I’m a recent law grad from a private institution. I have $144,000 of federal student loan debt serviced by Sallie Mae and my private loans include $5,100 from Sallie Mae (which started at $10,000 about 5 months ago), $14,400 with Wells Fargo and $37,600 with AES.

Currently, I’m on income based repayment for the federal loans to which I’m not paying anything until February 2014 but at the same time accumulating $800 of interest a month at a rate of 6.8%.

While this is happening, I am paying at least $1,000 a month towards my private loans, namely Sallie Mae at this time. I’m also paying the minimum payment on the others.

My first question is: is there any possible way to lower my federal loan interest rate? It has already been consolidated and as previously said Sallie Mae is servicing it.

My second question is: do you see a different way I should be handling my payments? Generally, I’m just trying to pay my private loans first. I make $70,000 at a private law firm right now. Thank you.

Hey there.  Not many options for lowering federal student loan interest rates.  Folks that borrowed at fixed rates are pretty well stuck with those rates unless they refinance federal loans into some kind of private loan “product” which is almost always a terrible idea.  Most folks can’t find better terms in the private market in any event but even if you could, you’d want to be very cautious since federal loans come with important protections including flexible repayment and cancellation provisions.

I can’t ethically advise you about your particular loans or strategy.  Generally, it can make sense to target private loans for more aggressive repayment because they are typically more expensive and risky.