5 Ways to Pay Off Student Loans Debt Fast For Graduates

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The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has recently revealed that more than 50% of recent college graduate have taken one or more student loans, and the average student loan debt is $10000 dollars. The average cost of attending college has risen steadily twice as fast as the current inflation rate. With college getting so expensive, it has been increasing difficult for needy college students to get the limited amount of scholarships and study grants to help them pay for tuition fees and basic essentials.

According to the United College Marketing Services (UCMS) that provides credit card financing for university students, more and more people are now applying for credit cards while in school in order to buy basic necessities such as books and to pay for hostel accommodation. Furthermore, a typical student nowadays actually holds an average of 3 credit cards.

To ensure you have an easier time repaying any student loans and credit card balances, you need to start planning now before you even graduate and get a job.

If you foresee problems paying your study loans due to financial hardship, take an active approach and start calling your student loan lenders and negotiate for a solution. They will compromise because they prefer to get back the money you owed them smoothly rather than to resort to debt collectors to cut their losses.

Protect your credit profile by not letting the creditors hit you with late or missed payments. Ask for a financial hardship loan deferment until you get a higher paying job or can start to pay off the college loans again.

Here are 5 ways to help with paying off student loan debt:

1. Start Making Money While In College To Repay Student Loans Upon Graduation

During the summer break, take on some work or take part in an internship. Save your money. Each summer throughout your college education, get a job or internship. You can get legitimate jobs that pay minimum wage by getting employed on campus. Enquire with your campus employment office to check on available work-study vacancies to help defray the cost of college. These generally range from librarian work, research assistant or help desk for computer support etc. The nice thing about these jobs is that you only need to work a couple of hours per week and you also save on transport since these are within the campus grounds.

Avoid spending off all your pay checks and try to invest half your money in a high interest savings account with 2.50% APY or better returns. Once you have accumulated sufficient capital, speak to an investment advisor on how to earn the fastest returns from the stock market. It may not seem much, but if you do this consistently throughout your 3 to 4 years of college, you can end up with enough money to pay off your entire college loan debts.

2. Can Student Loan Consolidation Make Debt Repayment Easier?

Student loan consolidation is very popular among graduates with more than one creditor. This service helps to combine all your loans into a single monthly payment, and often help you restructure the debts such that you can afford to pay every month. Although the interest rates may appeared to be reduced, actually you can end up paying more interest because the loan term has been increased correspondingly. There are also many student loan scams to cheat less financially savvy graduates so be careful and research on the best student debt consolidation lenders before signing up. Note that some type of student loans cannot be consolidated and if you intend to apply for the various government based student loan forgiveness programs, check whether these have any restrictions on the use of student consolidation loans.

3. Join Student Loan Forgiveness Programs To Reduce College Debts

There are many federal government agencies that offer student loan forgiveness packages if you sign up for employment at these organizations. These are available in order to attract more graduates into careers that are less popular compared to mainstream work and they are definitely no less challenging or rewarding. For example, in exchange for reducing student loan debt, you can choose to become a teacher in schools located at certain low income communities or in remote areas where there is a shortage of teachers. There are also government programs to reduce student debts for nurses, national security, police, military personnels.

4. Apply For Free College Grant Money And Scholarships

Do not let college scholarships go pass you if you meet the neccesary requirements to apply. The more free student grants you get, the less debts you need to take on to pay for college since these grants do not need to be repaid. Some of these focus on having great academic results while others are designed for needy students from low income families that have problems paying for tuition. You can greatly increase your chance of securing scholarship grants by submitting as many scholarship applications as possible. Try to apply for as many government college grants as well, such as the Federal Pell Grant, Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership (LEAP), National Science Scholars Program, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) etc. Check out your university financial aid office for any financial assistance programs that are provided to help needy students. These are different from scholarships as in the total amount of free college money awarded is lesser per student but your chance of getting in is higher.

5. Avoid Bad Credit Problems Which Causes More Debts

Do not think lightly about skipping on paying your bills, student loans and credit card balances or to pay later by a few weeks. These have a devastating effect on your personal credit score as these late or missed payments will be recored on your credit report by your creditors. The consequences are that you will find it more difficult to get a new loan or credit card and the interest rates will also be higher. When that happens, you will find it even more difficult to pay off your student loans debt as the accrued interests gets more and more.