How to Get the Lowest Interest Rate on Student Loans – 2022 Guide

– Lowest Interest Rate on Student Loans – 

How to Get the Lowest Interest Rate on Student Loans: It’s already hard enough to pay for college, but then you have to worry about finding the best student loans and student loan rates, and it can just be overwhelming. How to find a lender? What is it you should talk about?

Lowest Interest Rate on Student Loans:

How do you understand that you’re getting a good deal? All of that can be daunting. If you borrowed money from student loans, you will realize quickly that most of your payment doesn’t go toward lowering your debt.

Alternatively, most of it can be applied to your record against accrued interest. Often interest rates on student loans can be high enough to actually increase the credit balance.

One thing you can do to fix your student loans at a high-interest rate is refinancing. The main reason people opt for refinancing is to get the lowest interest rate on student loans, which is important.

What is Interest Rate

This is the percentage of your loan amount that you’ll have to pay back, in addition to what you borrowed, in interest fees. (Lenders make money by charging interest on the money you borrow from them.)

Lenders compound interest over time, so it can really add up — the best student loans have a low-interest rate. The rates might differ depending on the kind of loan and lender; either private or federal loan

Federal student loans vs. private student loans

The first detail to understand about student loans is that there are two main kinds — federal student loans and private student loans.

Federal student loans are overseen and guaranteed by the federal government whereas private student loans are offered on the open market by a wide range of student lenders and banks.

How student loan interest rates work

Student loan interest rates work differently, depending on whether the loan is federal or private. For federal loans, every borrower taking out the same type of federal loan in a year has the same interest rate.

For private loans, borrowers with higher credit scores qualify for lower rates, and borrowers with lower credit scores get higher rates.

Federal student loans:

  • Congress sets interest rates yearly based on the 10-year Treasury note
  • Most have fees charged as a percentage of the total loan amount
  • Rates are fixed for the life of the loan

Private student loans:

  • Interest rates are typically credit-based
  • Most private lenders don’t charge origination fees
  • Borrowers can choose either a fixed or variable interest rate
  • Variable rates are subject to change monthly or quarterly

Ways to Help You Lower Your Interest Rate

Ways to Help You Lower Your Interest Rate

The lower your student loan interest rates are, the less your overall debt bill ends up. For example, say you have $100,000 in student loan debt and were paying 6% interest on a 10-year loan.

You would end up adding more than $33,000 in interest alone to your loan at the end of 10 years. Getting your interest rate decreased and setting up better payment options could be just what you need to jumpstart your student loan payback.

How do you get a lower interest rate? When you look to refinance your loans, you can get your rate lowered if you can meet certain criteria. Here are 11 ways to help you lower your interest rate.

1. Improve Your Credit Score

So how can you get the lowest interest rate on student loans? It starts with your credit score.

Do you know your credit score? If not, you should You can use services like Credit Sesame, Credit Karma or AnnualCreditReport.com to keep tabs on your credit score.

FICO scores range from 300 to 850. Some lenders will accept a score of 650 to qualify for refinancing, but you should work towards a score of 700 or better to receive the lowest interest rate on student loans. Check your lender’s eligibility requirements before moving forward with the refinancing process.

How Can You Improve Your Credit Score?

  • Pay your bills off on time and in full. Delinquent payments can remain on your credit report for up to 7 years.
  • Never carry credit card debt over from month to month.
  • Your credit age is important so if you have older cards, keep them open as long as they don’t have annual fees you don’t want to pay.
  • Don’t use more than 30 percent of your eligible credit.
  • Make sure your credit report is accurate. Reports show 20 percent of consumers have an error on one or more of their credit reports (there are 3 major credit bureaus)
  • Limit new credit applications when you are thinking of refinancing. Every time you apply there is a hard inquiry made and your credit score drops (on average 3 to 5 points). It may not seem like a lot, but it could make a big difference when trying to negotiate a better interest rate on your student loans.

2. Have a Cosigner With Good Credit

While most federal student loans don’t require a cosigner, private loans are the opposite, as they almost always require a cosigner. Asking someone to cosign on your student loans isn’t always a simple task since you ask to stake their financial reputation on you being responsible for paying off your student loan debt.

Who can you have co-sign your loan so you can get the best education loan interest rates? The obvious choice would be a parent or another close relative, like an aunt or uncle, or grandparent.

Other choices could be a family friend or a mentor or a former teacher. It should be someone who has a close relationship with you. Be sure to check with lenders if they offer the option of cosigning. For example, one lender that doesn’t is Earnest.

Also, lenders all have their own rules and restrictions concerning cosigners so take time to research each one carefully.

If you do choose to use a cosigner on your student loans, understand the risk they are taking by vouching for you and go out of your way to be responsible when it comes to the repayment of your loans.

3. Use the Student Loan Calculator

There are lots of wonderfully developed calculators that will help you save time and money, hel[ong you figure out which loan repayment option is best for you.

4. Don’t Defer Payment

While many people qualify to defer student loan payments, most of the time, this is not a great option. Unless you have subsidized federal loans, interest will continue to build up during this time of deferment, causing you to incur even more student loan debt.

There are times when deferment might be a good option, such as if you are called into active military service, have a serious financial crisis, or have a short-term financial hardship, but these situations are rare.

You might be tempted to defer payments to get your financial footing after graduating, but too often people make the mistake of fighting through this and finding another way.

If you have federal loans, exploring income-driven repayment (IDR) might be the best option. Being able to pay even a little bit of your loans is better than deferring payment most of the time.

Take time to analyze your financial situation and judge whether you really need the option to defer or if you can find another way to help make ends meet.

You may just need to adjust your lifestyle to allow more financial flexibility or look into a part-time side hustle for a short time to give you that extra income to pay your student loan debt. Deferring payments should be seen as a last resort, not your first line of defense.

5. Set Up Automatic Payments

One way to help lower your interest rate is to opt to sign up for autopsy, where your student loan payment is automatically deducted from a checking or savings account on a specific day monthly.

Some lenders, federal and private, will offer a 0.25% interest rate discount when you sign up to have payments automatically deducted from a bank account.

One bonus to setting up autopay is not having to worry every month about payments being on time or missing a payment. It’s one less financial decision to worry about monthly and you get a discount for choosing to pay this way.

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6. Pay Your Bills On Time

If you’re looking to refinance and obtain the lowest interest rate on student loans, paying your bills on time seems like a no-brainer, but it’s easy to lose track if you aren’t careful or haven’t set up automatic payments. Consistently making payments on time can also help you earn a bonus. 

Many lenders offer a reduction to your interest rate if make consecutive on-time payments for a 3-year consecutive period.

Check with your lender to see if this option is available. One missed payment will cancel any reduction, so take the time to set up automatic payments to ensure you don’t disqualify yourself from this simple bonus reduction.

7. Shorten Your Student Loan Terms

Although there are other factors involved, generally lenders offer lower interest rates for shorter repayment terms and higher interest rates for longer repayment terms.

Standard repayment terms for federal loans are 10 years, but private lenders often have termed them as short as five years. You might be able to cut your interest rate down to 4% or even 3.5% by shortening the repayment term through refinancing.

Obviously, your monthly payments are most likely going to go up if you choose a shorter term. If you aren’t ready to attack your student loan debt and pay it off quicker, refinancing to a five or seven-year term isn’t right for you.

In the long run, though, having a much lower interest rate is going to save you a ton of money and get you out from under your student loan debt quicker.

8. Check Around To Find the Best Rates

Take time to check out the private lenders that Student Loan Planner partners with for great rates and cashback bonuses.

Not only have we negotiated the best cashback bonuses for you, if you find a better deal, but you can also contact us and we will try and find a way to beat your deal still.

Many of our partner lenders offer low-interest rates and multiple repayment options. With many lending partners available, we are confident that you will find one that is right for you and fits your needs. One pleasant feature most of these private lenders offer is the ability to get a pre-qualification offer.

When you actually move forward with a refinancing option, there is a hard inquiry performed that can negatively affect your credit score, but getting a pre-qualified offer only requires a soft inquiry. Soft inquiries don’t affect credit scores.

9. Take Time to Find the Right Student Loan in the First Place

One way to get the lowest interest rate on student loans is to start with the right student loan that fits your situation. Everyone is different and finding the right student loan options will depend on your end goal and what is important to you.

You might look at Grad Plus loans as an option, but if you will owe a modest amount compared to your salary after graduation, private student loans may be a better option. Before taking out private loans, make sure you will be working in the private and not the public sector.

Grad Plus loans have a high origination fee of well over 4% as well as high-interest rates (over 7.6% as of this article’s writing). The issue with private loans, however, is that they come without borrower protections.

Keep in mind that some private student loans have origination fees as well if you are borrowing in school as opposed to refinancing loans, which have no fees.

10. Learn To Live On Less Money

Perhaps you’ve graduated and landed a good job. It seems like a great time to reap some rewards of all your labor by spending your salary on things you’ve dreamed about.

You still have a large student loan debt waiting to get paid off. You also want to have some financial flexibility in your life in case something changes. It’s much harder to refinance loans if lenders see you are living paycheck to paycheck without any real savings.

Should You Refinance Your Student Loans?

Refinancing to get the lowest interest rate on student loans can get you away from bad lenders, and bad student loans, and help you find better options with lower interest rates.

There are some things to keep in mind, though, when making this decision. This is why you need to compare student loan interest rates and consider alternative options as well.

If you are interested in taking advantage of Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), you lose that option if you refinance your loans through a private lender.

Should You Refinance Your Student Loans?

You also will lose the options for loan deferment and forbearance. Some private lenders have unemployment protection, though, which allows you to pause repayment for 3 months if you lose your job. Income-driven repayment options are not available for those that refinance.

If your goal is to improve your high-interest rate student loans and pay them off quickly, refinancing might be the perfect choice for you and your financial situation.

Taking the time to look at all options will help you in the long run, no matter what option ends up being the right one for you.

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