Ways to Pay Off Your Student Loan

By Maria Tsetsou

Paying back your student loans can be intimidating. I know — when I was graduating from college and trying to find work and a place to live in an entirely new city, the thought of also having loans to pay back made me terrified.
But I’m here to tell you — don’t freak out. You can pay back your student loans. It might take time, yes, and probably determination. You will definitely need a plan. But making that plan is just one of the things this book will help you do — and it will also give you the tools to move from having thousands of dollars of student debt to being debt-free.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Oct 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312585041

Book preview

Ways to Pay Off Your Student Loan

Ways to Pay Off Your Student Loan

Copyright

Copyright © 2014 by Maria Tsetsou, Greece – www.fiverr.com/fiveeree

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing: 2014

ISBN: 978-1-312-58504-1

Acknowledgments

I only started to write things down one year ago when my hot flashes started. I’d heard rumors about US student loans, and I started the research from a personal aspect in order to help one of my best friends studying in USA. One year later on October10, 2014, I finished the book.

I wanted this book to reflect the valuable experience I had through my friend’s life and his efforts to get along with his loan. Experiences are truly appreciated only if you’ve overcome obstacles, searched for solutions, solved problems, and learned to compromise. You can never do that alone. And I learned I could never have written this book without the inspiring help I received.

For several months, I didn’t tell anyone I was writing a book. Then I signed up for creative writing classes, and my teacher, encouraged me to get serious about the project. His persuasive critiques and the more direct opinions of classmates, and, in particular my own family helped me mold my words into a cohesive tale.

My parents, Anna & Andrew and my closest friend Jenny spontaneously supported my talents and trials. They continue to be proud to talk about their sibling and daughter-in-law.

These people read the evolving manuscript and offered advice. And because of their help, I am content with the final result.

Through this book, I want my wonderful nieces Georgia, currently a High School student, to know her aunt Maria as a real practical person, not just as someone who, as most of family members describe it, is flying up in the clouds, perhaps in an airplane that doesn’t come down.

My life would not have been as full and as rich as it was without Irene and Costas   – nor as long as it was, without the commitment and dedication of Howard and his in-distance love and support from New York.

How Do Student Loans Impact Your Credit?

For many young people, obtaining credit can be difficult, particularly since the Credit CARD Act of 2009 reined in many of the marketing efforts directed at students by credit card issuers. Yet one of the often-overlooked positive aspects of those good old days (for card issuers) was that those credit cards helped develop some first-time credit history — both good and bad — for many young consumers who might not have been able to establish credit otherwise.

These days, credit cards seem to be taking a back seat to student loans, as U.S. student loan debt now exceeds $1 trillion and makes up a greater proportion of consumer debt than credit cards. For many, a student loan is now the first step toward establishing the personal financial track record known as a credit score.

While perhaps small consolation for students and graduates drowning in student loan debt, one positive feature of student loans is that they can provide an effective way to establish and build credit without the help of mom, dad or a credit card.

To qualify for a FICO credit score — the credit score most lenders still use — all that’s needed is a credit account of any type (cards, loans) with at least six months of history that has been reported by the lender to the credit bureau within the past six months. This includes deferred federal or private student loans, where no payment has yet been required, as well as student loans in forbearance.

To the credit scoring formulas, a student loan is considered installment credit; one of the primary credit types, along with revolving (cards) and open credit (charge cards). Most installment loans, whether student, auto, or even mortgage, tend to impact credit scores similarly across all of the major scoring categories: payment history, amount owed, length of credit history, new accounts, inquiries and credit mix.

Payment history

A positive student loan payment history, including loans in a deferred or forbearance status, can provide as much benefit to a credit score as any other type of well-managed credit account. Consequently, late student loan payments can hurt a score as much as late payments on any other type of account. Student loans in deferred or forbearance status are generally treated as being paid as agreed for scoring purposes.

Amount owed

Here is where student loan debt differs most from credit card debt,