Student loan consolidation

[ThunderingHERD]

So I just hear on the news that if I don't consolidate my loans before midnight tonight, I'm going to have to pay like 2% more interest on them. I've been getting a lot of crap in the mail in recent months about consolidation but just threw it away because 1) I didn't want to deal with it, and 2) they seemed like pretty shady companies trying to trick you into thinking they were with the lenders or government loan people.

Anyway, I have no idea what my loan situation is, other than that I owe thousands of dollars to several different lenders that I'm probably supposed to be paying right about now. Yeh, I'm irresponsible that way. When I got out of high school I went to college in WV, so I've got loans there. Then I spent several years at school in Kentucky, so I've got loans there. No clue who the specific lenders are or how much exactly I owe.

So, my question is: what the hell do I need to do to get this all squared away by midnight?

Edit: Also, I have not graduated nor will I graduate in the next six months (a "screening" question on one of the sites I was just browsing). Does that screw me on this deal?

[Peregrine]

Well as I understand it, student loans are evaluated every July 1st to see what will happen to the interest rates. Up until now, they've gone down along with all the other interest rates, but this year they're going up. I don't think it's the end of the world though.

This page looks like it has some information on various loan sources and consolidation:

hxxp://www.finaid.org/loans/educationlenders.phtml

[Joe]

you'll need the names and addresses of your different lenders, the payoff amounts, and some other info. If you don't get it done, its not a huge deal, most lenders offer reductions in rates if you make the first howevermany (mine was 48) payments on time.

[miked]

If you call the government and start the process over the phone, it locks it in at today's rate. I had 2 small subsidized stafford loans at like 3.5% each or something. I consolidated them into one with 2.8% or something smaller. The lady told me they will shoot up on July 1, and keep giong up thereafter.

[Flasch186]

credit is more important than money....

[wade moore]

Yeah... the bigger problem here I think is it seems you have no idea about your loans, which i assume means you're not paying them off.... that is a bigger problem than you not consolidating...

FWIW, the reason they ask if you're graduating or recently graduated because generally you don't start paying your loans in full until after 6 months after your graduation or since you last attended classes full time.