Students should be looking for scholarships and grants using free money first before federal or private loans. Taking a little time to explore and apply for scholarship can greatly reduce the amount of college debt. Students …show more content…
Students should consider which plan is best for their situation. The three popular repayment plans are the standard, graduated, and extended. The standard repayment has the least interest with a ten year set payment. Graduated repayment start out low and slowly increase till the loan is payed off. Extended repayment is for loans over 30,000 and extends payments over twenty-five years paying the most interest of the three. The two less popular repayment options are income driven which uses your income and dependents to possibly lower the student’s monthly repayment and have the balance forgive at the end of the plan. The second one, is the public service loan forgiveness plan that allows after ten years of repayment the balance if forgiven. The final option for students is to consider a loan consolidation to lower the student’s monthly federal student loan payments. The student can consolidate all of their bills to one payment reducing high interest rates in certain situations. With student loan debt over 1 trillion dollars in the United States it has surpassed, a 700-billion-dollar debt in car loans and an 800-billion-dollar debt in credit card debt. With so many graduates defaulting on their student loans it is creating a negative impact on the country. By understanding the impact different types of student loans can have on a student’s finances after college allowing upward mobility in the workforce