Federal loan consolidation departments provide consolidation services to students who seek loans for educational purposes. Consolidation is a refinancing program providing an opportunity for the individual to convert outstanding education loans held by various lenders into a single new loan with a single monthly payment. This method of clearing up credit is a wonderful way to pay off the debt in full right now, while providing you with the crucial opportunity to pay off your loan to a new department with whom you have a fresh slate.

There are many federal loan consolidation departments in the United States. The US Department of Education offers a federal consolidation loan program called the William D. Ford Direct Consolidation loan program. In this program, the borrowers are allowed to apply for a loan consolidation provided an agreement is made to follow to the Income Contingency Repayment Plan (ICR).

The department of education offers loan consolidation services both online and on the telephone. The federal departments offer many loans such as the one under the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program. For loan consolidation, you have to approach either the consolidation department of the lender or a federal education department.

If the borrower defaults on payments, then the consolidation department (Department of Education) reports this to the national credit bureaus. That causes damages to the borrower's credit rating, eventually inviting difficulties for the borrower to purchase a car or house. So the borrowers must keep in touch with the loan-servicing center so that billing statements do not go astray.