The payment term from the standard ten years to 20 years. Carter estimates that a debt consolidating will reduce her monthly payments 40%, so that she'll pay between $200 and $250 a month. That will give her breathing room to make payments on her more-expensive car loan at 11%. Once the car is paid off, she hopes to put the extra money toward the student loans and still repay them in ten years. "I understand debt a lot better this time around because I've lived it," says Carter, who is also a manager of loan origination at Nellie Mae. Carter's plan to knock off her more-expensive loan first and then concentrate her resources on her remaining debt is a winner, says Amy Cole, an educator at the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Southern New England. A credit card charging 18% interest is a heavier burden than a student loan: The highest rate on student loans currently outstanding is 8.25%. If student debt consolidating loans are your only liability, focus first on those with the highest rate. Even if your budget is tight, don't rule out investing some of your resources if you can earn a higher return than the interest rate you're paying on your loan. The standard repayment plan for student loans calls for equal monthly payments and a ten-year payback period. If that's more than you can afford, call your lender before the grace period ends to ask about other repayment options. For example, Carter is a prime candidate for loan consolidation because she owes money to three different lenders at different rates. With the consolidated loan, the interest rate will be a weighted average of all the loans, rounded up by one-fourth of a percentage point. Variable rates for government-sponsored Stafford debt consolidating are unusually low.