If you dread your student loan payments each month because you aren’t sure whether you can afford to cover the minimum payment, know that there are solutions to make student loans more manageable. One option is hiring a student loan consultant to help create a customized repayment plan. A student loan consultant may also assist you in navigating the upcoming student loan changes due to take effect in July 2026 as a result of the U.S. domestic policy bill.
While some borrowers might find their advice valuable, either might find it’s not worth the expense – especially if they’re already struggling to find a way to make their loan payments. Here’s what you should keep in mind if you’re thinking of working with a student loan consultant.
Table of Contents
- What Is a Student Loan Consultant?
- What Consultants Can Help With
- What You’re Paying For
- Programs That Are Available for Free
- Neutral Parties You Can Ask for Help
- Consider a Nonprofit Credit-Counseling Agency
- Make Sure the Consultant Isn’t Providing a Redundant Service
- Refinancing Your Student Loans
Key Points
• Student loan consultants offer personalized help like explaining jargon, contacting servicers, and recommending repayment strategies — but their services can cost $40 to $600+.
• Much of what they offer is free elsewhere, including enrolling in income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, consolidating federal loans, or getting help from the Federal Student Aid Ombudsman.
• Nonprofit credit counseling agencies (like those through the National Foundation for Credit Counseling) can provide unbiased, often low-cost support.
• Consultants may be helpful if you’re overwhelmed, don’t have time to research options, or struggle with lender communication — but may be redundant if you’re financially savvy.
• Avoid scams by confirming services aren’t free elsewhere and checking credentials — and never pay upfront for federal loan assistance.
What Is a Student Loan Consultant?
Americans owe more than $1.8 trillion in collective student loans. As student loan debt has increased, student loan consultants have emerged to help students navigate the loan process. Most student loan consultants work independently from colleges or universities, and are not affiliated with specific repayment programs. Student loan consultants work one-on-one with borrowers to identify their repayment needs and try to set them up on a path of debt payoff success.
What Consultants Can Help With
There are five main ways a student loan consultant can help you:
• Recommending a student loan repayment strategy
• Offering personalized guidance specific to your finances
• Explaining student loan jargon
• Researching your loan details
• Communicating with lenders on your behalf
Before seeking out a student loan consultant, it might be helpful to identify your specific needs. If you don’t understand the difference between consolidation and refinancing, for example, then talking with a consultant about student loan jargon could be helpful.
If calling lenders sends you into a panic, maybe that’s where you want the consultant’s help. And if you’re struggling to make your minimum monthly payments, you could potentially talk to a consultant about finding a better student loan repayment plan.
đź’ˇ Quick Tip: Get flexible terms and competitive rates when you refinance your student loan with SoFi.
What You’re Paying For
The cost of a student loan consultant can vary widely, and can come in the form of an hourly fee, flat rate, or annual fee. You could expect to pay anywhere from as little $40 to upwards of $600 or more for help from a student loan counselor. Making sure their services are worth the money you are paying is important, of course, and that can be done by confirming that their services aren’t something you could do on your own — like finding a federal income-driven repayment plan (which we’ll get into below). It’s also important to ensure that the cost doesn’t prevent you from making your student loan payments.
Before speaking with a consultant, finding out what is possible and what sounds too good to be true can help you weed out any scammy student loan consultants. And when you’re trying to understand what you can do on your own (without a consultant’s help), a good place to start is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau .
Programs That Are Available for Free
A fair number of programs to help with student loan payments are available to everyone, without a fee. For example, before seeking out a student loan consultant, you could look into enrolling in a federal income-driven repayment (IDR) plan.
Typically, when you graduate from college or reduce your attendance to under half-time, you’re automatically put on the 10-year Standard Repayment Plan. However, borrowers looking to reduce the monthly payments on their federal student loans may qualify for an IDR plan, which reduces your monthly payment to a percentage of your discretionary income and extends the repayment term up to 25 years (the exact details depend on the specific plan you choose). After the repayment period is up, any remaining balance is forgiven (but may be subject to taxes). The Income-Based Repayment (IBR) plan can also lead to forgiveness at the end of your repayment period (but that forgiveness may be subject to taxes).
Starting in the summer of 2026, there will be a new income-driven plan called the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP). RAP will be the only income-driven repayment option for those who borrow after July 1, 2026.
Because these repayment plans extend your loan term, you may pay more interest over the life of your loan. Even so, it could bring much-needed immediate relief and result in some loan forgiveness.
đź’ˇ Quick Tip: When refinancing a student loan, you may shorten or extend the loan term. Shortening your loan term may result in higher monthly payments but significantly less total interest paid. A longer loan term typically results in lower monthly payments but more total interest paid.
Neutral Parties You Can Ask for Help
If you have a conflict regarding one of your federal student loans, you can ask for help from the Federal Student Aid Ombudsman Group , which serves as a neutral party. They can resolve discrepancies with loan balances and payments, and help identify loan repayment options. You can also try to resolve the dispute before contacting the Ombudsman Group. Or you can file a complaint through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Consider a Nonprofit Credit-Counseling Agency
The National Foundation for Credit Counseling can help you find a qualified credit counseling agency, which can aid you in creating a budget and even negotiating a new payment plan with creditors. The U.S. Department of Justice also offers an online database of credit-counseling agencies .
Make Sure the Consultant Isn’t Providing a Redundant Service
It’s important to make sure the consultant’s service isn’t something you could do on your own. For example, you could lower your monthly payment on your federal student loans by opting for an income-driven repayment plan without paying a consultant for their services.
You can also consider consolidating your federal loans through a Direct Consolidation Loan, which is also free. A Direct Consolidation Loan allows you to combine all of your federal loans into one, and gives you a new interest rate that’s a weighted average of your current interest rates, rounded up to the nearest eighth of a percent. While you won’t have a lower overall interest rate, you could lower your monthly payments and simplify the repayment process.
Refinancing Your Student Loans
If you’re looking for alternative ways to pay off your student loan debt, you could also consider student loan refinancing. When you refinance your student loans, you take out a new loan with a private lender and then use the proceeds to pay off one or more existing student loans. Ideally, the refinanced loan has a better interest rate and terms.
Extending your loan term through refinancing can lower your monthly payments. But it does mean paying more in interest over the life of the loan.
Alternatively, refinancing to a lower interest rate and shorter loan term could cost you less in interest over the life of the loan and help you pay it off faster. Keep in mind, however, that refinancing with a private lender means you’ll no longer be able to access federal loan benefits like income-driven repayment plans.
SoFi Student Loan Refinance SoFi Loan Products
Terms and conditions apply. SoFi Refinance Student Loans are private loans. When you refinance federal loans with a SoFi loan, YOU FORFEIT YOUR ELIGIBILITY FOR ALL FEDERAL LOAN BENEFITS, including all flexible federal repayment and forgiveness options that are or may become available to federal student loan borrowers including, but not limited to: Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), Income-Based Repayment, Income-Contingent Repayment, extended repayment plans, PAYE or SAVE. Lowest rates reserved for the most creditworthy borrowers. Learn more at SoFi.com/eligibility. SoFi Refinance Student Loans are originated by SoFi Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. NMLS #696891 (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org).
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