At $1.56 trillion, student loan debt in America has reached its highest ever level ever in 2019, as reported by https://www.forbes.com. It is now only behind mortgage debt in the category of consumer debt, more than even credit card balances and auto loans. As per https://www.credible.com, the average student loan debt is $33,310. Thus, it is not unsurprising that students are under a lot of pressure to manage the debt and make the payments on time. However, if you have not started college/university yet, or have been thinking recently about taking one out, there is still hope for you to learn how to how to avoid student loans so you are not left with masses of debt and are scrambling to pay it off when you graduate, see what alternatives you can do first before reaching out to get a loan. But, if you are among the 44.7 million people who have taken on a student loan and finding it difficult to manage it, you can take a look at quite a few smartphone apps and online tools that help you to monitor your student loan better and pay it off faster.
Givling
Givling is a trivia game that matches you with two other random players for a trivia quiz that requires you to answer questions correctly to accumulate points that make you eligible to get a cash award. If you win, you can get up to $50,000 knocked off your student loan. To play more than the two free chances the game gives you daily, you can buy Givling “coins” that cost $0.53 each. The platform claims to have paid out more than $1 million for repayment of student loans and other debts. Its income comes from coin sales, advertising, crowdfunding, and sponsorships. Givling is the perfect opportunity to relax from your studies and earn some money to make your student debt more manageable.
ChangEd
ChangEd is one of the many apps that automatically round up your expenses and allocates the extra amount so collected to pay off the student loan. Once you install the app, you need to link it to your bank account and your student loan account. Thereafter, the app tracks your spends and rounds up each expense to the nearest dollar. Once the amount so rounded up reaches $5, the app transfers it to your ChangEd account. Once the balance in the account touches $100, the money is transferred to the student loan account as a credit. The maximum withdrawal amount is restricted to $10 so that even if you spend a lot of money, the debit is also limited. The app has a dashboard where you can view the progress of your student loan payoff and also check the balance in your ChangEd account. The subscription cost is $1 per month. You can find out more about this app in numerous debt consolidation reviews found online.
EvoShare
Unlike apps and online tools, EvoShare is a browser extension that you can use to receive up to 30% cash back on online purchases from participating retailers. The cash back is transferred directly to the student loan account or any other loan account that you may link to your account. You can get the cash back also on over-the-counter purchases in many participating stores if your link your account to your credit or debit card. EvoShare is accepted by more than 1,300 online businesses and over 8,700 restaurant and stores. EvoShare takes a commission from participating retailers, which allows it to keep the tool free of charge to users.
Unbury.me
Unbury.me is a simple student loan calculator with a clean interface that created a stir when it was launched way back in 2011; however, despite competition from many other tools, it remains extremely useful. To use Unbury.me, you do not have to link your bank account or your student loan account or even make the payments through the app. To use the calculator, all you need to do is enter the details of your loans like the amount, the rate of interest, and the monthly repayment amounts. You can find out how long it will take for you to become debt-free based on your repayment schedule and it will also generate a simple graph for showing the amount of interest that you are paying. The calculator makes it easy for you to alter the variables and see their impact on your debt repayment. The simple-to-use app does not require you to jump through hoops to get a very clear picture of your debt and allows you to choose your own strategy for repaying the debt.
Debt Payoff Assistant
As the name suggests, Debt Payoff Assistant is a tool that allows you to track an unlimited number of debts and choose from the several debt payment strategies to eliminate your student loan and other debts at the fastest. The tool has a great dashboard that offers graphic visualizations of the various debt parameters like the total amount of debt, the balance unpaid, the total amount of interest payable, and the amount saved. You also get a simple and easy to understand progress bar that shows how much you have been able to repay, which can be a big motivator for you to push for your goal of becoming debt-free. You get access to a calculator that can give you the alternate scenarios when you change the repayment amount or the strategy, which is especially helpful when you are undecided about which method to choose.
Pickpocket.me
The app takes 10 cents of every dollar for the first $500 that you spend and allocates the money to pay off your student loan. The default rate is 10%; you can either lower it to a minimum of 5% or jack it up to any other percentage you like. You do not have to set up a separate account for the deducted money to accumulate but only have to link your bank account, loan accounts, and credit card/debit card accounts to use the app. If you think that the deduction is too steep for a large transaction that you have made, the app allows you the facility of undoing it. Another nifty feature is that you are allowed to take on board sponsors who can match your payments to settle your loan faster, however they have the flexibility of choosing their limits. The cost of a subscription is $4.99 a month.
Conclusion
A large student loan can make it very difficult for you to forge ahead with your dreams of making it big. However, as difficult the job is to repay the debt, you can make it far easier to manage the process by using one or even more of the apps and tools that are specially formulated to repaying debts faster.
