Completely confused about consolidation.

Greetings,
I hope you guys could give some advice regarding my situation.
I am completely clueless when it comes to finances, I am getting better, doing research and talking to people that know what they are talking about. I was an Art student studying Game Design/Animation, I graduated in the end of 2004 with approximately $50k in student loan debt. I did not get a job right out of college as it is an incredibly competitive field and my portfolio just did not cut it.

I am currently in the process of reworking my portfolio to pursue my goals and obtain a job in the field for which I studied and worked so hard to get a job.

The thing is, I completely neglected my finances and deferred my loans after the grace period to continue my education at a community college because I felt I needed more education to bring my skills up to par.

Well 2 1/2 years later I'm about a year into repayment of all my loans, having just consolidated them but months ago, getting reamed on interest.

I have consolidated and this is what I am left with, a private loan in my name at 7.2% interest but for some reason it appears on my statement as 2 loans so I have reason to believe I am being charged that interest rate twice. I also have a federal loan in my name with that same interest rate. And my father took a loan out in his name with that same interest rate now, that I am repaying, he had no intention of paying the loan off but the school for some reason decided to take a loan out in his name for the tuition, I believe it was a Stafford loan.

My question now, after so much typing is, can I consolidate all this debt into a single loan so that I only have one payment a month and am only paying interest on a single loan, even at a higher rate? that may still be less than that of 3 or 4 loans accruing interest? I dont want to be in the situation that some of these posts portray; Making $40k a year with $530+ in student loan payments plus living expenses until I'm old and grey and ready for retirement.

I have no idea where to go or what to do, I'm at my wits end, I'm just looking for some friendly advice. I thank you for reading all this I understand it is long winded but I guess that is what I get for not keeping on top of things.

Thank you in advance.

First of all, try to get the double interest charge stopped. First of all (second, but they are a tie in my opinion), get that business with your father cleared up. Why would they accept a loan in his name and charge you for it?

7.2% is not a horrible rate. You might be able to finagle a better rate through credit cards or a third party, but maybe not (it depends on your credit rating).

Is the sum of your loans still $50k, or are they higher now? Did I read right that you consolidated a year ago, but now need to re-consolidate (eh?)?

The situation with my father is not that they are charging me for it, the put it in his name when I first signed up for school and he had no intent to pay for my schooling, so I pay for a loan that is in his name.

Yeah I did say that I consolidated less than a year ago, i've been making payments for a little over a year. And I know this means I cant consolidate again but I'm just looking for some type of solution to get out of being charged interest 3 or 4 times every month.

The 50k accrued a nice chunk of interest as I was getting forbearance on the loans after my grace period while I was job searching. So now my current debt is at approximately 60k.

thanks for replying

Do some active comparison shopping while trying to look for loans. The better your credit rating, the better APR you will most likely find. The more you shop around, the better APR you will probably find. Be aware of any/all fine print and realize you may pay some balance transfer fees.