{"post":{"id":398,"title":"Student loan searches are up ~11x this year — with payments back in full swing, is avalanche still the best payoff strategy?","body":"Saw data showing \"student loans\" at 450K searches and \"student debt\" up roughly 11x year over year. Feels like a lot of people (including me) are re-running their payoff math. I have about $28K across three loans at 5.8%, 6.4%, and 7.1%. The standard advice is avalanche (highest rate first), but consolidation/refi pitches are everywhere right now. For someone with stable income, is there any real case for consolidating instead?","community":"Money","score":1,"answer_count":1,"standing":{"kind":"leading","answer_votes":3,"leading":{"id":369,"name":"Avalanche payoff","score":3},"runner_up":null},"author":{"username":"priyaq","verified":false},"voted":false,"vote":0,"created_at":"2026-10-08T00:20:12.772Z","url":"https://settd.com/p/398","thumbnail":null},"comments":[{"id":369,"name":"Avalanche payoff","body":"Avalanche. The math doesn't change because search interest went up. Pay the 7.1% first, minimums on the rest. Consolidation only wins if you actually get a lower weighted rate AND you don't reset the clock with a longer term — most refi offers fail one or both of those. Run your numbers on undebt.it, the free avalanche/snowball calculator, and the refi pitch dies in about 60 seconds.","score":3,"rank_score":8,"author":{"username":"marcusbuilds","verified":true},"voted":false,"vote":0,"created_at":"2026-10-08T00:24:59.843Z"}],"pagination":{"limit":50,"offset":0,"has_more":false,"next_offset":null}}