Here’s How this Guy Cut $7K From His Student Loans Without a Single Payment

Student loans are eating us alive! Every year, more than a million Americans default on them, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

If you’re falling behind on your student loans, maybe you should try a new strategy: refinancing.

Try getting a lower interest rate on your federal and private loans by refinancing using the Credible loan marketplace. Other companies offer similar services, but we like that the average Credible user saves about two interest points on their current federal loans.

Refinancing will generally mean replacing your laundry list of loans with one loan that brings all of your student debt under one umbrella.

This could simplify your life with one monthly payment, instead of several. It may also lower your monthly payment, improve your interest rate, give you more time to pay or all of these.

Unlike going directly to a lender, which gives you one offer — take it or leave it — Credible is an independent student loan marketplace, not a lender.

How to Save Money on Your Student Loans

To see your rates, you’ll give Credible some basic information — your name, date of birth, where you went to school, how much you earn, how much you want to borrow or refinance, and your monthly housing costs.

Within a few seconds, Credible will determine which lenders would be a good fit, and shows you a simple, personalized dashboard with the best rates for you to compare.

Credible helped Jammie Proctor, an engineer and recent college graduate, save an eye-popping $7,000 on his student loans. That’s some serious cash.

After taking more than 10 years off of school, Proctor graduated with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech. He was 36 years old. And he had more than $50,000 in student loans.

Although he hoped to pay off his house and start investing in his future, he couldn’t move forward with those exorbitant loans hanging over his head.

Then he heard about Credible. With just a few clicks, Proctor was set up to save an estimated $6,000 to $7,500 on his loans and be debt-free in just seven years.

“I was very impressed with [the fact] they did the heavy lifting for me,” he explains. “I didn’t have to go out and seek all of these loan providers to do my refinancing. I could just go through, look at all the offers and figure out which one was most suitable for me.”

Enter your info at Credible to find out what your new interest rate could be.

Mike Brassfield ([email protected]) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. He’s finished paying off his student loans but continues to have occasional nightmares about them.