3 Ways to Reduce Your Student Loan Debt During Biden’s Longer Payment Freeze

Americans worried about the resumption of federal student loan payments in October may stop sweating, as President Joe Biden’s administration extended the freeze on payments and interest for another four months.

That means the roughly 42 million federal student loan borrowers are off the hook until Jan. 30, 2022. But Biden’s Education Department warns that this is the “final extension” of a break on student debt, which has been in place since March 2020.

If you have student loans and your finances have held up fairly well during the pandemic, you should take advantage of the last few months of the moratorium to write off as much of that debt as possible.

Here are some ways you can try to reduce your student loan debt before the payments start again.

Make payments, even if you don’t have to

While it can be tempting to stay “on break” from your student loans until February, continuing to make your regular payments – and even to pay more than your usual minimum – is a good idea, if you can afford it. .

Since the interest rates on Federal Student Loans are frozen at 0%, any payments you make now will go entirely to the principal amount of your loan.

This means that you may be able to withdraw a good chunk of your loan balance. When student loan debt was frozen last year, the typical balance was between $ 20,000 and $ 24,999, according to Federal Reserve data.

Resuming your payments sooner is probably out of the question if you have other debt, like running out of credit cards during a period of unemployment last year. You may want to use this time to tame those debts with the help of a low interest debt consolidation loan.

Find a new repayment plan

You could erase your student loan debt faster by changing your current payment plan, especially if your income has been reduced by the pandemic and still has not returned.

The government proposes income-based repayment plans that allow borrowers to make more affordable payments, based on what they earn. After you have made 20 or 25 years of regular payments under an income-oriented plan, your remaining debt will be canceled.

The story continues

This may be your best chance to cancel some of your student loans. President Biden has campaigned to write off $ 10,000 in student debt per borrower, and leading Democrats are urging him to go to $ 50,000 – but now we wonder if Biden has the power to write off massive student debt.

A simple step to saving money with a federal student loan is to enroll in automatic payment, as enrolling in automatic deposits will allow you to benefit from an interest rate reduction of 0.25% when payments will resume.

Refinance private loans

If your student loans are from a private lender, not the federal government, the longer payment break does not apply to you. But you can tackle your student debt over the next few months by refinancing your loan, as interest rates on refi student loans from private lenders have been at all time lows.

Whether you qualify for refinancing will largely depend on your credit score and your current income. If you are not sure of your score, today it is easy to check your credit score for free online.

Even if you lost your job due to the pandemic, you may be eligible for a refi if you can show investment income or income from a side gig, or find a co-signer to support your application. To get the best rate on a student loan refinance, you will have to shop around and compare quotes from multiple lenders.

Remember that refinancing is not an option if you have a federal student loan, and replacing a federal loan with a private loan will make you ineligible for any other government loan relief measures.

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.