If you miss one payment date, the rate cut still applies to your first 12 months. After that, you'd revert to whatever your normal rate would have been on a consolidation loan. If students consolidate with the government after July 1 and use all the discounts, including the 0.25 percent for automatic payments . Your total loan rate could drop to an amazing 5.2 percent. If you have already consolidated your loans at a fixed interest rate .
Private lenders give a variety of discounts, too.
At Collegiate Funding Services, you'd get 1 percentage point off your rate, after making your first 36 loan-consolidation payments on time. At Sallie Mae, there's no such discount for consolidation loans. But you'd get 2 percentage points off your original loans, after making your first 48 payments on time. If you have PLUS loans . You can consolidate them, too, although no discounts apply.