Photo Submitted by Christian Zimmerman
Photo Submitted by Nate Washington
If it were up to two Georgia State alumni, all you’d need to pay off your college loan would be the extra change in your pocket.
Qoins is a new startup company founded on Sept. 20 by Georgia State alumni Christian Zimmerman and programmer Nate Washington. The core of the operation is to help former college students overcome debt by providing an automated deposit by using the spare change of each of their purchases to pay off loans.
Zimmerman came up with the original idea in May, but it was not until he met Washington at a networking event this past summer that Qoins came to life. The duo founded the company out of necessity to pay off their combined loan amounts of approximately $55,000.
By using their system, Zimmerman said, students will be able to “pay off their loans with spare change they had already spent”.
“On average someone can save around $40 in spare change per month. If we apply this method to my student loans, I will be able to cut my loan term by 26 payments or 2.2 years which saves three-thousand dollars,” he said.
According to Zimmerman, students will soon be able to calculate your own loan amount once the team has officially integrated a loan calculator on their website.
In its first three weeks of operation, Qoins is servicing 350 users. According to Zimmerman, the company’s quick expansion has to do with the fact that the initiative hits close to home for a lot of students.
“I think because I’m hitting an issue that is close to home. Meaning that because I graduated and I had this problem I wanted to solve. There are many students who feel the same way,” he said.
The creators are also planning to increase efficiency in students’ loan repayment plans by adding crowdsourcing to the paying-off methods.
“Let’s say your mom or dad weren’t able to actually pay for your loans, well now they can sign up for Qoins and link up the same loan you have and chip away at it without having to take out their pocketbook,” he said. “This works well for when they are out buying gas or groceries with the benefit of paying off your debt.”
While the duo are looking for a partnership with the university, Zimmerman said they have not been able to get in touch with a Georgia State representative.
Dan Kreisman, an assistant professor of Economics in Georgia State, said he’d be interested for the university to partner up with Qoins.
“Georgia State is a kind of place that does a lot of interesting stuff and is proactive in helping students, a partnership would be a logical next step,” he said.
Kreisman said the idea works because young people are usually not good at looking ahead and putting money away.
“There is a lot of evidence from behavioral economics that people people are bad at saving and looking to the future and making decisions now for a lot of reasons,” he said. “The system that they are setting up gives college students ample resources to look ahead and pay their loans in good time without defaulting on their loans.”
Kreisman said he is a big proponent of income-based repayment allowing students to pay what they can directly out of their paycheck instead of the Fixed Repayment plan and that Qoins is a “step in the right direction.”
Altrubanc, a service that provides students with the opportunity to get help from sponsors to repay their loans, is the first partnership the duo have acquired. The company provides students with a platform to showcase their qualities to attract sponsors that agree to help pay loans.
Alltrubank co-founder, Jeff Summers, said partnering with Qoins was “only logical being that [they] are on the same page with student debt.
“They have a great model [which] promotes responsibility,” he said.
Summers said Qoins is compatible in the way the Alltrubanc has found sponsors for students who will help pay off their loans following graduation, Qoins will cover the remainder of what’s left of the loan..
Qoins has competed in several startup competitions around the state but Atlanta Tech Village was the most prominent. No deals have been solidified with the competitions or other projects as of yet but they are in progress according to Zimmerman.
Washington said the two have big plans in the future.
“We’ve got some big plans in the pipeline we aren’t quite ready to reveal just yet. Our biggest focus right now is that we listen to our users and build something they’ll love,”he said
Accumulated student loan debt is 1.3 trillion dollars with 43 million borrowers
Average of student debt for the class of 2016 is $37,172
Average student loan monthly payment: $351
Using the Qoins debt calculator: Georgia State: 30,000 in debt, 6.31 APR, 360 month repayment term, monthly savings of 50 a month, would save roughply $14,000 in interest.
