--- title: How to Lower Your Monthly Student Loan Bill description: The government's income-based repayment options can lighten your monthly student loan bill. authors: - name: Kaitlin Mulhere role: Editor url: https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/ bio: Kaitlin Mulhere is an editor at Money.com, where she focuses on student debt. Her work guides readers from taking out their first student loan to navigating different repayment options. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2015 articles: 217 covers: - Loans - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://twitter.com/KMulhere - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlin-mulhere-64503048/ published: '2016-06-06T21:02:39.000Z' modified: '2016-06-06T21:02:39.000Z' section: Loans tags: - College - college debt - College Students - Debt - income driven repayment plans - Money - repayment - video word_count: 175 canonical: https://money.com/lower-your-monthly-student-loan-bill/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We may earn a fee if you click on the links below. Compensation does not determine ranking. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![student loan refinancing](https://img.money.com/2016/06/160606_em_refinancing-student-loans_1.png) Millions of Americans with student debt are enrolled in the U.S. government's income-driven repayment plans, but millions more have no idea that they are eligible for such a program. These income-driven repayment plans help lower your monthly payments for your loans. The plans limit your monthly payments based on your discretionary income. To find out how much you might owe each month, you can use the Department of Education's [Repayment Estimator](https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/mobile/repayment/repaymentEstimator.action). You'll need your most recent tax return, your family size, and information about any additional income to help estimate how much you might owe. Two important things to keep in mind: One, these federal repayment plans are available only for federal student loans, not private loans. So if you consolidate federal and private debt into one loan, you won't have access to the government's income-driven repayment plans. Two, you must re-certify every year to continue to qualify for an income-driven repayment plan. If you fail to re-certify, you're monthly payments will increase to what they were before you signed up for the repayment plans. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/lower-your-monthly-student-loan-bill/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Loans", "item": "https://money.com/loans/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Student Loan Refinance", "item": "https://money.com/student-loan-refinance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "How to Lower Your Monthly Student Loan Bill" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/lower-your-monthly-student-loan-bill/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/lower-your-monthly-student-loan-bill/", "name": "How to Lower Your Monthly Student Loan Bill", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-06-06T21:02:39.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/lower-your-monthly-student-loan-bill/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/lower-your-monthly-student-loan-bill/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-06-06T21:02:39.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "How to Lower Your Monthly Student Loan Bill", "articleSection": "Loans", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/06/160606_em_refinancing-student-loans_1.png", "width": 1465, "height": 950, "caption": "160606_EM_Refinancing.student.loans_1" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kaitlin Mulhere", "url": "https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/#author", "description": "Kaitlin Mulhere is an editor at Money.com, where she focuses on student debt. 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