Once you have graduated from college your lender by law have to give you a six-month period called the grace before have to start paying back your loan. You are given this time period because this is the time that you will begin looking for a job and if your lender fully explained the loan to you you will understand unique student loan consolidation rate that if you refinance your loan during the grace period you are given an interest rate that is typically more than .5% lower than if you waited till after the grace period to repay your loan. This lower interest rate will cut many years off of your loan time.