Guest Author - D. Lynn Byrne, Ph.D.

After four years (or more) of college, you're likely carrying around a good-sized debt-load; and, if you stopped to take a good look at your loan history, you'd likely find you have multiple loans that you're carrying. If this is the case, managing your student loans can become a real challenge.

So many lenders. So many payments! Sure, you can keep most loans in deferment or forbearance status while you're in school; but what about when you graduate? Or, heaven forbid, if you stopped out for a semester or two. What do you do?

If you've already looked at all of your loan repayment options and still haven't found an option that will allow you to manage all of your debt under a single umbrella (if that's what you're looking for), then you might want to consider educational loan consolidation. Consolidation? What's that?

An educational loan consolidation is a merger of all of your small, individual loans with a single lender. In other words, you'd have one company that will manage all of your debt load, all of your payments and all of your correspondence. Now, loan consolidation has benefits and deficits and you really need to discuss your options and take a look at several lenders before making a decision that this is the way to go (not all lenders, interest rates, or consolidation benefits are equal--no matter what the flashy advertising you received in the mail says). But, consolidation is a good means of managing multiple loans; and, for some, can mean the difference between payment and default (its amazing how monthly payments for a handful of individual loans can really eat into the budget).

Want some impartial advice on managing your student loan debt? Check out Liz Pulliam Weston's Manage Your Debt.

Until next time!

Lynn Byrne