Student Loan Hacks

Student Loan Hacks

Everyone wants to know about student loan hacks.

Student loan hacks help you save money on your student loan, and they are popular to get an edge to save money more quickly.

Here are popular student loan hacks to save money on your student loans.

Student Loan Hacks #1: Student Loan Refinancing

The first of the student loan hacks that you be aware of is student loan refinancing.

Student loan refinancing is a perfect example of the best student loan hacks because it saves you money on your student loans.

Student loan refinancing is the process of combining existing student loans – both federal and private – into a new student loan. This new student loan has a lower interest rate than your existing student loans, and therefore you can save more money.

Of all the student loan hacks, this is my favorite because it saves the most money. With most private lenders, you can save over $20,000 on your student loans.

Student Loan Hacks #2: Student Loan Consolidation

The second of the student loan hacks is student loan consolidation. This is another of the great student loan hacks because it’s a helpful organizational tool.

While it doesn’t enable you to lower your interest rate like student loan refinancing does, it does help you combine all your existing federal student loans into one student loan.

The interest rate for this student loan consolidation is a weighted average of your federal loan interest rates.

Another benefit of this second of the student loan hacks is that you have one student loan servicer and one monthly payment.

Student Loan Hacks #3: Autopayment

It sounds basic, but this third of the student loan hacks is very important.

The reason this is third of the student loan hacks is so essential because it saves you 0.25% off your interest rate with most lenders.

Like the first of the student loan hacks, student loan refinancing with a private lenders helps you save 0.25% off your interest rate.

Student Loan Hacks #4: Student Loans Calculators

The fourth of the student loan hacks is to use a student loan calculator.

This is also one of the most helpful student loan hacks because student loan calculators help you save money quickly because you can compute your interest savings at a click of a button.

Student Loan Hacks: Conclusion

These four student loan hacks can help you navigate student loan repayment, and save money.

Make Lemonade Refinance Student Loans

Make Lemonade is a free personal finance website that helps consumers make smarter financial decisions with comparison tools, financial content and product reviews. Make Lemonade helps you find the best rates on your student loans, personal loans, investing, banking, mortgages, credit cards and more. With our free student loan calculators and student loan refinancing comparison tools, we are on a mission to help over 44 million people pay off student loans and become debt-free.

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Student Loan Refinancing Calculator

To refinance your student loans, the best course of action is to use a student loan refinancing calculator. 

Here’s what you need to know to make the best decision.

Student Loan Refinancing Calculator: An Overview 

Student loan refinancing helps you lower your interest rate and monthly payment to help you pay off your student loans faster. The process involves replacing your current federal and private student loans with a new student loan at a lower rate. 

Your first stop is a student loan refinancing calculator, which will help you understand how much money you can save through student loan refinancing.

You can find an excellent student loan refinancing calculator for free online, and all you need to do is enter a few inputs.

Here is how it works.

Student Loan Refinancing Calculator: How It Works:

There are only a few inputs in a student loan refinancing calculator.

First, enter your current student loan information, including student loan balance, interest payment, monthly payment and loan term. If you have multiple student loans, combine them into a single student loan with a single student loan interest rate for purposes of the student loan refinancing calculator. 

Second, enter the new student loan information into the student loan refinancing calculator. This will include your anticipated new interest rate and loan term. 

Now, let’s look at the results.

Student Loan Refinancing Calculator: The Results

The student loan refinancing calculator will show you the following as a result of refinancing your student loans: your interest rate savings, your monthly savings and your total savings. Plus, you will see how much faster you can pay off your student loans.

Student Loans Without Cosigner

Student loan borrowers with high interest rate student loans often want to consolidate student loans.

How do you consolidate student loans?

You consolidate student loans in one of two ways: federal student loan consolidation and private student loan consolidation.

Let’s start with how to consolidate student loans with the federal government.

Consolidate Student Loans With The Federal Government

When you consolidate student loans with the federal government, all of your current federal student loans combine into a single student loan with one student loan interest rate.

This is advantageous because you may be managing multiple student loans, each with different interest rates, monthly due dates and student loans servicers.

If you consolidate student loans with the federal government, you receive a Direct Consolidation Loan.

The interest rate with a Direct Consolidation Loan will be equal to the weighted average interest rate of your current federal student loans, rounded to the nearest 1/8%.

It is important to note that when you consolidate federal student loans with the federal government, your interest rate will not decrease.

In fact, your interest may increase slightly, since the weighted average interest rate is rounded to the nearest 1/8%.

Also, it is important to note that you student loan payment period when you consolidate student loans can vary based on your total student loan balance. For example, you could have up tot 30 years to repay student loans.

It is possible, however, for your monthly payment to decline, even if your student loan interest rate does not.

For example, if the standard repayment period is 10 years, and now a Direct Consolidation Loan enables you to repay student loans in 30 years, your monthly payment would decline relative to your current student loan payment.

However, when you consolidate student loans and have a longer repayment period, that means more interest will accrue on your student loans.

How, if at all, can you lower your interest rate on your student loans?

Consolidate Student Loans With A Private Lender

When you consolidate student loans with a private lender, it is known as student loan refinancing.

To consolidate student loans with a private lender means that you are issued a new student loan with a lower interest rate and monthly payment.

This is a central difference compared to borrowers who consolidate student loans with the federal government.

When you consolidate student loans with a private student loan company, the new student loan that is issued is used to pay off the old student loans.

The result is a lower interest rate, lower monthly payment, new student loan servicer and one payment date.

While the notion to consolidate student loans helps you organize your student loans, be sure to differentiate between federal student loans and private student loans because the results can be markedly different.

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Make Lemonade compares the merits of student loan consolidation and student loan refinance. If your goal is to lower your interest rate and pay off your student loans faster, then Make Lemonade says that student loan refinance is an attractive option. If you want to have access to income-driven repayment plans, deferral and forbearance, then student loan consolidation could make more sense. However, your student loan interest rate does not decrease with student loan consolidation with the federal government.

Personal Loan

A personal loan is an unsecured loan typically from $1,000 – $100,000 with fixed or variable interest rates that can be used to make a large purchase or to consolidate debt.

The term “unsecured” means that there is no underlying collateral attached to the loan. For example, if you borrow a mortgage for your house, your mortgage is a “secured” loan in which your home is the collateral. If you default on your mortgage, your lender will then own your home.

Since a personal loan is unsecured, there is no underlying collateral attached to a personal loan. As a result, the interest rate on an unsecured loan such as a personal loan is higher than the interest rate on a secured loan such as a mortgage because the lender is assuming more risk.