Is there any possible way to combine federal and private student loans?

I wish to God they told me in college that I wouldn't be able to consolidate them all down the road.
I have federal through ACS at a total balance of 20K- fixed rate of 7.25% with monthly payments of $130 (But scheduled to go up again soon).
I have private through AES at a total balance of 34K-variable rate of 9.97 (which seems really high) with monthly payments of $285 (Not scheduled to go up for another year now).
I pay $400/mo in just student loans and with my car payments, credit cards, and rent- it's not cutting it.
Everyone I've talked to said there's nothing you can do. Fannie Mae said they can consolidate them but only to make it once monthly payment of the total I'm paying now. How can I consolidate the two into one lower longer term payment? Or if I absolutely cannot- should I reconsolidate my 9.97% Variable rate loan? Note: I'm on that plan where they assume you'll have a good job over time and the payments gradually step up. But I still don't have that good a job!

Unfortunately you are unable to consolidate your Federal Student Loans with your Private Student Loans through the FFELP Consolidation Program.

I would also advise against consolidating your Federal Student Loans with your Private Student Loans because you lose all your Federal Benefits on your Federal Student Loans if you do consolidate the two types of loans together.

It does seem that you are very interested in Private Loan Consolidation however. Hope this helps you out! For more information on Federal vs. Private Student Loan Consolidation please visit the source below.

It may not be a good idea to consolidate the federal loans with the private loan due to losing interest deductibility but of course if you're having trouble paying them both, it's more important not to go into default.

Try Student Loan Advisors at http://www.StudentLoanAdvisors.com there is a federal consolidation form, but I seem to recall that they also the ability to consolidate private student loans and federal together. complete the federal form and when they call ask them if they offer a way to add in the private loan.. I'm almost sure of it.

You can not consolidate Federal with Private loans. If your payments are not practical I would call the lenders to see if they can help you in any way. Also, you can't consolidate consolidated loans unless you have new loans to include with them. Since you are locked in on your Federal loan interest rate your payment won't change. but it looks like you are on a graduated payment plan since you said the payments are scheduled to go up soon. With your private loans, the 9.97 doesn't really seem that high, but unfortunately a variable rate can go up many times a year. You said Fannie Mae, did you mean Sallie Mae? :) But yea, you are correct... they can only consolidate your loans to one monthly payment. The only way to change your monthly amount would be to change your repayment terms. Give them a call, see what they can do for you! The longer you stretch out your payments, the more money they make since you are paying a lot of interest. If you are ok with that, let them know what you want to do.

I've heard that you can combine the two loans, but that it generally is unfavorable to do so in the long run. However, since your priority is to lower monthly payments then the first thing you should do is shop around and see what lenders are willing to offer you.

If you find out that you can't consolidate the federal and private loans then you should at least consolidate that variable rate loan. Variable rates aren't going to make your life any easier.

Here are some sites I'd recommend:
http://mytuition.com - student loans and consolidations
http://finfo.com - get up to four competing offers from banks, no obligation.

You should also check with your existing lenders to see if they're willing to lower your monthly payments.

Good luck!

You can not consolidate Federal with Private loans.
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