Is there a company that will consolidate personal loans with student loans?

Any experiences consolidating student loans with SOFI?

• I just found out about SOFI, a company/ service that will let you consolidate your student loans - they solicit other alumni to lend. I am not interested in consolidating my federal loans (want that federal guarantee / public service forgiveness option) but I have two companies now servicing my private loans and think this could be a good option for me. I checked their listing of eligible schools and NYU, my grad school alma-mater is listed under the schools that are serviced. Anyone have advice or experiences to share in working with this company? I now have my private loans with two companies: Citi and Discover and I couldn't really be more unhappy (except with my 24-year-old self who took out the loans, but that's another story...). Called them and it looks like my monthly payment would go down about $100 or $110 per month, BUT my interest rate would increase about 2% from what it is now and has been for 5 years (I have variable rate but it hasn't changed so far during the life of the loan). $100 a month is not insignificant for me right now, as I am paying $653 per month for my loans, federal and private (a good chunk of my non-profit income). But I don't want to get into a situation with a company that I will regret later. Any experiences with this particular company or thoughts on consolidating private loans to share would be appreciated!

• Answer:

  If your interest rate is going up, and your loan amount is staying the same. How is your payment going down? A higher interest rate already sounds like a worse deal.