Are you ready to change up your federal student loan repayment plan? If so, today’s post is for you. This three step walk through will help you switch to a student loan repayment plan that works for you.

Estimated read time ~3 minutes.

 

Step 1 Choose Your Repayment Plan

 

Before you call anyone, it’s worth your time to figure out what repayment plan works the best for you. Loan servicers can help but it’s better and will speed up the process if you already know what you want. Last week’s post is all about helping you decide so check it out here and come back.

 

• If you’re considering loan forgiveness or having trouble making your payments one of the income-driven plans is for you.

 

• If you want to pay debt down quickly the 10 year standard or refinancing to private loans for a lower interest rate are your best options.

 

• If you want to simplify many individual loans into one loan and haven’t made any eligible payments toward loan forgiveness, consolidation might be right for you.

 

Step 2 Contact Your Loan Servicer

 

If you don’t know who your loan servicer is you can log in to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) page and it will show how much you owe and who you owe it to. The information in this system can take up to 120 days to update so keep in mind that it may not show all loans if you’re still borrowing.

 

When you contact your loan servicer let them know which plan you’re interested in and they will help you switch plans. Remember, your servicer has a responsibility to help you switch repayment plans, it’s part of servicing federal student loans.

 

Step 3 Submit Any Necessary Paperwork

 

If you’re looking to switch to an income-driven repayment plan you’ll need to submit an application for income-driven repayment. The application uses your income information to determine your monthly payment. You can find the application here, it takes less than 10 minutes to complete.

 

If you’re hoping to consolidate your student loans there’s an application for that too. You can find that application here, it takes less than 10 minutes to complete.

 

A note about fees. There are no fees to change repayment plans or consolidate your loans. Anyone that charges you a fee is a scam, work with your loan servicer directly.

 

If you’ve changed your student loan repayment plan did it take you as long as you thought? Let me know in the comments below or on the Repayable Facebook Page.