DALLAS — Americans saddled with student loan debt may feel overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by how much they owe. Overwhelmed by the various loan forgiveness announcements. And overwhelmed by the different programs that can reduce loan payments.
This might help.
United Way Worldwide has partnered with an outfit called Savi. You can sign up with them for free and they will put your details through an algorithm that checks whether you are eligible for any of the various loan relief and payment reduction plans.
We asked Savi whether signing up for free really means free…like free for people with student loan debt no matter their income. Savi confirmed, “Yes, this program is free to everyone across the U.S., regardless of their income or student loan debt amount”.
Following a long pandemic pause, student loan repayments re-started last October. Between then and the end of December 2023, Savi says those who used their program saw their monthly student loan payments drop by an average of $187 per month.
We reached out for more recent numbers, and Savi replied, “Currently, we help borrowers save an average of $156 monthly on their loans”.
Savi also claims it has been able to help users find an average of $38,980 in lifetime savings with different options, including income-based repayment plans. One of those programs is called the SAVE plan, which offers borrowers lower payments and a quicker path to student loan forgiveness, after as little as ten years of payments.
President Biden began that initiative and a more sweeping loan forgiveness program. That more sweeping one was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last year after several Republican-led states successfully sued.
There are fresh lawsuits over the SAVE program, again spearheaded by Republican-led states, including Texas, even though the Biden administration recently pointed out that Texas had the highest number of student loan borrowers who were helped by the program and the highest amount of forgiven debt. There is likely to be a lot of court action on that and other Biden forgiveness programs for student loans.