Each one of these student loans has its own due dates, interest rates and payment amounts.

Keeping track of that many payments is complicated and part of the reason that 8 million Americans have defaulted on over 0 billion in student loans That is why student loan consolidation appears as such an attractive solution, but there are things you should know as you consider this approach.

The new interest rate would still be equal to the current interest rates in that situation, but it might save money in the future if the variable rates rise (the new fixed rate would stay the same).

The following table illustrates how a weighted average works.

There is no hard and fast rule about student loan consolidation, other than be sure to do your research.

Consolidation is a great option to make your payments more manageable and maybe even save some money.

In this example, there are three students that each have three loans.

A federal student loan consolidation calculator provided by US Bank was used to calculate the weighted average.

If you continue borrowing for graduate school, it’s easy to add another 4-6 lenders to the mix.

He has written for several newspapers in the state, including the Miami Herald, Orlando Sentinel, Tallahassee Democrat and Florida Times Union.

Student loan debt is a grave concern in modern America.

That is a sizeable, unwelcome gift to take home from school and it’s important to know how to minimize the damage.

The good news is that federal loans carry a six-month grace period so there is time to develop a plan for dealing with them.