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Thursday, April 1, 2010

Paying Off Student Loans Is Essential

It is imperative that you pay off your student loans in time. This is because the government has been having difficulties dealing with the many defaulted loans over the past several years. As a result, they are getting more diligent in their efforts to have them paid.

If your student loans are not paid off, the government can seize your income tax refund or even garnish your income wages. In some extreme cases, the loaners can go so far as taking control of your property, in order to get the money owed them.

To help prevent these horrors from happening to you, you can pay a little bit of the loan even while you are still attending school. That will lessen the burden later.

You can also apply for grants while in school too. Grants don't have to be paid off. Or maybe do some part-time work to help pay the loan.

The biggest problem with any loan is the huge interest added on. Paying off some of the loan early will help to lessen that weight considerably.

One good strategy when paying off student loans while still in school, is to pay off the smallest loan amount first. If you have several loans, paying off the smallest one first will be better than paying them all a little at the same time. It means one fewer headache when you leave school.

Another good strategy is to pay off your non-subsidized loans first. Non-subsidized loans are those where you owe the interest, as opposed to subsidized where the government pays the interest. The interest is the biggest problem to pay in loans, more than the principle.

So combine the two strategies and pay off your lowest non-subsidized loans first. Then your lowest subsidized loans afterwards.

In addition to giving you less of a headache, paying your loan while still in school in increase your credit rating. Then by the time you leave school and get a great paying job, you could have a big chunk of your loans paid off, and have great credit. Then you can pay off the bigger loans with the bigger interest.

One final suggestion: never use Peter to pay Paul. That is, don't let money from one loan or a credit card pay off another loan or credit card. Take it from me, it doesn't work in the long run.

But do the best you can to pay off something from your student loan while still in school. You'll be happy you did.


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