Student loans are one of the most difficult loans to pay off. When people take out student loans for college, they usually have no idea how much they’re going to have to pay back when they’re finished. The money adds up fast and often ends up being far more than they can afford after school is finished. If you have found yourself drowning in unanticipated student loan debt, you need to know some tips for paying back your student loans without going broke.

Make Higher Payments

If the total amount of your loan is the issue and not your monthly payment, paying back a larger amount every month is the best way for you to pay back your loans. Interest on a loan is what ends up costing people. When you pay your mortgage, a car payment, or anything else you have financed, the majority of your payment goes to the financing and a small portion goes to the principal.

Whenever you pay more than your minimum monthly payment, all of the extra money goes toward the principal. For example. If your payments are $400 per month, but you decide to pay $700 per month, that is $300 each month going toward the principal, drastically cutting down time and money off of your loan. You can take months or even years off of a loan by making extra payments.

Whether you are about to graduate, just graduated, or have been making student loan payments for a while now, it’s important to be aware of the many options you have to streamline the way you make your monthly payments. These days there are so many options other than the standard ten-year repayment plan.

More people than ever are refinancing or consolidating their loans to both simplify their payments and save money. And the increased availability of income-based repayment plan options means that nearly everyone with student loans can adjust their monthly payment amounts to correlate with their income and make their payments more affordable.