--- description: To help cover the losses from loans that are never repaid. But some argue that that expense should be spread among all taxpayers, since education... title: Why Pay Interest on Student Loans? image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Why Pay Interest on Student Loans? by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 30, 2016 12:28 PM CUT by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 30, 2016 12:28 PM CUT To help cover the losses from loans that are never repaid. But some argue that that expense should be spread among all taxpayers, since education is a greater good. For now, the only relief for undergrads is that the current 3.8% fixed rate is the lowest in a decade. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4389113/why-pay-interest-on-student-loans/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4389113/why-pay-interest-on-student-loans/"},"headline":"Why Pay Interest on Student Loans?","datePublished":"2016-06-30T12:28:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:57:32.702Z","description":"To help cover the losses from loans that are never repaid. But some argue that that expense should be spread among all taxpayers, since education...","url":"https://time.com/4389113/why-pay-interest-on-student-loans/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4389113/why-pay-interest-on-student-loans/","name":"Why Pay Interest on Student Loans?"}}]}] ```