How You Can Defeat Debt with Spare Change
Written by: Joshua Nolan
Credit-card debt accounts for $712 billion of American consumer debt, and auto loans about $1.07 trillion. Yet both of these combined barely equal the student debt problem! It’s serious business. No, really! Student debt has gotten so bad, companies like Amazon no longer help market student loans. At $1.3 trillion, student debt accounts for some of the largest amount of personal debt in America, trumping both auto loans and credit debt!
Whether you’re in school, taking a break, or have already graduated, a massive amount of student loan debt could be sneaking up right behind you. Stressful, isn’t it? Well, It doesn’t have to be! We at Qoins like to pride ourselves on knowing debt and how to get out of it. With these quick and painless steps you can get ahead of your student debt!
Know how much you owe!
Federal, State, School, and Privatized Aid — there are so many different kinds of college aid, it might feel staggering piecing together all the debt you’re responsible for!
- Log into the National Student Loan Debt System. Colleges share your loan amounts to the government — both how much and what type. While federal aid is mandatory to share, your school might not have information on privatized loans. Check your personal records for information on those loans.
- Second, know when you should pay off your loans. Most loans have what’s called a grace period. This is how long you can wait after graduation before you start paying off that loan.
- General rule of thumb: Subsidized loans have a grace period of six months. Unsubsidized loans like Perkins and other privatized loans are all dependent on your signed agreement.
Once you know the total amounts, make a note of them! Start making payments right away, even before your grace period is over. You can even use a handy app like Qoins to keep track of debt while also using your spare change to help pay off your debt faster!
Don’t Panic and Don’t Default!
Good news first: default occurs after about 9 months of non-payment. If you’re unemployed, hurt, or sick — don’t panic, defer! Deferring your payments is often the best bet for holding off on payment. If you have no other options apply for deferment, and do it fast!
Because here’s the bad news: defaulting on a loan is not pretty. Student loans aren’t forgiven in bankruptcy. If you go 9 months without paying your loans, the entire amount becomes due, plus added interest attached.
The U.S government will act to get their money back any way they can — garnished wages, seized tax refunds, and even for privatized loans your belongings and cosigners are at risk, as well. Trust me — you don’t want to go there!
Strategize how to pay it!
When it comes to student debt you’re far from alone. You can consolidate your loan into a singular amount to keep your interest rates and payment dates the same. Consolidating federal loans into privatized loans will makes you ineligible for any Loan Forgiveness Programs, so do your research!
- Speaking of the Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Program, there are literally dozens of options to assist in paying off your loans.
- Does income-based repayment sound good to you? What about lower-income, Pay As You Earn Plans that forgive remainder student loan debt? If you don’t mind working for government or as a teacher, you could have your loans forgiven in half the amount of time!
We live in a beautiful time! Way back in the day you used to have two options to pay off debt — a standard, fixed payment every month, or a small payment that grew every two years. Now the possibilities are endless! There are several different apps that can help ensure financial success. Apps like Digit and Acorns help put cash off to the side, while other apps are designed for the sole purpose of debt payment. Qoins works the best of both ways! By taking the spare change from everyday purchases, Qoins seamlessly pays off chunks of debt at the end of every month! You won’t even notice as the items you purchase in everyday life slowly shrink away at the mountains of student debt. Now that’s making change out of change!
