There are many reasons why you might want to consolidate student loans with your spouse, including:
- To simplify repayment: It can be easier to repay your student loan debt if you have just one monthly payment to manage instead of many. And with one payment, you don’t need to decide which debt to prioritize.
- To reduce your rate: Refinancing with a private lender could lower the rate you’re each paying on private loans, especially if you both have great credit.
- To better work towards joint financial goals: When you combine student loans with your spouse, there’s no longer separate debt. You have one joint goal you’re working towards.
You might also have other reasons for combining your spouse’s student loans with yours. The important thing is to approach the process from an informed perspective and not just ask if you can consolidate student loans with your spouse, but also should you.
Can You Consolidate Student Loans With Your Spouse?
Whether you can consolidate student loans with your spouse depends on the type of educational debt you both have and the process you want to use to combine the loans. The U.S. Department of Education (ED) lets you consolidate your own federal student loans without losing federal aid benefits like income-driven repayment plans or the potential for student loan forgiveness.
But unfortunately, Congress eliminated joint consolidation loans in 2005. So if you’re interested in consolidating federal student loans with your spouse, you cannot do so through the ED.
How to Combine Student Loans With Your Spouse
While you can’t combine student loans with your spouse through the ED, combining multiple student loans from each partner is still possible. You’ll just need to use a private student loan lender instead.
Private student loan lenders can refinance both federal and private loans, and many let you combine your debts with your spouse’s. To do so, you’d take out a large refinance loan to pay off yours and your partner’s existing student loans. As an added benefit, some private lenders may offer lower rates than what you’d get with a consolidation loan through the ED.
That said, it’s important to remember that private student loans differ from federal student loans. If you refinance federal loans with a private lender, you’ll lose access to federal benefits, including:
- Public Service Loan Forgiveness
- Income-driven payment plans
- Generous deferment and forbearance options
- The ability to change your payment plan as needed
Given this, most people do not, and should not, refinance federal loans with a private lender. So can spouses combine student loans? Technically yes, but you should likely do this only with your existing private loans. If you have federal student loan debt, consolidating your loans with your spouse likely isn’t a good option. If you refinance existing private student loans, you don’t lose any important benefits since you were already working with a private lender anyway.
Should You Combine Student Loans With Your Spouse?
Before moving forward with combining your student loans with your spouse’s, ensure you consider these pros and cons.
Pros:
The biggest benefits of combining student loans with your spouse include:
- Potentially reducing borrowing costs if you can qualify for a lower rate with a joint refinance loan
- Helping a spouse with a lower credit score qualify for refinancing
- Simplifying repayment since you’ll only have one loan instead of multiple loans
- Getting on the same page with joint financial goals
- Potentially paying off debt faster due to the lower rate and your joint repayment efforts
Cons:
- Losing federal borrower benefits if you refinance federal loans with a private lender
- Becoming jointly responsible for your partner’s debt
- Divorcing could be more difficult and messier if you combine student loans
Alternatives to Consider
If refinancing with a private lender to combine your federal student loans doesn’t sound like your best option, these alternatives are worth considering:
Look into federal loan forgiveness: While certain student loan forgiveness options hang in the balance, public service loan forgiveness (PSLF) will likely remain in place. If you or your spouse works in the public sector and meet qualifying requirements for PSLF, consider applying for this forgiveness option.
Switch repayment plans: If you want to consolidate your loans to reduce your interest rate and make payments more affordable, you might consider switching your federal student loan repayment plan instead. Consider looking into income-driven repayment plan options and whether you qualify.
Consolidate individually: You could also consolidate your federal student loans individually with a federal consolidation loan. While you’d still have two monthly payments to manage, two payments could be much less cumbersome than several monthly payments.
Find the Right Lender
If you’ve weighed the pros and cons and still want to combine your student loans with your spouse’s, be sure you do your research to find the right lender.
When considering which private loan refinancing company to work with, start by asking prospective lenders if spouses can combine their student loans using a refinance loan. And it’s also smart to compare joint and individual loan rates with prospective lenders to see which type of refinance could help you save the most money. By researching loan options and finding the right lender to work with, you can ensure your student loan consolidation process goes smoothly and is the best financial move for you.
