Though it stretches your loan payments out over a longer time, it does make them more affordable and less stressful, so in some situations is the best decision to make.At the minimum, your graduate student loans probably include a number of federal loans such as the Stafford Loans and Graduate PLUS Loans.

This process will also combine all the loans you refinance into one convenient payment.If you answered “yes” to all of these, you might want to look into consolidating your loans.If you’re more concerned about lowering your interest rate, private student loan consolidation, or refinancing, might be the better option for you.If you consolidate parent PLUS loans with other direct federal student loans into a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan, the only income-driven repayment (IDR) program that loan will be eligible for is income-contingent repayment (ICR), the least generous of all IDR plans.You will not be eligible to enroll in PAYE, REPAYE or IBR to repay a federal direct consolidation loan that includes a parent PLUS loan.