Loan consolidation will allow you to take all of your loans and put them into one loan and one payment. Think of it as refinancing a home mortgage. You consolidate all of your student loans together, and all of the balances of your existing school loans are paid off, the balance will go into one consolidated loan. The advantage to this is that you have only one student loan to pay off.

Consolidating your loans can offers many benefits such as, locking in a fixed, lower rate for the length of your loan. This is advantageous because it can save you allot of money over the term of the loan. Also you will incur smaller monthly payments, which will allow you to have more funds available for other things. Also these types of loans are very flexible with prepayment penalties, charges and no fees. It is important to understand that you will not need a credit check or a co-signer for this type of consolidated loan.

The only time you would not want to consolidate is if you are close to paying off your current loans. However, if you are having trouble making monthly payments and would like to take advantage of a lower interest rate, this can be a great thing for you.