Can Student Debt be Re-consolidated?

There is quite a discussion as regards to whether student debt can be re-consolidated or not. As most questions regarding financial and economic issues, there is not a unanimous answer. The financial market is flexible enough to always offer possibilities when an alternative to a current state of affairs is needed. Yet re-consolidation is definitely not the rule but the exception.

The common doubts about this matter are: whether re-consolidation is possible or not, whether you can re-consolidate with the same lender or with a different one, whether a new loan is needed for re-consolidating or not, and finally and probably the most important question of all: which loan types can be re-consolidated and which ones can not?

Re-Consolidation: Can Do?, Can Not Do?, Depending On The Loan Type

Whether it is possible to re-consolidate your student debt or not depends on which type of student debt you have. If you want to consolidate federal student loans, you will be able to do it only once with a few exceptions. If you want to consolidate private student debt there are really no limits as to how many times you can consolidate your debt. However, if the purpose is to obtain better interest rates and/or reduce your monthly payments, you will experience more limitations even with private student debt.

Federal Student Debt Re-Consolidation

Only in certain circumstances can federal student debt be consolidated more than once: If you have obtained an additional federal student loan after your previous student debt consolidation was completed, you will be able to add the new federal student loan to the previous consolidated federal student debt loan and consolidate it once again.

If for some reason you left a previous loan out of the student debt consolidation process and then you decide that you want to include it, you can consolidate your student debt once again combining the outstanding consolidated student debt loan with the previous unconsolidated federal student loan. Yet, this is not a common scenario and seldom occurs.

Same Lender Or Different Lender

As stated above, with federal student debt consolidation can be done only once with the above explained exceptions. Thus, even with a different lender, you will not be able to consolidate your debt again. At least not without resorting to secured loans. But when it comes to private student debt, there is absolutely no obstacle to consolidate with a different lender or with the same lender (if he is willing to).

Interest Rate And Upcoming Regulation Changes

All consolidation lenders offer the same interest rate when it comes to federal student debt consolidation programs and thus, what differs are the additional benefits that lenders provide with their programs. Make sure that you qualify to obtain those benefits because otherwise, you will end up with the same interest rate and nothing more.

Also, despite what is being stated on many forums and media discussions, it does not seem as there are projects for modifying the regulations regarding re-consolidation on federal student loans. So, do not expect to be able to re-consolidate your federal student debt in the near future and most importantly, do not plan on it.