Your alternatives depend on what you plan to accomplish by consolidating.

• If a lower monthly payment is your goal, your current lender/ loan holder may already offer an alternative option.
• If meeting your monthly payment is difficult, consider deferment or forbearance options that allow eligible borrowers to temporarily postpone or reduce their FFEL loan monthly payment.
• If one lower monthly payment is your intention, ask about serialization, the combining of all loans held by one lender. It allows your lender to create one monthly payment that is proportionally applied across all of the underlying loans. Multiple loans with one lender are often "serialized" automatically.
• You may also ask your lender to purchase your education loans held by another lender or servicer. This would allow for serialization and/or combined billing.

FFEL Program repayment plan alternatives
You have several repayment alternatives and may change your plan once a year by contacting your lender. Typically, borrowers are automatically provided the standard repayment plan, unless they have requested another repayment plan.

Which loans may I consolidate?

Not all loans may be eligible for consolidation. Private loans from banks, schools or family cannot be consolidated. Loans from the following programs are eligible for FFEL Program consolidation:

• Federal Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS)
• FFEL Subsidized Stafford loans
• FFEL Unsubsidized Stafford loans
• Federal Insured Student loans (FISL)
• Federal Guaranteed Student Loans (GSL)
• Federal Supplemental Loans for Students (SLS)
• Auxiliary Loans to Assist Students (ALAS)
• Federal Perkins Loans (formerly National Defense/Direct Student Loans-NDSL)
• Health Professions Student Loans (HPSL)
• Heath Education Assistance Loans (HEAL) *
• Loans for Disadvantaged Students (LDS)
• Nursing Student Loan Program loans (NSLP)
• Federal Direct loans
• Direct Subsidized Stafford loans
• Direct Unsubsidized Stafford loans
• Direct Subsidized Consolidation loans
• Direct Unsubsidized Consolidation loans
• Direct Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) loans
• Direct Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) Consolidation loans

*You may wish to consider refinancing HEAL loans rather than consolidating. Visit www.hrsa.gov for more information.

Consolidating my eligible loans
To evaluate which of your loans may be consolidated, access your student loan data using the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). NSLDS is the U.S Department of Education's central database for student aid records and provides a centralized, integrated view of your federal Title IV education loans and grants.

• First request a Personal Identification Number (PIN) at http://pin.ed.gov. Your pin will be mailed to you using the U.S. Postal Service (usually within seven to 10 days), or e-mail in 1 to 7 days if you apply electronically.
• After receiving your PIN, access the Web site: http://nslds.ed.gov. Click on the Financial Aid Review button. You will need your Social Security number (SSN), the first two letters of your last name, your date of birth, and your government-provided PIN.
• You now have access to your student loan data.* Once online, you will see a listing of your loans, the amounts, date of origination and outstanding balances. To view detailed information about each loan (including interest rate), click on the number next to each loan.