The reason why the majority of the students apply for their higher education loan is because they couldn’t afford to pay the education fees on their own. In other words, an education loan assists them to ease their expenses during studies, especially to cover the semester fees. The education fees are mostly expensive, and this does not comprise other important aspects such as hostel/rent, personal expenses, learning materials and other necessary things. Normally, most education loans carefully set certain requirements to ensure that only the qualified/deserved ones will get the loan.

In today’s tertiary educational context in Malaysia, the young Malaysians will opt to apply for a loan from the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN). Those who receive PTPTN loans can be considered as lucky and they should be grateful to PTPTN for helping them to pursue their studies. Sadly, there are loan takers who are grudging to repay their loans. Thus, let’s be responsible everyone. It is our responsibility to repay the loan appropriately. This is to ensure that our government and PTPTN can continue providing the same prospects/chances to future generations.

Hence, if you don’t want to be listed as one of the loan defaulters, you need to plan wisely. Here are the tips on how you can pay off your student/study loan as quickly as you can.

1. IDENTIFY and UNDERSTAND your Student Loan’s Terms

If you already applied for a student loan, you need to know the terms of the loan itself. Meaning to say, by knowing the terms, you also need to understand the terms and conditions of your loan too. In order to do that, you need to read the agreement carefully and go through the whole points one by one. The most important thing is you need to know the interest rate, the repayment terms, when to start the repayment, due dates and so forth. Unfortunately, some students didn’t take this seriously. The worst case is when some of them do not keep track of vital loan information. In the end of the day, they forgot to pay back and this only brings negative impact towards them. If you are aware about the terms requirement, you will be able to plan on making money without any hassle even after graduation or maybe you can start planning your financial goals during your studies.

2. AWARE about the Repayment Grace Period

Grace period is a set length of time after the given due date or after you graduate in which before you must start paying back your study loan. For instance, during this period, PTPTN will not expect any payments from the students.  Basically, PTPTN allocates the grace period of 12 months after the students complete their studies. Grace period gives you chances to firstly find a job and get a proper income after graduation. Nevertheless, if you already secured a job in that particular grace period, you can actually start repaying earlier. However, please do not sweep aside the repayment, even if your grace period is over and you still not able to secure a job. You can always contact the person in charge of your student loans. You need to explain to them your current situation/difficulty and do ask for an extension date. If you ignore it, it may cost you extra charges for the late repayment.

3. Be DISCIPLINE & CONSISTENT

One of the strategies to settle your student loan faster is to consistently paying the loan every month. The terms in the agreement already stated the exact amount of your repayment. What you have to do is to pay according to the stated amount. You need to manage your finance prudently by separating the amount that you need to pay for your student loan. In this way, you will not procrastinate and never skip a month or months on repayment. Otherwise, you might need to pay extra due to the interest of late payment.  Hence, discipline yourself and steadily adhering to paying off your student loan. This will not only discipline your behaviour, but also your attitude on ways to minimize your monthly expenses and assist you to prioritize what is most important in your own life.

4. FIND WAYS to PAY MORE than the stated monthly repayment

Most of the times, fresh graduate will not get a high salary for their first job and it will be difficult to pay more than the amounts they should pay. Nevertheless, there is always another alternative for you to earn extra/side income, which is by doing a part-time job such as ‘Grab’, freelance job(s) or online business. Do choose a part-time job that is most relevant to you and suit your abilities and interests. In fact, you are not tied to any commitments yet such as married life that requires you to focus on family matters. Nevertheless, if you decided to pay more than the stated amount, you need to inform your financial aid agency to restructure your student loan with regard to the new amount of repayment. Thus, take this chance to pay off the loan quickly and save more on the interest as well.

5. SEEK HELP & GUIDANCE from your student loan agency/organization

Another wisest way for you to pay your student loan expeditiously and in a timely manner is to always get the latest info and updates from the website of your education loan. If you have any doubts and have basic concerns related to your study loan, all you have to do is contact their customer service officer right away.  They will be happy in answering all your questions. All in all, by reaching them, they can guide and advise you on how to end your misery in settling your student loan effectively.