Hello.  I have several new direct loans serviced by FedLoan, and two older FFEL Stafford loans serviced by Sallie Mae and AES. I am just finishing school and plan to apply for IBR and PSLF.  I’ve been told by FedLoan I will qualify for both. My tentative plan is to roll all my loans into a new direct consolidation loan so that everything will qualify for PSLF.

However, I have a couple of questions:

1) My understanding is that I must get a direct consolidation loan to make my FFEL loans qualify for PSLF. Is this true?

2) I have a couple years worth of payments on the FFEL loans. These payments were made after 2007, when I worked full time for a qualifying organization. Can these payments count toward PSLF once I convert the loans to direct by consolidating?

3) If the answer above is yes: if I consolidate and combine these older FFEL loans with my newer direct loans, will I get PSLF credit toward the whole new loan for those prior payments, even though the payments were made on a relatively small potion of the overall debt?

Thank you very much.

I have similar questions. Any responses?