Loan consolidation

It's the first of the month and you've received a fistful of bills for the many different student loans that helped pay for your education: Perkins, subsidized and unsubsidized FFEL or Direct Stafford, and PLUS. Your salary hasn't reached the six figure income you had hoped for yet. Each month you watch as your hard earned cash evaporates in educational loan payments while you live in a cramped studio apartment and drive a car older than you are.

You've heard about loan consolidation and the idea of making a smaller payment to one lender sounds like a dream compared to your current nightmare of feeding a seemingly endless stream of money to a number of different lenders. No contest--where do you sign up?

Rein yourself in for a moment. Consolidation  may  be the perfect solution to your financial woes and then again it  may not  be. So before you jump on the consolidation bandwagon, here are a few things you might want to consider.

Are Lenders Axing Consolidation Loans? Read more...