4 Student Loan Mistakes That Will Cost You a Bundle
You've survived college, but now you face a new challenge: paying off the huge student loans that you had to take on in order to finance your education. It's not uncommon for former students to still be paying off their student loans decades after graduation. Given this long time frame, any mistakes you make during repayment will likely have enormous repercussions, so it's important to be familiar with the most common errors so that you can avoid them.
If you have private student loans, you may not have a lot of repayment options, but federal student loan borrowers definitely do. By default, the Department of Education will stick you in the standard repayment plan. However, the standard plan is probably not the best option for you, especially right after graduation.
A new graduate just starting a career probably makes a relatively low income, so one of the income-based plans is likely to be the best fit. These plans adjust your payments to fit your income, and as a bonus, any outstanding balance after 20 to 25 years of payments will be automatically forgiven. You can look over the repayment options and change your plan on the My Federal Student Aid website.
Source: Fool.com
