Eligibility

No credit check is required during the process and there are no fees (in fact, the government prohibits lenders from charging fees) and no employment verifications. As long as you have more than $7,500 in federal student loans and aren't in default on those loans you are eligible.

The Application

The application consists of a short federal form listing your contact information and detailing the loans you owe, who currently holds them and what the balances and interest rates are. View a sample consolidation application here. Using your Social Security Number, your lender can verify your current loan information in the national student loan data system and fill in the loan information for you. Rest assured that reputable federal consolidation lenders are extraordinarily careful about your personal information because a lender can lose its right to do business for violations of the strict government rules regarding borrower privacy.

The whole process can be completed over the phone or online in about 10 minutes - you can even sign the application electronically. For those who like to review documents, most lenders will gladly email, fax or overnight the form to you for manual signature.

You can apply for consolidation now through Vault's loan consolidation service. Apply online today.

Processing Your Consolidation Loan

Once your application is complete your lender will substitute a new federal loan in place of the loans you want consolidated. This process takes anywhere from 45-90 days. You should continue to make payments on your current loans until you receive a Disclosure Statement and Repayment Schedule, detailing the total amount of your consolidation loan, the interest rate and the repayment schedule, from your consolidation lender.

• Click here to see how much you can save through Vault's no-obligation loan consolidation service.

Have questions? Please drop Vault's expert, Peter Wilkniss, a line at pwilkniss@vault.com. Peter holds a BA in Economics for the University of Virginia and a JD/MBA from Columbia (with tons of student loans!). He practiced law at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York, and held senior financial management positions on Wall Street, before helping start and run a student loan company.