Paying off college loans can seem like a next to impossible task. Each year, more people graduate with increasing levels of debt. This is largely due to the fact that college is expensive. It doesn’t matter if you’ve graduated from a state school, private college, or community college. Most people have some level of debt associated with getting a degree. Now the trick is how you’re going to pay for it.

There are a number of pays to pay off your college debt. Fortunately for those who have taken Federal loans, grace periods and deferments can help you until you find a full time job that allows you to begin making payments against your loan. Regardless of your employment situation, the responsibility of loan repayment is yours and yours alone.

Depending on how recently you graduated and type of loans you’ve taken out to pay for college, you may qualify for different loan repayment options. One of my personal favorites is student loan consolidation. The benefit here is that you aggregate all of your outstanding loans into a single loan with different payment terms. This may result in a lower interest rate and smaller monthly payment.

When I’m asked about the most effective way to pay off student loans, I often answer with this tip that I learned when paying off my graduate school debt. Begin by contacting your lender and see if there is a penalty for early payment. Why early payment do you ask? Some loan providers discourage early payment because they want to collect all of the interest from lenders. Others would rather you pay the debt owed. If they allow early repayment, make one extra payment a year and watch that loan disappear for less cost and ahead of schedule.

Before sending your lender any extra money, begin with an open dialog. Do they penalize those who attempt to pay off their loan prior to expiration? In the past this was a common issue. Today, because of increasing defaults and the difficult economy, most lenders are happy to get their money back. If the bank accepts early payment, then do your best to stick to an additional payment each year.

What difference can an extra payment make? As I’ve already explained, it is significant. So make sure that when you send in the extra payment, you explicitly indicate that the payment is go towards principle, not your regularly scheduled payments. If it doesn’t go towards the base amount, you’ve done nothing other than prepay next month’s bill.

Make the extra payment method a habit. It might be difficult at first to save up that extra 50 bucks or so per month but it will pay tremendous dividends for you. To find out just how much you can save, speak to a representative at the bank. Know and understand how this method can work for you. Additionally, do your best to make saving a habit. By doing so, the burden of putting money aside becomes less difficult.

Paying off your college loans seems like an almost impossible task, but isn’t. Stay focused on making your monthly payments one at a time. Before you know it, you will be way into repayment and can explore other options like making an extra payment towards principle annually. This will save you money and help you eliminate your debt.

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