immediately after disbursement of the loan.
* Automatic debit will occur each month even if advance payments are made as long as you are in repayment.
* Sallie Mae and SMART LOAN are registered service marks and Manage Your Loans is a service mark of Sallie Mae, Inc.
* If you consolidate student loans you will lose eligibility for borrower benefits that applied to the original loans, including grace, deferment, and forbearance. However, consolidation loans offer deferment and forbearance benefits as well.

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Submissions | Hip-Hop 4 Obama

Federal student loan consolidation is very helpful to students with multiple federal loans. It eases the burden of the student’s repayment by bundling all his student loans into a single loan with one lender and one repayment plan.
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