How To Pay Off Student Loans Fast!

Basically any college student or recent college graduate in the United States will be able to tell you one thing: Post-secondary education is expensive. The average graduate in the United States has about $19,000 in debt. Paying student loans off quickly will help you to pay less in interest and get rid of the debt burden. Paying off student loans will also help raise your credit score, which will help if you need financing for another big purchase, such as a car or a house, or getting additional loans to continue on with your education. Some cell phone companies even run a credit check before offering you a cell phone contract, so having a good credit score comes in handy for many things.

Don’t pay the bare minimum payment

By paying off the bare minimum from your student loan debt, you will spend much more time paying off the loan and much more money will be charged for interest. For most, if not all, student loans, there is no penalty if a borrower decides to pay off the student loan in a shorter period of time than indicated on the credit agreement, so there is no reason to not make larger monthly payments if you are able to. Even adding a little extra money to your payment every month will quickly add up and help save you money in interest.

Research your options

There are many programs out there that offer assistance to graduates who are paying back their student loans, whether that is a payment program or loan forgiveness. Any way of decreasing your debt will allow you to pay less on interest and pay off your loan quickly, and there are many options that people sometimes forget about. There are many different programs run by different agencies who are interested in getting their employees or students out of student loan debt.

There are also legal avenues that you can chose to pursue if you believe that your loan or your credit agreement was unfair. Getting a lower interest rate can help you pay back your loan quickly and with much less financial hardship, which will harm your credit score greatly.

Continue to live like a student

Chances are you’ve been a student for the past four or more years, so continue to live like a student while you are repay your loans, especially if you want to pay them off early. Living too extravagantly, at best, will leave you struggling to make student loan payments; at the worst, you could end up missing payments and defaulting on the loan.

Get A Good Job

This may seem obvious, but it is very important to have a good job after college. Financial hardship and volunteer work may get you deferrals or forbearance, but that will only extend the time it takes to repay the loan, which is the opposite of what you want to have. Find a job in your field that will pay well enough to make ontime payments.