Generally, a consolidation loan lumps all your student loans into a new loan, with up to 30 years to pay back and a fixed interest rate. It really makes it easy if you have student loans scattered across different lenders/servicers.

The key word in your statement is ‘up to $2000′, if you have a lower balance, you probably will not get that much as a credit. Yes, you would get a credit, not cash back.

And if you do get ‘up to $2000′, believe me, you will pay for it eventually. There’s no such thing as a free lunch (imo).

You don’t get $2000 off, you probably just save that much in interest by consolidating. You are basically consolidating to get a lower fixed rate on your loan, that’s the benefit.