Consolidating your student loan enables you not only to take advantage of lower rates, but you can also lock in that rate for the life of your loan. What benefits do you get from consolidating your student loan? Basically, the key benefits are one lower fixed rate; one low monthly payment and one lender. By consolidating multiple student loans into one lower monthly payment, you gain the freedom to better manage your monthly budget, and invest more of your earnings for the future.

Consolidation loans allow you to combine different types of federal student loans to simplify repayment, and FFEL student loan consolidation is one of the options you can have.

A FFEL consolidation loan is designed to help borrowers consolidate several types of federal student loans with various repayment schedules into one loan, which enables them to make only one payment a month.

Under the FFEL program, the loan consolidation will be made by a commercial lender. After this, credit bureaus will tell you that you already have a zero balance in your account, and then you will sign a fresh promissory note indicating that you will have a new interest rate and schedule of repayment.

However, for you to be able to obtain the FFEL consolidation loan, you are required to be currently in repayment on the loan you defaulted or that you have been able to make at least three voluntary monthly payments in full and on time.

What are the disadvantages of availing student loan consolidations? Any disadvantages would actually depend on you the borrower and how they handle their loan. If you take longer to pay your student loan, then it means you will pay more interest during the course of the life of your loan.

On the other hand, by consolidating your loans, there are really no penalties in prepayment and if you continually pay the same amount payments before actually consolidating your loans, the interest you will incur would not increase thus you will be able to pay the loan faster than when you did not consolidate your loans. With a consolidated student loan, there are no fees or charges incurred. The United States Department of Education does not in any way make charges or collects any fees to any borrower who avails of the student loan consolidation.

The United States Department of Education does not allow any borrower to refinance a student loan consolidation. However, if a borrower has an additional federal loan that is not originally included in the loan consolidation, then these debts may be added and calculated again into a another Federal Consolidation Loan.

Another advantage of a student loan consolidation is that a borrower is still entitled to avail of the same Federal benefits. This is because student loan consolidation is a federal program. And being it a federal program, a borrower is welcome and is entitled to various benefits such as deferment, interest that is tax deductible and forbearance. In addition, the loan is guaranteed by the government and is insured federally.

Here are some student loans that are eligible for consolidation are as follows; Subsidized Federal Stafford Loans (SS) & Guaranteed Student Loans (GSL), Direct Subsidized Stafford Loans (DSS), Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loans (DUS), Direct PLUS Loans (DPLUS), Direct Unsubsidized Consolidation Loan (DUCON), including Direct PLUS Consolidation Loans, Unsubsidized and Non-subsidized Federal Stafford Loans (US), Federal Nursing Loans (NSL) and Health Education Assistance Loans (HEAL).

It is advisable to take advantages of consolidating your loan and enjoy the benefits of making one single payment per month and having a lower interest rate which enables you to make some savings.