If you’re reading this you probably have student loans. I’m sure you’ve heard that Biden is trying to get rid of student loans and have complete student loan forgiveness, but the odds of that happening are slim-to-none.
There is so much debt accumulated from student loans in the United States that it’s INSANE. $1.57 trillion to be exact.
This student debt is detrimental to the United States government, that doesn’t mean Congress will do anything extreme to put an end to it. In order for all of the student loans to be paid off, each American would have to pay an extraordinary amount of money in the form of taxes.
Americans are not known for being diligent taxpayers, and we really don’t love being taxed more than we already are. Thus, there will not be total loan forgiveness for every American with student debt.
But – don’t worry. Even though you still have to pay off your student loans, you don’t have to let it destroy your finances (or your spirit) !
Here are 5 student loan repayment tips to tackle your student debt.
1. Find Your Loan Servicer
Your loan servicer is the company that you will be paying your student loans to. They process your loan payments, respond to borrower questions, and your principal and interest paid.
There are 6 main student loan servicing companies: Great Lakes, HESC/Edfinancial, MOHELA, Navient, Nelnet, and OSLA Servicing. For example, my loan servicing company is MOHELA, so I go to the MOHELA website every month to pay off my student debt.
You can find out who your loan servicing company is on your FAFSA account. On the Federal Student Aid website, hover your mouse over the Manage Loans tab, and click “Who’s My Servicer” under About Loan Repayment. You should see this section.
Click on the “visit your account dashboard” link to find out which loan servicing company you will be paying your student loans to.
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2. Make A Plan
Decide when you want to have the loan paid off (remember: the sooner, the better). Paying it off earlier than it is due will save you THOUSANDS of dollars in interest payments. Look at your income and salary, and decide what you can afford to spend on a loan each month.
Set up a payment plan that best suits you. If paying one large chunk of money per month is daunting, you can actually pay 2 smaller payments 2x month instead. For example, instead of paying $1000 a month, you can pay $500 every two weeks.
This will help you pay off your loans faster because sometimes you may feel like chipping in an extra $100, and all these extra payments add up. Paying biweekly will also help lower the interest on your loan.
3. Refinance Your Loans
Refinancing your student loan just means replacing your current loan with a loan that has a lower interest rate. Refinancing your loan will save you a lot of money in interest, and can help you pay off your loan sooner.
In order to refinance your student loan, you will need to have good credit, and a stable job with good, recurring income.
You can use Ernest or Splash Financial to refinance or consolidate your loan. You also have the choice to refinance your loan on the FAFSA page.
For more information on refinancing your loans, visit this page to learn more!
4. Consolidate Your Loans
According to this article, Loan Consolidation combines loans into one monthly payment with one servicer.
Consolidating your loans may make it easier to keep track of your loans if you have more than one student loan with more than one servicer or company.
Borrowers working in Public Service and teachers in certain low-income schools may be able to get loan forgiveness for certain federal loans.
5. Pay Off Your Student Loans ASAP
My main piece of advice regarding student debt is to make paying it off fast a priority. Paying off short-term debt is key to getting your finances in order right from the start.
You probably want to buy a house or car and grow your wealth. Before you can do any of these things, you need to pay off your debt and build your credit.
DO NOT WAIT UNTIL LOAN FORGIVENESS IS OVER to think about your student loans! Start planning your student loan repayment NOW!
These were 5 student loan repayment tips to help pay off your student loans!
I hope that this post helped you learn more about student loan repayment so that you can make a game plan and start paying it off now.
If you have any questions regarding student loan repayment or finance in general, feel free to email me at professionallypeony@yahoo.com.
Xo,
Layton