To consolidate or not to consolidate?

I am not sure about the Perkins loan cancellation, since I do not work with Perkins loans...BUT I know a lot about stafford and consolidation loans. Depending on when you took out your stafford loans I ume they are at either 6.8 or 7.14% right? Well if it is at 6.8 that is already fixed, so no reason really to consolidate. If they are at 7.14% then you would be rounding that up to the nearest 1/8, so you would lock it in @ 7.25%. A lot of consolidation companies are spamming people saying "Lock in your rate, they are going up" like they did last ear. The difference is last year they went up almost 2%, this year they are going up .08%. Stafford loans are now going to be at 7.22%, which if you consolidate you would still be higher than that. In addition to that..if the government ever lowers the interest rates yours would still be stuck at that high rate then. One reason people consolidate is to lower their payments. Consolidation can do this but you also pay quite a bit more interest over the life of the loan because you are extending the repayment period. I believewith $15,000 it would extend it to 15 years, that is 5 extra years worth of interest. If you can make the minimum monthly payments then I would stick with how your loan is now. You will save yourself a good chunk of money. I hope this helps, if you have any other questions feel free to send me a message, I am pretty much an expert..or as much as one can be on this! I am a strong advocate against consolidation unless you have a good reason and there are no other options!