How to lower student loan payments?
I am going to have about $40,000 in student loans when I am done with college. I am going to be teacher so I won’t be making a ton of money for a while? Is there a way to lower my student loan payments? Even with the 15 year repayment plan I am going to be paying about $300/month :-/ Any suggestions?
There are several different options for lowering your payment. Often it will depend on your lender or servicer what they offer. Depending on when you took out your loan you may qualify for extended repayment. I know my company will offer up to 25 years to repay if you have a balance >$30,000 & you took out your first loan after 1998. There is also a graudated repayment plan, but this is only temporary. Typically you can get your payments lowered to interest only for about the first 2 years, but then they do increase pretty dramatically after the 2 years. Of course there is a deferment or forbearance, which are also both short term solutions. And to qualify for a deferment your income has to be pretty low (I am talking minimum wage low). And last but not least (or maybe it is least? lol) is consolidation. I would use this as your last option if none of the others work for you. It will lock in your interest rate (so if you are at a high rate then you will be fixing at that rate forever), extend your repayment, but of course you will pay significantly more interest over the life of the loan.
But as I usually say, talk to your lender and they will be able to tell you all of he different alternatives. Maybe they will even have some I haven’t mentioned! Good luck! There are definitely ways to get help though! And I would also suggest looking into teacher loan forgiveness if you are going to teach in a low income area…but that only forgives part of your loan and you must be teaching for 5 years to qualify!
