My husband has about $40K in private school loans. We've been on a repayment plan for almost a year now and have made on-time payments and have good credit. However, it's a variable interest rate and our payments keep going up. We have consolidated his federal loans and have a fixed rate, but these private loans (CitiAssist) are killing us. We have two currently at 7.5% and one at 7.37%. We are already on a graduated repayment plan (interest only for 4 years, then interest + principle for 6 years = total of 10 years in repayment), but it's still hard to make the payments. I have looked at online private loan consolidation calculators, and it seems it would be worth it when our payments go up in 3 years, but for right now it would make our payment higher (although we would be paying on principle, which would be great). We would really like to have a lower minimum monthly payment until we're out of our financial difficulties (hopefully by the end of the year), and then we'd pay more towards the principle each month. Are there any options available to us to get a lower monthly payment now, at a fixed rate?

Because they're private student loans, they are considered consumer loans and are not regulated as are fed backed loans. Have you tried to negotiate with Citi at all for a lower interest, better terms, etc? Sometimes telling them you will consolidate elsewhere will budge their rates/terms especially if you have the credit worthiness to move them.

The only lender I know who will consolidate private s/l's from another lender is Student Loan Express. If you call them and ask to consolidate your private loans with them, maybe they can give you better rates/terms.