re: Student Loan consolidation

I think everyone is missing the OP's question entirely.

Yall talking about refinancing, he/she just wants to see them as one number.

The simple answer is no, you cannot. Each of those loans are accruing interest differently, based on when you started that specific loan. It's possible that some of them may be at different interest rates as well.

What everyone is talking about is refinancing of the loans into one loan at one interest rate.

That or may not be in your best interest. There are plenty of resources out there (linked in this thread) that will help you figure things out.

If you want to see them all in one place, get an account at Mint.com for free and add them all there.

If you want them all to show up as one number on a credit report, you have to consolidate. I used SoFi and it was great.

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But what happens when you have paying the miniumm based on income forgiveness but you get married or make money, does that mean suddenly you lose the 20 year forgiveness option?

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No you don't lose the forgiveness option. When you first take out the loan, there is a 10 year repayment plan option. This acts as your cap monthly payment. At whatever point your income rises to the point that your repayment percentage of income reaches the 10 year repayment payment amount, that is the max you will pay until you finish 240/300 months of payments(20/25 years) . Any remaining balance will be forgiven. The forgiven amount is taxable as income.

Hence, this is actually a huge windfall for high income earners with high debt loads. They make smaller payments for 20/25 years, allowing money to free up for investment, homes, etc. When forgiveness comes, if they planned right by putting money aside, they use that to pay a fraction of the amount left owed with the top marginal rate being whatever it is at that time.

This forgiven amount that is taxable is also known as the "tax bomb." For lower income earners, there is no realistic expectation that debtors who haven't been able to pay their loan back over 20/25 are going to be able to pay the tax bomb at the end. I expect there will be political ramifications over this.

I've looked at this multiple times in the recent months. You can refinance or consilidate through the fed but keep in mind I believe you lose the forebearance or deferrment if currently as such. Point to keep mind if you consider this to be avilable in the future and you qualify (not sure what your degree is in), if you consilidate through a private source such as SOFI it won't be eligible for PSLF.

BTW the refinance rates from SOFI and others are typically are not that great and the flexibility of the federal lenders can be valuable at times and simple to deal with in my experience.

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BTW the refinance rates from SOFI and others are typically are not that great

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I disagree. I got 3.5% on a 5 year fixed.

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Do you lose the forgivenss option of any kind if you go through a private lender? (PSLF or the 10 year option) That is the way I've had it explained to me

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Yes, you lose forgiveness option if you refinance with a private lender.

I don't know why anyone with a large loan balance would voluntarily leave PSLF if they qualify

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Doesn't 3.5% private loan about = to 5.5% federal loan when you take the tax deduction into account?

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You can still deduct student loan interest from private lenders.