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I consolidated 3 yrs ago and owed over 60k. I had financed some money from undergrad, masters and part PhD. The rest I paid as I learned.
I received consolidated loan info from my schools. I applied for grants and had a few courses attached. Most were Stafford loans. When I had three classes left on a degree I notified the agencies who would do a consolidation loan. In my case companies had the same base rate by law. I did get 3.75% on everything and after 30 payments my plan got a reduction to 3.25% because I applied to have the payments taken out via my account and I never missed a payment or late.. ....
First go to www.naag.gov and find out if the private consolidator company is legit...
I consolidated a few private Sallie Mae loans with Chase Bank and am pretty satisfied. My interest rates with SM were around 7-8%. I consolidated with Chase and got a 5% rate (though it is variable, but I think Sallie Mae's rates were too).
When I did the consolidation, a lot of places, including Sallie Mae, were not doing consolidations anymore. This was around 2009, so things may have changed by now. I would recommend only consolidating with reputable banks such as Chase, Wells Fargo, etc. There are a lot of no-name institutions and "banks" on the web that supposedly consolidate loans, but I would not trust anything you have not heard of or any bank without much history.
As a warning, Chase, and I am pretty sure the other big banks that consolidate loans, do not actually manage the loans. Once you consolidate, your loan will remain with Chase but the management is through a company called ACS Education and they don't tell you this upfront. ACS is a very poorly run business with overwhelmingly negative consumer relations. I personally have not have much problems with them after about two years of business. I will say that the ACS website looks like it was designed in 1996 by a 12 year old and is very difficult to navigate. I would never send a check payment to them, though.
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