If you have student loans, you’re likely looking for ways to end those monthly payments as soon as possible. Try these five tips to get student loans out of your life faster.
Take Out a Private Loan
Taking out a private loan could help you pay off your loan sooner if you can get a better interest rate. If you have multiple loans with different payments, then you can use a private loan and only have to make one payment per month. If your credit is good enough to get a better interest rate on a private loan, you might want to consider this option.
Make a Lump-Sum Payment
When you get a tax refund, a profit-sharing check, or a bonus, put it entirely toward your loans instead of planning a vacation or shopping spree. When you make lump payments toward your student loans, you bring down the total amount you owe. Your interest is based on the current amount you owe, so when you take chunks out of that, you’ll pay a lot less overall. Furthermore, you can still deduct the interest on your taxes as student loan interest is still deductible despite other recent changes.
Consolidate Your Debt
Consolidating all your debt can help you lower your monthly payments, which helps you to pay off your loans faster. Many people don’t realize they can consolidate their student loans. If you’re able to get a lower interest rate, then it’s worth looking into. Even if you don’t want to consolidate your student loans, you may want to take out a loan to consolidate credit-card debt. If you’re able to pay less per month for other debt, you can focus more on paying off your student loans faster saving you money on the interest.
Apply for Student-Loan Forgiveness
Public Service Loan Forgiveness is an option if you are in a relevant field. If you work for a nonprofit organization or you have a local, state, or federal job, you could be eligible for student-loan forgiveness after making 120 consecutive payments. If you’re a teacher, you can also work for a designated school and get the same benefits. Double-check that you’re in an eligible program before accepting the job if student-loan forgiveness is your ultimate goal.
Avoid Taking on New Debt
The less debt you have, the more you can focus on paying off your loans. If you’ve paid off your car, don’t buy a new one if you can help it. Instead, put what you would spend on a car payment toward your loan instead. Don’t take out new credit cards, or if you do, don’t spend beyond what you can afford to pay every month. If you want to buy a house, consider putting that down payment toward your loans instead. Typically, buying a home is a good investment, but you need to think about how long you will live there to determine if it’s the best decision based on your current financial situation.
Although there are limited ways to get rid of student loans overnight, you can at least get rid of them sooner.
