Student Loan Grace Periods are NOT Going Away

You may have recently heard a bit of false news: that there will be no more grace periods on student loans. Despite the fact that the Chicago Tribune ran a headline to that effect on Thursday of last week, it’s actually not true. The truth is that that interest will now begin accumulating on student loans sooner, but the “grace period” that postpones any required payments until 6 months after graduation has not been eliminated. The inaccurate story began...

5 Ways to Prioritize Your Student Loan Payments

when people are moving to the more “balanced” stage of their lives, their 30s, loan repayments still aren’t always top of mind. When you have a robust social life, savings goals, vacation plans, rent payments and a bad Seamless or Uber habit, it’s easy to forget that student loan payments should remain a financial priority. As someone who has learned the hard way but managed to turn it around, below are five tips to help you stay...

Paying Off Student Loan Debt: It’s Time to Make a Plan

If you’re struggling to pay back student loans, you’re in good company. Americans owe a total of almost $1.129 trillion in student loans. Those figures can be pretty intimidating for recent graduates, especially those who haven’t yet found a job. So how can you pay off loans quickly and on time, avoiding the dark waters of default? Here are some tips. 1. Get organized It’s important to know to whom you owe what, and to chart a course for paying it off....

Does Student Loan Debt Hurt Your Credit Score?

Dominique Brown is the author of YourFinancesSimplified and InsiderRealEstateTips. He writes about “whatever he pleases” and today he wanted to write about credit and student loans. First: A Definition of “Credit Score” As you probably know, your credit score is the result of a complicated calculation. To get your credit score, the credit bureaus inspect five different areas of your financial situation including: HISTORY: Do you pay your bills on time,...

9 Actions that Can Help You Pay Off Student Loans Faster

Student loans have a tendency to follow people around for a long time. In fact, new studies show that people are now retiring… and hauling their student loan payments along with their golf clubs and cruise tickets. While new measures have been put in place to forgive people of their student loan debt after a certain number of years, the fact is, you don’t want to hold onto the loans that helped you pay for college. You’re better off using that money for...

Best Student Loan Refinance Companies

In the nearly ten years since I graduated college (!), the face of student loan debt has changed quite a bit. In my college days, we mostly joked about our loans. My classmates and I would look at our total debt number in comparison to our major and say, “Yeah, we’re going to be paying that off well into middle age…” or “We’ll probably have kids in school and still be paying these loans off.” Now that there legitimately are many parents paying off their...

One Simple Change That Shaved 7 Months Off My Student Loan Debt Repayment

A few tips and tricks tend to be popular go-tos in financial advice. Namely, creating a budget and taking advantage of opportunities to increase earning power. And while both are viable (and valuable) ways to pay off your debt even quicker, they also require long-term focus and maintenance. By no means a bad thing when it comes to keeping in touch with your finances – they are the pillars for your debt repayment, after all! But it goes without saying...

How Does Student Loan Consolidation Work?

If you’re a college student or recent graduate, then you’ve probably thought more about student loans and how to pay them off than you’d like. With so much information out there, it may be difficult to figure out your best course of action. For example, many graduates have asked us how student loan consolidation works. While consolidating student loans is not the right choice for everyone, it can be a real help to some. That’s why we decided to use this...

How to Pay Off Student Loans (Faster)

Full disclosure: Like many of our readers, I’m a student loan borrower. And even though I’m only a few years into my repayment for $23,000 of student loans – I’m already sick of it. Aside from student loan payments sucking up much of my extra income, seeing my monthly student loan bill is a constant reminder of just how much farther I have to go before I’m debt free. Seeing that far-distant debt free date is aggravating, so I think I speak for many when...

Some People Are Using Student Loans To Pay the Bills – And Putting Themselves At Risk

Student loans have become an increasingly controversial topic in the news, what with the high delinquency rate and the repayment hurdles set by loan servicers. But they still remain one of the most viable options for those who want to pursue higher education but lack the funds to do so. In many cases, taking out a student loan creates opportunity for those with lower incomes and allows them to benefit from higher education. But what if student loans...