How Long Will It Take to Pay Off $50,000? (2024)

FAQs

How Long Will It Take to Pay Off $50,000? ›

It will take 47 months to pay off $50,000 with payments of $1,500 per month, assuming the average credit card APR of around 18%. The time it takes to repay a balance depends on how often you make payments, how big your payments are and what the interest rate charged by the lender is.

With $50,000 in student loan debt, your monthly payments could be quite expensive. Depending on how much debt you have and your interest rate, your payments will likely be about $500 per month or more.

At that level of debt, you're likely paying hundreds each month -- if not a thousand dollars or more -- just to meet interest payments. And that's not even putting money toward the principal, the heart that's generating more debt. Big debts call for big measures.

But if you take out a $50,000 loan for seven years with an APR of 4%, your monthly payment will be $683. Almost all personal loans offer payoff periods that fall between one and seven years, so those periods serve as the minimum and maximum in our calculations.

You'll typically need good to excellent credit to qualify for a $50,000 loan, though there are some options available if you have less-than-stellar credit. Kat Tretina is a freelance writer specializing in personal finance. Her work has been published in The Wall Street Journal's Buy Side, U.S. News, and Money.com.

It depends on the lender, but most will evaluate your creditworthiness and debt-to-income ratio. Lenders want to know that you've responsibly handled debt products in the past and can afford to make timely monthly payments on a new loan. Your credit rating sheds light on how you manage outstanding debt obligations.

What debt is forgiven after 7 years? ›

Borrowers with only undergraduate debt would qualify for forgiveness if they first entered repayment 20 years ago (on or before July 1, 2005), and borrowers with any graduate school debt would qualify if they first entered repayment 25 or more years ago (on or before July 1, 2000).

As for how much money people owe, 15 million people owe $10,000 or less in federal student loans. Another 21 million people owe $10,001-$50,000 dollars, and about 9 million people owe more than $50,000.

Research from EducationData.org shows that almost 45.3 million Americans hold an average federal student loan debt balance of $37,338. Combined, student loan debt in the U.S. adds up to nearly $2 trillion. According to the same data, the average student loan monthly payment is $503.

Make debt payments beyond the minimum.

Making more than your required minimum payment can help you pay off debts more quickly and save money in interest charges. Earmark unanticipated funds, such as your tax return or a bonus, for debt payments.

The "snowball method," simply put, means paying off the smallest of all your loans as quickly as possible. Once that debt is paid, you take the money you were putting toward that payment and roll it onto the next-smallest debt owed. Ideally, this process would continue until all accounts are paid off.