PHOENIX - Recent college graduates facing either just one or multiple federal education loans may want to take the reins on their debt repayment plan with a Federal Consolidation Loan before their grace periods end and repayment begins. Consolidating multiple student loans with multiple payments and due dates into a single loan with one easy-to-manage payment may be the best option for busy borrowers juggling the demands of the real world with the limitations on their pocketbooks. Living paycheck to paycheck may be an unavoidable reality as college graduates work to get their careers off the ground, but student loan consolidation offers potential monthly payment reductions that could help ease the burden on a monthly paycheck, according to NextStudent, a leading Phoenix-based education funding company.

Instead of making payments on multiple federal student loans with variable interest rates, borrowers who take out a Federal Consolidation Loan combine their qualifying federal education loans into a single loan with a fixed interest rate. There are no credit checks, application fees or prepayment penalties for a Federal Consolidation Loan. In addition, borrowers may have the option of repaying their Federal Consolidation Loan over an extended period of time (up to 30 years). This could potentially lower a borrower's monthly payments by as much as 60 percent and help free up funds for day-to-day living expenses.

And by consolidating with NextStudent, borrowers may qualify for special rate reduction incentives that could lower their monthly payment even more. NextStudent will reward borrowers after 36 on-time payments with a 1% rate reduction that's locked for the life of the loan. This 1% rate reduction is in addition to the 0.25% reduction borrowers can earn right away, just by signing up to have their monthly loan payments automatically debited from their checking or savings account.

Parents who take out PLUS loans to help pay for their children's educational expenses can also take advantage of federal student loan consolidation. Parents can consolidate their PLUS loans as soon as 60 days after the final disbursements are made, even if their children are still in school.

Applying for a NextStudent Federal Student Loan Consolidation is easy and may be done over the phone with the borrower's personally assigned Education Finance Advisor. NextStudent's trained consultants can help answer any questions parents or students may have and will help walk them through the federal student loan consolidation process from start to finish. To research additional financial aid options, students can also use NextStudent's online scholarship search engine -- one of the nation's oldest and largest -- featuring 2.4 million scholarships worth $3.4 billion.

About NextStudent

NextStudent, Federal Lender Code 834051, is dedicated to helping students and their families find affordable ways to pay for college. NextStudent offers one-on-one education finance counseling and has a portfolio of highly competitive education finance products and services, including a free online scholarship search engine, federally guaranteed parent and student loans, private student loans, both federal and private student loan consolidation programs, and college savings plans.

The NextStudent Scholarship Search Engine, one of the nation's oldest and largest scholarship search engines, is updated daily, available free of charge, completely private -- and represents 2.4 million scholarships worth $3.4 billion.

For more information about NextStudent and its student loan programs, please visit the company's Web site at www.nextstudent.com.