Consolidate now or continue w/ current loan payments

[NNEKA72083]

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Hello everyone,

I'm having a hard time trying to make a decision regarding my current student loans. Hopefully you guys can help me out. I currently have a consolidated Federal Stafford loan: (balance) unsubsidized - $10,000 and subsidized - $6,000 w/ 5.25% interest and the monthly payment is $150. I also have a Federal Stafford loan: (balance) unsubsidized - $12,000 and subsidized $ 8,000 w/ 6.8% interest and the monthly payment is $244. I don't if I should just continue making the monthly payments or if I should consolidate with Direct Loans. If I do consolidate, the monthly payments would be $260 for 20 years with a 6.1 % interest rate. I plan on taking out more loans for medical school, 4 years from now could I consolidate again if I consolidate the current loans I have now for an even lower interest rate? 😕

I also have a question about consolidation, do companies offer different interest rates or do they all take the weighted avg of interest and the current balance on the loans to come up with a new interest rate?

 

[nontrdgsbuiucmd]

when I consolidated, the federal program just took the weighted average of all loans.

I can't think of a benefit to consolidating now; you can defer all student loans while in med school. There is a new federal program starting July 1st 2009 that may be a bit better called IBR, I'd suggest checking this out; sounds a little better than the current consolidation programs, at least on the repayment side.

The benefit to NOT consolidating, if you're starting med school fairly soon & don't have too many more payments until starting the deferral, is that after completing training you can pay down the higher interest loans first.