College Consolidate Loan Debt
Q: Hi, I am a relatively recent college grad (May, 2001) who is trying to get his finances in order and has a couple of questions on student loans. I currently have ~$32,000 in student loans (most of which has been in forbearance for a year and is scheduled to start payment in Feb.). I am looking at the many different federal student loan consolidation options and am noticing that they are all pretty similar as far as interest rates and eligibility. Is there a "best" lender to use or a "best" deal out there as far as federal loan consolidation? Is there a website that lists the various loan consolidation packages that each lender has to offer? I have a $32,000 loan and wanted to try to get a 25 (or possibly even 30) year re-payment plan but the longest payment plan I've seen for my amount of debt is 20 years. Does anyone know of a lender that can get me a longer re-payment term?
Also, from my time in college, I have a bill on my student account (under $1000 that was mostly room + board fees) that is almost 2 years old and currently in collections. Is there a way to have this bill consolidated into my other student loans, or should I just try and pay it off now? Are there federal (or federally insured) loans out there that would provide me a loan for the purpose of settling my student account and then able to be consolidated into my other loans?
I am very inexperienced in these matters and have kind of been avoiding dealing with my debt (obviously), so any help is very, *very* appreciated.