Before we get to the answer, you should firstly ask yourself do I need to consolidate my student loan that's under $10,000? Believe it or not a $10,000 student loan debt is not a very large one. If you're still studying or going to keep studying then the best thing to do is not to consolidate your loan just yet.
When consolidating your loans you'll reduce your monthly payments however once you've consolidated your loans not every lender will be happy when you want to re-consolidate your loan again. However there are ways to re-consolidate your student loans but we'll get to that in a minute.
To answer the question, yes you can consolidate your loan if it's under $10,000 however the lowest amount you can consolidate is around $7,500. If you've got anything lower than this amount it is not worth consolidating.
Suppose your still studying and are thinking of lower your repayments. The first thing you should do before consolidating is to see if you need more money first. If you have another 2 or 3 years left then you should borrow more before you consolidate.
Once you've figured out how much
you need the next thing to do is consolidate your loan. If you consolidate your student loans with a private lender you might not be able to re-consolidate your student loan if you need more money. So make sure you ask your lender before you consolidate if they can re-consolidate your loan later in the future.
Not everyone lender will want to re-consolidate your loan so you'll need to get around 4 student consolidation loan lenders on hand in case you can't find a lender willing to re-consolidate your loan.
Now here's a tip for you supposing that you already have a consolidated loan.
If you already consolidated your student loan then you should be aware of a small loop hole. However this only works if you have a federal student loan. First thing you need to do is go out and get another federal student loan. Then the next thing you should do is go to your current loan consolidator and ask them to combine your new federal loan with your existing consolidated loan.
This is technically re-consolidating your loan however it works with most lenders because you're adding a new loan to your already consolidated loan.
To conclude the best tip I can offer you are this. Before you study, work out how much money you'll need to borrow for your entire course. Then consolidate your loan immediately to lower your repayments. But make sure your lender allows you to add additional federal loans in the future and you'll be set for your studies. Good luck with the rest of your studies.
