I was wondering if anyone could advise me as to who is the best company for consolidating student loans and what interest rates are now avilable. Thanks

Interest rate will be the weighted average of your current loans. You might get a 0.25% reduction by doing automatic debit from your bank account (Direct Loans does this, not sure about others...)

I've heard bad things about Sallie Mae. I have some current loans through them, but I can't speak about their quality yet as I haven't had a need to deal with them so far. My other loans were serviced through Nelnet, who does offer consolidation, and had decent service. But I ended up in the Direct Loan program because I had a Perkins loan default. Direct Loans is good so far.

I think the whole federal loan program is pretty well regulated, so there *shouldn't* be much difference from one place to another, as long as you stay on their good side and don't miss any payments or default.

Yes after a few hours of research the only differences I have come across are incentives and customer service. I was comfortable w/ who I spoke with and they had good incentives - the .25% reduction w/ automated billing and then another possible reduction of 1% w/ 36 payments - payments not 36 months - I just wanted my rate to be fixed - a bit mad I made this descision so late. Does this have a positive effect on credit?

Both my DH and I have ours consolidated with Sallie Mae...they are fantastic to work with and offer a number of repayment options that pretty much fit everyone's budget.

I have a Wachovia consolidation. They are serviced by AES and have been good for me. You get 1% interest rate reduction after 12 months on time. So, in a few months my rate will be only 1.875%!

However, I have just gone back to school for an MBA, and my new loans are from THE (www.northstar.org). Their cashback program for on-time paymments sounds pretty good.