How to Pay Off $50,000 in Student Loans

Paying off $50,000 in student loans can feel like a heavy burden. However, there are alternatives to the standard repayment plan that might help you pay off your debt more easily.

1. Refinance your student loans

Best for:

• Borrowers with high interest rates
• Borrowers with multiple loans they’d like to combine
• Borrowers with good to excellent credit

If you refinance your student loans, your old loans are paid off with a new one. Refinancing might get you a lower interest rate, which could reduce the overall cost of your loan.

Or you could choose to extend your repayment term to lower your monthly payment — though this means you’ll likely pay more in interest over time.

Learn More: Private Student Loan Consolidation

How much will you save if you refinance $50k?

With $50,000 in student loan debt, your monthly payments could be quite expensive. Depending on how much debt you have and your interest rate, your payments will likely be about $500 per month or more.

^{[Monthly payments based off the assumption that the loans have a fixed interest rate of 7% and that the borrower is on a 10-year repayment plan.]}

Your potential savings from refinancing will vary based on your loan terms. For example, say you have a $50,000 loan balance with a 6.22% interest rate — the average student loan interest rate for graduate students. On the standard 10-year repayment plan, you’d pay $561 per month and $17,277 in interest over time.

But if you refinanced to a new loan at 5% interest with the same 10-year repayment term, you’d pay $530 per month and $13,639 in interest — meaning you’d save $3,638 over the life of your loan.

Check Out: Graduated Repayment Plan

2. Find a cosigner to refinance your $50,000 loan

Best for:

• Borrowers with high interest rates
• Borrowers struggling with monthly payments

Generally, a credit score of 700 or higher is considered good. If you have a lower credit score, you might not qualify for refinancing on your own. And if you do manage to get approved, you likely won’t get the best interest rates.

However, you might be able to qualify for refinancing if you add a cosigner to your application.

Having a cosigner reduces the lender’s risk, so they’re more likely to give you a loan. Plus, Credible makes it easy to add a cosigner to your loan application — you can even compare multiple cosigners to see which one gets you the best loan terms and a lower interest rate.

Find Out: How to Pay off Student Loans in 5 Years

3. Explore your forgiveness options

Best for:

• Borrowers who have federal student loans
• Employees of government or nonprofit organizations

There are several student loan forgiveness programs available to borrowers with federal student loans. Many of these programs are geared toward certain professions — such as teachers, nurses, and lawyers.

If you decide to refinance your student loans, be sure to consider as many lenders as possible to find the right loan for you. Credible makes this easy — you can compare your prequalified rates from multiple lenders in two minutes.

4. Enroll in autopay

Best for:

• Borrowers with federal or private student loans
• Borrowers who want to save money on interest charges

Many federal student loan servicers and private lenders offer a rate discount to borrowers who sign up for automatic payments. Enrolling in autopay will typically knock 0.25% off of your rate — though there are also some lenders that offer a higher discount than this.

While this might seem like a small amount of savings, it can add up over time and help decrease your overall loan cost.

5. Explore income-driven repayment plans

Best for:

• Borrowers with federal student loans
• Borrowers struggling to keep up with monthly payments

If you can’t keep up with your federal student loan payments, switching from the standard repayment plan to an IDR plan could be a good choice.

Under an IDR plan, your payments will be based on your income — generally 10% to 20% of your discretionary income, depending on the plan. Your repayment term will also be extended.

There are four IDR plans to choose from:

1. Income-Based Repayment (IBR): To qualify for IBR, you must demonstrate a partial financial hardship. Your payments will be capped at 10% to 15% of your income, depending on when you took out your loans. Loans taken out before July 1, 2014, could be forgiven after 20 years of on-time payments, while older loans could be forgiven after 25 years of on-time payments.
2. Pay As You Earn (PAYE): Like IBR, you must demonstrate financial hardship to qualify for PAYE. Payments are capped at 10% of discretionary income, with potential forgiveness after 20 years of on-time payments.
3. Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE): REPAYE is available to almost any federal student loan borrower. Payments are generally 10% of your discretionary income, though there’s no cap. Your loan balance could be forgiven after 20 to 25 years, depending on whether you took out your loans for undergraduate or graduate school.
4. Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR): Any federal student loan borrower can sign up for ICR. Your payments will be limited to either 20% of your discretionary income or what you’d pay on an income-adjusted, 12-year repayment plan. Any remaining balance will be forgiven after 25 years. Additionally, ICR is the only plan that Parent PLUS Loan borrowers can sign up for — though you’ll need to consolidate your PLUS Loans first.

Learn More: PAYE vs. REPAYE

6. Use the debt avalanche method

Best for:

• Borrowers who want to pay off their loans faster

Since you have $50,000 in student loan debt, you likely have several different student loans — probably with different interest rates and monthly payments, too. To pay off your student loans and save money, using the debt avalanche method might be a good option.

Here’s how it works:

Because you’re paying off the highest interest debt first, the debt avalanche method could help you save money over the length of the repayment term.