Paying off your student loan can be a hectic task. Plus, when you are a woman, organizing things can become tough. The patriarchal society has never let women have it easy. There are twists and turns all over, and when it comes to the payment of loans, the same thing happens. As a student, irrespective of gender, it is very stressful to carry out the process of loan repayment along with studying.
Women hold over two-thirds of America’s $1.54 trillion in student loan debt, based on an AAUW research article, with Black women completing their graduation with much more debt than the national average.
How do you smoothly pay your student loan debts?
Now that the issue has been highlighted, it is important that we work toward a solution. How do we then at least create awareness about the smooth payment of student loan debt as a working woman? Here are a few tips below:
- Researching and understanding the options of financial aid that you have :
Research quite a bit about the funding that you need and understand its clauses. Being a student, it is best if you opt for state-funded financial aid and go through the required websites and online portals containing adequate information about it. You may even apply for scholarships. However, read and understand the prerequisites of the aids you are applying for. Unfortunately, many of the students are unaware of these financial aids. According to National Center for Education Statistics research, 60% of students expected to get no aid or just loans rather than grants. Therefore, it is important as well that enough promotion be made of these grants and aids.
- Proper data organization:
You don’t want to add fines for late or missed payments to your already stressful student loan payments. To avoid these, you must first examine the many kinds of student loans you have, as well as the amount, payback terms, and interest rate, in order to create a solid repayment schedule that you can keep to. Pay off high-interest debts first. This reduces the amount of interest paid over the term of the loan, saving you money in the end.
- Using the Autopay feature:
Most government lenders, along with some corporate lenders, enable you to set up automated payments from your bank account rather than paying them personally each month. Many lenders promote this by providing small rate savings for autopay agreements. This is a terrific technique to guarantee you never miss a payment deadline, but make sure you have enough money in your account when the due date is to avoid overdraft charges.
- Making additional payments:
One of the best methods to reduce the load of student loans is to pay them off as soon as possible. Try making additional or larger payments if possible. Each and every bit helps, whether it’s raising your monthly installments by a bit or donating any bonuses, increases, or financial gifts to the debt. Choosing to make biweekly payments instead of monthly payments ultimately amounts to one more payment every year. Confirm with your loan provider before using any of these tactics to ensure that the additional payments are applied to the principal of your loan rather than just the interest.
- Refinancing:
Try refinancing if you have private loans with interest rates higher than 4%. Refinancing with a lower interest rate may save you money on monthly payments, but make sure you read the details and avoid anything that would significantly lengthen your payback periods. If your payments are made lower by extending the loan term, you will almost certainly wind up paying more in interest.
