This is a new article on loan repayment strategies from the NYTimes. I’ve summarized a little below but there are many more details in the article.
- Know your loans: Staying out of trouble with a student loan servicer starts with two questions: How much do you owe, and to whom? Answering those questions is confusing to newcomers for a couple of reasons. First, the servicer of the loan — the entity that collects payments and takes requests for any adjustments — is often not the original lender.
- Income-driven payments: If you’ve got federal loans, you may be eligible for a payment plan that allows you to submit information on your income and family size and then reduce monthly payments to amounts that are affordable. Sometimes you don’t have to make any payments at all.
- Stay enrolled: Signing up for an income-driven plan isn’t enough. You have to requalify each year.
- No Forebearance (if possible) If you run into trouble repaying your loan and you call your servicer to beg for help, it may offer you something called forbearance, which allows you to reduce or eliminate payments for a period of time. The interest, however, keeps adding up.
- Dropping a co-signer: Maybe you're making more money now and want to legally release your co-signer from their obligation. This is possible but Naviant punished people who paid ahead.
- Check your credit report again.