Best Apps to Help Pay Off Student Loans Faster
UpdatedApr 9, 2025
- Apps can help you pay off student loans faster.
- You can play games for cash rewards, round up purchases and put that money toward student loans, and use the snowball method to pay off debt.
- The sooner you start, the faster You'll pay your off your loans.
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Student loan debt is at an all-time high. In fact, according to Dept. of Education figures cited by Forbes, Americans owed nearly $1.5 trillion in federal student loans in 2019. If you’re feeling burdened by the heavy weight of expensive student loans, it’s time to make a plan to pay them off once and for all. There are many options for paying down your debt, including debt consolidation, but you may need some help getting started.
If you live through your mobile phone, as many of us do, you should know that there are several apps to help pay off student loans.
ChangED*
If you only make the minimum payment on your loan every month, you’ll end up incurring excessive interest, which means you pay more over the life of the loan. ChangED explains that the average student loan, which totals $39,400, can actually end up costing you more than $60,000 if this is your payment plan.
If you don’t know how to find the extra cash to pay more each month, sign up for ChangED. One of the best apps to help pay off student loans, ChangED rounds up every purchase you make to the next dollar and sets that “spare change” aside. When you reach $100, the money gets put toward your loans, so you can pay more each month.
Without having to actively save extra money yourself, paying more than the minimum is nearly effortless. Plus, ChangED sends the money to your loan provider automatically, so you don’t have one more thing to stress about. All you pay is $1 each month.
Debt Payoff Pro
This debt organization tool helps you use the “debt-snowball” method to pay off your student loans once and for all. Using this approach, you would pay the minimum payments on all your debts until your first debt is paid off. Then you would use the extra payment from the paid off debt and apply it to the next one.
As you pay off debts, you have more and more money to put toward your larger loans, allowing you to pay them off faster, too. The best part is the Debt Payoff Pro app does all the math for you. Once you’ve uploaded your loan amounts, the app calculates each payment, along with interest, principal and remaining balance.
Givling
If you like to play games, this is the app for you. With Givling, you play on a trivia team to win cash to pay off your student loan. You can join games twice a day to answer trivia questions. Here’s how it works, according to its creators:
“Each time you initiate play, you join a three-person team and answer statements true or false until you strike out or reach the statement limit. The more statements you answer correctly, the higher your score. If your team is the highest scoring team when the clock runs out on the competition period, the three of you equally split the cash award.”
You can help others pay off their student loans as well by sponsoring offers, which gets you to the top of the queue, where you can get your loan paid off up to $50,000.
Your student loan provider’s app
Sometimes paying off your student loans faster is just a matter of keeping track of how much you owe and making additional deposits when you get extra cash. That’s why you should download your student loan provider’s apps, like My Great Lakes or My Fed Loan, so you can manage payments anywhere you have a cell signal or Wi-Fi.
Pay off student loan debt faster
Using these apps to help pay off student loans will help you better manage your debt (and your finances in general), paying it down faster and with less stress. Choose the app that’s best for you and download it today. The sooner you get started, the sooner your debt will be gone.
Pay off your student loans and plan for your future
Learning how to pay down your student loan debt, manage money, and plan for your future shouldn’t be stressful. We have developed a comprehensive guide to help you move toward a better financial future. Get started today by downloading our free guide.
*Editor’s Note: The app recommendations in this post are meant as a research tool and guide to give you information on ways to manage student debt. Freedom Debt Relief was not compensated for mentioning any companies listed in this post.
Learn More
Student Loan Debt Forgiveness for Medical Workers (Freedom Debt Relief)
Coronavirus and Forbearance Info for Students, Borrowers, and Parents (Federal Student Aid)
Money Tips for Recent College Grads: Recession Edition (Freedom Debt Relief)
Insights into debt relief demographics
We looked at a sample of data from Freedom Debt Relief of people seeking debt relief during November 2024. The data provides insights about key characteristics of debt relief seekers.
Credit utilization and debt relief
How are people using their credit before seeking help? Credit utilization measures how much of a credit line is being used. For example, if you have a credit line of $10,000 and your balance is $3,000, that is a credit utilization of 30%. High credit utilization often signals financial stress. We have looked at people who are seeking debt relief and their credit utilization. (Low credit utilization is 30% or less, medium is between 31% and 50%, high is between 51% and 75%, very high is between 76% to 100%, and over-utilized over 100%). In November 2024, people seeking debt relief had an average of 79% credit utilization.
Here are some interesting numbers:
| Credit utilization bucket | Percent of debt relief seekers |
|---|---|
| Over utilized | 30% |
| Very high | 32% |
| High | 19% |
| Medium | 10% |
| Low | 9% |
The statistics refer to people who had a credit card balance greater than $0.
You don't have to have high credit utilization to look for a debt relief solution. There are a number of solutions for people, whether they have maxed out their credit cards or still have a significant part available.
Student loan debt – average debt by selected states.
According to the 2023 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) the average student debt for those with a balance was $46,980. The percentage of families with student debt was 22%. (Note: It used 2022 data).
Student loan debt among those seeking debt relief is prevalent. In November 2024, 27% of the debt relief seekers had student debt. The average student debt balance (for those with student debt) was $48,703.
Here is a quick look at the top five states by average student debt balance.
| State | Percent with student loans | Average Balance for those with student loans | Average monthly payment |
|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | 34 | $71,987 | $203 |
| Georgia | 29 | $59,907 | $183 |
| Mississippi | 28 | $55,347 | $145 |
| Alaska | 22 | $54,555 | $104 |
| Maryland | 31 | $54,495 | $142 |
The statistics are based on all debt relief seekers with a student loan balance over $0.
Student debt is an important part of many households' financial picture. When you examine your finances, consider your total debt and your monthly payments.
Tackle Financial Challenges
Don’t let debt overwhelm you. Learn more about debt relief options. They can help you tackle your financial challenges. This is true whether you have high credit card balances or many tradelines. Start your path to recovery with the first step.
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