As the costs of higher education have skyrocketed over the last few decades, more and more students have gone deeper into debt to finance their educations.  In Canada, the amount of government assistance for college educations has declined, forcing students to borrow even more.

Typically, students borrow from multiple sources and consequently end up making monthly Loan payments to several different lenders.  If you are having a hard time meeting your monthly bills you can reduce your total outlay by consolidating all your student loan consolidation into a single loan with a single payment.  And that single payment will generally be much lower than the combined payments you’ve been making to multiple lenders.

There are advantages and disadvantages to student loan debt consolidation, so let’s look at both the upside and the downside.

Consolidating Student Loans:  the Upside

The most obvious advantage is more of your income left at the end of each month.  Most consolidation loans extend the term or life of the loan which further reduces that new single payment.  In many cases, you can also get a lower interest rate and if you have any federal loans the interest rate on them will remain the same.

The post The Upside and the Downside of Consolidating Student Loans appeared first on Personal Bankruptcy Canada.