5 Ways to Get Private Student Loan Help!

Even though you can’t get your private student loans forgiven, other ways exist to get help paying them off. With these five tips, you can make it easier to pay back your loans. Think about the following: 5 Ways to Get Private Student Loan Help:

1. Career-Based Student Loan Repayment Programs

Even though federal loan forgiveness programs based on employment aren’t available to people with private loans, you may be able to get help paying back your loans based on your career.

Most of the time, state governments or professional groups run these programs. In exchange for agreeing to work in an area with many needs, they will pay back a portion of your loans.

Nurses, doctors, dentists, teachers, and lawyers are all typical jobs that qualify for these programs. Think about the following:

  • Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program: If you are a registered nurse, an advanced practice registered nurse, or a nurse faculty member, you can get up to 85% of your loans paid back through this program. To qualify, you must agree to work in a facility designated as having a critical shortage.
  • New York State Teacher Loan Forgiveness: If you teach in a primary or secondary school in New York, you might be able to get up to $20,000 to help pay off your student loans. Under the program’s rules, you must agree to teach in an area that is hard to staff or in a subject that is in high demand.
  • Florida Bar Loan Repayment Assistance: This program helps staff lawyers who work for legal aid organizations that get grant money to pay off their student loans. Under the program, lawyers who qualify can get up to $5,000 a year to pay back their loans.

Contact your state’s education agency or professional association to find out if you can get help with your student loans.

2. Location-Based Repayment Assistance

5 Ways to Get Private Student Loan Help!

If you are willing to move, you might be able to get help paying back private or government loans. Some states and counties try to get people to move to their areas by giving them special incentives. For instance:

  • Kansas Rural Opportunity Zones:  People who move to some rural regions in Kansas can get up to $15,000 in help from the state to pay off their student loans. You may also get a tax break on your income, which makes a move even better.
  • Opportunity Maine: If you went to college in Maine and decided to live and work there, you can get tax credits to help pay back your student loans, up to a certain amount per year.
  • Maryland SmartBuy: The SmartBuy program in Maryland helps people pay off their student loans and buy homes. Through the program, people who qualify can get up to 15% of the price of their home (up to a maximum of $30,000) to pay off their student loan debt.

Check with the department of commerce in your state to see if your area has a similar program.

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3. Find an Employer That Offers Student Loan Repayment

More and more companies are helping their workers pay off their student loans. As an added benefit, big companies like Estée Lauder, SoFi, and Hulu will pay off some of your student loans up to an annual or lifetime limit.

Talk to the people in charge of human resources to determine if your company has a program to help with student loans.

4. Contact Your Lender

You should talk to your lender if you are having trouble making payments. Even though private student loans don’t qualify for loan forgiveness or income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, lenders often have their programs to help borrowers avoid falling behind or going into default.

You might be able to put off your payments for a while or lower them overall. For instance, the following lenders offer other ways to pay back:

  • Borrowers on College Ave may get a hardship forbearance for up to a year.
  • Some borrowers can ask Sallie Mae to put off their payments if they are going back to school or doing an internship or residency.
  • Rhode Island Student Loan Authority (RISLA), which gives loans to students all over the country, is one of the few private lenders that lets you pay back your loan based on your income.

5. Consider Refinancing

Student loan refinancing can be helpful if you have private student loans with high-interest rates and want to pay them off as soon as possible.

Depending on your debt-to-income (DTI) ratio and credit score, you might be able to get a loan at a lower rate than the one you have now. This could save you money and help you pay off your student loans faster.

For example, let’s say you had $40,000 in student loans with 6% interest and a 10-year repayment term.

If you refinanced your loans and qualified for seven years at 4% interest, you’d save over $7,300 in interest charges and pay off your loans three years earlier than planned.

You can use a student loan refinancing calculator to determine how much you can save by refinancing your debt.

Shop around and get quotes from several student loans refinancing lenders to find the best rate.

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