Giving Compass' Take:

• Sarah Perez reports that the app Pillar is designed to help individuals manage the repayment of their student loan debt through advice and easy payments. 

• Why is it so difficult to repay student loans? Is there a better way to streamline and clarify the repayment process? 

• Learn why financial literacy is an essential skill set for college students. 

A new startup aims to help you get your student loans under control. Today, an app called Pillar, backed by $5.5 million in seed funding led by Kleiner Perkins, is launching a simpler way for consumers to better understand their student loan debt — and even pay it off early.

To do so, the app connects with your student loan servicer and bank, then makes personalized suggestions based on your loans, your income and your spending. When it finds a way you can make a bigger dent in your overall student loan debt, it will send an alert to your smartphone.

“We struggled to figure out the right way to pay them back,” he explains. “We read blog posts and articles. We made spreadsheets. We even talked to a financial advisor. But there really was no easy way for us to figure out what was the right thing for us to do. And I realized there are 45 million people with loans, and millions of those people have had the exact same experience as I did.”

The problem they’re attacking is massive. Student loan debt is the second largest type of consumer debt in the U.S., with 45 million borrowers owing more than $1.5 trillion in student loans. Seven out of 10 students take out loans to pay for college, and the average person graduates with $30,000 in debt, which takes 20 years to pay off. For those with $60,000 in debt, it can take more than 30 years to pay off. And nearly 20% of borrowers have more than $100,000 in debt.

Read the full article about Pillar by Sarah Perez at TechCrunch.