When And Who All Can Consolidate Loan?
Student loans can be consolidated any time during your six-month grace period or after the repayment of the loan has started. If in case the loan is consolidated during your grace period, then you might loose the advantage of getting a low interest rate. However, since you will lose the rest of the grace period, it is recommendable to wait until the fifth month of the grace period before consolidating. The overall student loan consolidation program usually takes 30-45 days to get completed.
Further, your spouse and your loans can also be consolidated together, but it is not very much recommendable, because by any chance you both get separated in future then also both of you will be responsible for paying it together, and if defer payment on the student debt consolidation loan is preferred then you both have to meet the deferment criteria.
For the payment of the student loan consolidation amount, there are many payment plans and the students can choose from them as per there convenience. For any assistance, you can choose Student loan debt counseling, which can help you in deciding. Students can either choose standard payment of set monthly payments, variable plan where the payments can be changed as your income increases or decreases, graduated payment plan in which you have to pay low monthly installments in the beginning and then it gradually increases, and the last is extended payment plan, which allows you to reduce the monthly payment by extending the loan payment period.