Biweekly student loan payments can make it easier to pay extra and save on interest.
This strategy is perfect for people who want to pay off student loans faster but don’t think they have spare cash to do it. Here’s how biweekly student loan payments work and how to make them count.
Does paying a student loan every two weeks help?
Monthly student loan payments are the default, but not necessarily the best option. Biweekly payments can help you shave months or years off a student loan's term, as well as hundreds or thousands off your total interest payments.
How does this work? Rather than 12 full monthly payments, you make 26 half-payments per year. (That’s 52 weeks in a year divided by two for every-other-week payments.) You wind up making an extra payment each year.
For example: Say you owe $30,000 in student loans with an interest rate of 7%. You’re on a standard 10-year repayment period.
With full monthly payments: You would pay $348 every month, adding up to $4,176 per year.
With biweekly payments: You would make a $174 payment every two weeks, adding up to $4,524 per year.
By paying every two weeks, you would be debt-free 13 months sooner and save $1,486 in interest.
Paying biweekly isn't the same as paying a loan twice a month. With biweekly student loan payments, you pay half your monthly payment every two weeks, which means you'll make three half-payments two months a year.
How to make biweekly student loan payments
Here’s how to get started with biweekly payments:
1. Check with your lender or loan servicer. See if it’s possible to set up biweekly student loan payments via autopay — some allow it, some don’t.
Even if your lender or servicer doesn't allow biweekly payments by autopay, you may still be able to make them manually.
2. Give instructions about how you want extra payments applied. On a biweekly payment schedule, there will be two months in which you make three half-payments.
In those cases, ask your lender to apply the extra amount to your loan balance instead of the next month’s payment — that’ll help you pay down the debt faster.
3. Mind your due date. To avoid late fees, make both biweekly payments before each monthly payment due date. Some lenders and servicers let you change your due date.
If that’s possible for you, choose a date that aligns with your pay schedule.
4. Consider alternatives. If you can’t set up biweekly payments, either because your lender doesn’t allow it or your pay periods don’t align, try dividing your monthly payment by 12 and adding that amount to each monthly payment.
More ways to get ahead of student debt
If biweekly student loan payments aren’t for you, or if you want more ways to accelerate repayment, try these strategies:
Pay extra. Paying extra is the key to being debt-free faster. This strategy can look like throwing lump-sum payments at your debt every so often or making higher-than-minimum payments.
NerdWallet’s student loan payoff calculator shows you how adding extra to payments can shave months or years off your repayment schedule.
Student loan refinancing. Refinancing your student loans may help you lock in a lower interest rate. That way, you can maintain your current monthly payment amount and become debt-free faster.
This could be an option if you have good credit and stable income, which would help you secure a lower rate.
Note that if you have federal loans, refinancing with a private lender would mean you lose federal perks. These could include income-driven repayment, more generous financial hardship protections and forgiveness pathways.
So make sure you're comfortable with these losses before refinancing.
