You know the phrase “out of sight, out of mind?” That should not apply to your student loans. It’s not something you can shove to the sidelines and “deal with later.” America is in the midst of a student loan crisis. Unless you want to become part of the statistic, you should come up with a solid plan.
The Mistake of Ignoring the Problem
Think your debt will go away if you just ignore your loans? This is the biggest mistake you can make, and the most dangerous. Your loans won’t go anywhere just because you chose to ignore them. Instead, if you don’t pay, the interest will keep accruing, adding to the overall cost of the loan.
Even worse, if you don’t make the payment within 270 days, your loan will go into default. When this happens, your lender will report it to the credit bureaus, affecting your credit score and making it that much more difficult for you to get any other loan in the future.
Avoid the Student Loan Crisis
Instead of ignoring your student loans, think of other ways that you can handle them. For example, making small consistent payments while you are still in school will help decrease the total accrued interest, making your monthly payments so much more manageable.
If you’ve built your credit history or you have a cosigner, consider refinancing your loan to a new one with a lower interest rate.
If you simply cannot afford to make the monthly payments, look into deferment or forbearance, both of which will allow you to postpone your payments. Both of these may be temporary solutions but they will give you some time to build your resources. Again, this isn’t a time to ignore them and forget, but formulate a plan.
No matter how much you hate having to deal with student loans, ignoring them will only make things much worse.
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