How long does it take to pay off student loans?
The average student borrower takes 20 years to pay off their student loan debt. Some professional graduates take over 45 years to repay student loans. 21% of borrowers see their total student loan debt balance increase in the first 5 years of their loan.
The standard student loan payoff time for federal student loans is 10 years. However, repayment time depends on the loan amount and how much you can pay a month. A bachelor's degree-holder with the average amount of federal loan debt would need to pay just over $300 a month to pay off their loan within 10 years.
The average student loan takes 21 years to pay off but that doesn't mean that it has to take you that long. If you want to get a better idea of what your monthly payment will look like then you can use our student loan calculator to figure out your monthly and total student loan payments.
National data suggest that it takes an average of 8.7 years for teachers to repay their debts. However, this can depend on where you teach. To find out where it takes the longest for teachers to repay their loans, we dove into the numbers armed with the Federal Student Aid's Loan Simulator.
Defaulted federal student loans either fall off seven years after the date of default, or seven years after the date the loan was transferred from the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFEL) to the Department of Education.
Student loan debt can feel overwhelming and take decades to pay off. The standard federal student loan repayment term is 10 years, but the average student borrower takes 20 years to fully repay their debt.
IDR plans have different repayment periods. 20 years if all loans you're repaying under the plan were received for undergraduate study. The remaining balance will be forgiven after 20 years. 25 years if any loans you're repaying under the plan were received for graduate or professional study.
How long does paying off $100K in student loans take? Although the standard repayment plan is typically 10 years, some loans and repayment plans have longer terms, so you could be repaying for 20 or even 30 years.
If those monthly payments look low compared to what most borrowers pay, it's because most borrowers carry a lot more than $20,000 in student loan debt. As of March 2023, the average federal student loan debt in the United States was about $37,720, according to a BestColleges analysis of Education Department data.
A great way to pay off your $100,000 loan faster and save money on interest is to refinance your student loans. This involves taking out a new loan with lower interest rates and/or more favorable terms than the original loan. Refinancing could save you thousands of dollars over the life of your loan.
Is 50k in student loans a lot?
The average student loan debt amount is slightly over $30,000. However, many borrowers owe $50,000 or more in student loan debt. This isn't impossible to overcome using the right repayment methods.
If you want to attend college and are committed to doing the work and succeeding, then $10,000 total debt for four years is pretty trivial. Most such loans are subsidized federal direct (aka Stafford) loans, and you don't pay interest on those until six months after leaving school.
According to the Department of Education, at the end of 2023, the average student loan debt for federal loans was about $37,090. That's approximately $1.6 trillion of outstanding debt divided by a total of 43.2 million borrowers. However, what individual borrowers owe varies considerably.
Do student loans go away after 7 years? While negative information about your student loans may disappear from your credit reports after seven years, the student loans will remain on your credit reports — and in your life — until you pay them off.
What happens if you don't pay off student loans in 25 years? Any remaining balance on your student loans will be forgiven after 25 years of payments. But be cautious: You may be required to pay income tax on the forgiven amount.
Seeking forgiveness under Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)? The PSLF Program forgives the remaining balance on your Direct Loans after you've satisfied the equivalent of 120 qualifying monthly payments (10 years) under an IDR plan while working full-time for an eligible employer.
In the good debt versus bad debt debate, student loans fall into a gray area. They can be considered good debt because the money you're borrowing to attend school is your ticket to earning a degree and getting hired at a well-paying job. That debt should pay itself off over time with a lucrative career in place.
Save yourself time and money
Extra payments can get you out of debt faster and save you money on interest—if you can afford them. To get the full benefit, tell your servicer to apply extra payments to your highest interest rate loan(s) first. Stay in touch with your servicer.
When prioritizing paying off your debt, start with the balance that has the higher interest rate (likely your credit cards) and go from there. No matter what type of debt you'll be dealing with, though, the most important factor is that you pay your bills on time.
If you default on your student loan, that status will be reported to national credit reporting agencies. This reporting may damage your credit rating and future borrowing ability. Also, the government can collect on your loans by taking funds from your wages, tax refunds, and other government payments.
Do student loans ever age out?
You can stay on the IDR repayment program and get student loan forgiveness after 20 years. It means more years of payments can help forgive some education loans. You can also get 10 year forgiveness on the new SAVE plan even if you're not in public service as long as your debt is below $12,000.
If you received a Pell Grant in college and meet the income threshold, you will be eligible for up to $20,000 in debt relief. If you did not receive a Pell Grant in college and meet the income threshold, you will be eligible for up to $10,000 in debt relief.
A total college debt of $120,000 would put you well, well into the top 1% of borrowers for an undergraduate degree. In fact, it would be hard to even accomplish this; you'd have to use Parent PLUS loans or private loans (for which you'd need to qualify) or both.
The $138,500 combined subsidized/unsubsidized aggregate loan limit for graduate and professional students includes loans received for undergraduate study. The $65,500 subsidized aggregate loan limit for graduate and professional students includes subsidized loans received for prior undergraduate study.
It's hard to say what's too much for everyone, broadly across the board. However, borrowing $100,000 or more is considered to be a lot and isn't normal for the average student. Most jobs don't pay over $100,000 right out of school so it could be a struggle to have that much student loan debt.
