You must have at least one Direct or Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) loan that is in grace, repayment, forbearance or default status. Students cannot consolidate while they are still enrolled in school at least half-time. Students cannot consolidate private educational loans into their Federal Direct Consolidation Loan.

Yes. You can consolidate your loans under the Direct Loan Program and combine all of your outstanding federal loans into a new combined loan. This consolidated loan will have new terms, such as the interest rate and length of repayment, but will also retain some of the benefits you had under the other loans, such as deferment of payment if you pursue additional education. With a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan, you have one loan with one payment per month. You may end up paying more interest than you would under the terms of your individual loans, so you do have to consider the cost of the consolidation loan versus the convenience of the single payment. However, as with all federal loan programs, there is no penalty for pre-payment, so you can always reduce the total accrued interest by paying more than the minimum monthly payment.

Yes. You may consolidate through the Direct Loan Program if you have more than one loan from a single lender. However, before you look at a consolidation loan you should consider why you would want to consolidate your loans. If you are seeking a lower monthly payment or a longer repayment term, those options may be available to you under the terms of your current federal loans. Contact your loan servicer to inquire about repayment options before deciding to consolidate your federal loans.

You can get a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan during your grace period, once you've entered repayment, or during periods of deferment or forbearance. You should discuss your decision about when to consolidate with your lender/servicer.

Yes, you can consolidate your loans through the Federal Direct Loan Program.

Until you receive notification that the consolidator has paid off your original loans, continue making payments on those loans. You don't want to go into default on those loans, since that would prevent your consolidation loan application from moving forward. Any payments you make to a current loan holder after the loan has been paid in full by consolidation will be forwarded to your consolidation lender.

Yes, so long as the loan being consolidated is not itself a consolidation loan. To reconsolidate a consolidation loan, you must be including additional loans. Otherwise, you can consolidate even just a single loan.

Consolidation loans may only be reconsolidated when you are adding more loans to the consolidation. If you do not have other federal education loans to include in the new consolidation loan, you cannot reconsolidate a consolidation loan.

The interest rate on a consolidation loan is the weighted average of the interest rates on the loans being consolidated, rounded up to the nearest 1/8 of a percent.

The best place to check on your loan borrowing is the National Student Loan Database System (NSLDS). You may access your borrowing history online at the National Student Loan Database web site at www.nslds.ed.gov. To access your information, you'll need your Social Security Number and your Federal PIN.