Make sure you know what the grace period is for your loans before you need to start making payments. This is the amount of time you are allowed after graduation before you loan becomes due. Knowing when this is over will allow you to know when to pay your payments on time so you don’t have a bunch of penalties to take care of.
Make sure you stay in close contact with your lenders. Always let them know anytime your personal information changes, because this happens quite a bit when you’re in college. Do not put off reading mail that arrives from the lender, either. Do whatever you need to as soon as you can. Missing anything in your paperwork can cost you valuable money.
If you can’t make a payment on your loans because of unforeseen circumstances, don’t worry. Many times a lender will allow the payments to be pushed back if you make them aware of the issue in your life. However, this can make it to where you have higher interest rates and more to pay back.
Do not overlook private sources of funds for college. While public loans for students are available widely, there is a lot of competition and demand for them. Private student loans will have less people getting them, and there will be small funds that go unclaimed because they’re small and people aren’t aware of them. Speak with people in your local area to find these types of loans, which at the very least can cover some of your expenses.
Don’t let setbacks throw you into a tizzy. Many issues can arise while paying for your loans. There are options that you have in these situations. Just remember that interest is always growing, so making interest-only payments will at least keep your balance from rising higher.
Paying down your student loans should be done using a two-step payoff method. Always pay the minimum balance due. The second step is applying any extra money you have to your highest-interest-rate loan and not the one with the biggest balance. This will keep your total expenditures to a minimum.
To pay down your student loans effectively, focus on the one that has the highest interest rate. If you think you will be better off paying the one with the highest monthly payments first, you may be wrong. Best to look at the interest rates.