If you have both federal student loans and private loans, you will have to refinance them separately.
With federal loans, you can usually receive a lower interest rate than with private loans.
Private student loans are personal loans based on the assumption that the income level will increase with more education.
Refinancing student loans can be a good idea under certain circumstances, but not always.As of late, interest rates have been low but they are in fact rising and most economists agree that they will continue to rise.
Most student loans are based on a variable interest rate and will not be locked-in until you refinance or get a loan consolidation.The option to refinance is only available to those individuals who have established good credit by paying their loans back on time.
If you have missed payments or have been late then you can pretty much forget about it. As a rule, refinancing rates are usually offered at 1 or 2 points below what your current rate is. This is to make the loan more attractive, but you must take caution.
There are two options that you should consider when seeking to refinance your loan. Each of which will help you in managing your monthly loan payments. A good refinancing package may provide the opportunity to lock in a lower interest rate.
In addition you may be able to extend the life of the loan by as much as 15 years. Both have the advantage of immediately reducing your monthly payments and allowing you to have a better standard of living. In terms of real savings reducing the interest rate is a better option in that it will reduce the total amount you will have to pay over the life of the loan.
In many cases you may not be able to refinance student loans that are from different sources. Co- mingling private and federal loans is frequently not a possibility. Even it is possible to combine both federal and private loans you most likely will end up with a higher interest rate.