Student loan payments: get advice and actual numbers here Forum

[El Pollito]

lol i was in forbearance bc i'm paid up through 2020 so they didnt' know how to process my REPAYE plan

good thing i called and got a non-moron

[Johann]

lol i was in forbearance bc i'm paid up through 2020 so they didnt' know how to process my REPAYE plan

good thing i called and got a non-moron

hmmm so are they letting you just stay in forbearance until 2020?

[El Pollito]

lol i was in forbearance bc i'm paid up through 2020 so they didnt' know how to process my REPAYE plan

good thing i called and got a non-moron

hmmm so are they letting you just stay in forbearance until 2020?

i made them take me out of it but they said i could not pay until then if i wanted lol

[JenDarby]

lol i was in forbearance bc i'm paid up through 2020 so they didnt' know how to process my REPAYE plan

good thing i called and got a non-moron

hmmm so are they letting you just stay in forbearance until 2020?

i made them take me out of it but they said i could not pay until then if i wanted lol

Yea I was paid so far in advance when I moved to PAYE since I (stupidly) decided to pay off all my accrued interest when I graduated with savings in a moment of panic.

I am momentarily regretting my refinance realizing I could buy a house in west palm beach right now no problem if I didn't refinance. But it is what it is.

[Johann]

lol i was in forbearance bc i'm paid up through 2020 so they didnt' know how to process my REPAYE plan

good thing i called and got a non-moron

hmmm so are they letting you just stay in forbearance until 2020?

i made them take me out of it but they said i could not pay until then if i wanted lol

yeah i mean obviously good to be in repayment and getting credit for the months of progress. but damn, not paying until 2020 would def be too much for me to pass up. i think one of the best things about govt loans is the no fucks given of any of their workers. a SoFi employee would probably be fired over that.

[El Pollito]

lol i was in forbearance bc i'm paid up through 2020 so they didnt' know how to process my REPAYE plan

good thing i called and got a non-moron

hmmm so are they letting you just stay in forbearance until 2020?

i made them take me out of it but they said i could not pay until then if i wanted lol

yeah i mean obviously good to be in repayment and getting credit for the months of progress. but damn, not paying until 2020 would def be too much for me to pass up. i think one of the best things about govt loans is the no fucks given of any of their workers. a SoFi employee would probably be fired over that.

when i called i had to spend like 10 min telling the fedloans guy that i wasn't calling to skip a payment lol

[JenDarby]

^ I got the sense it's because she's overpaid required payments. They credit those towards future payments on any loan, gov or private.

[Johann]

whenever my payment jumps up in 2018 to over 1k a month im going to ask for a 3 month forbearance i think.

[Mr. Peanutbutter]

^ I got the sense it's because she's overpaid required payments. They credit those towards future payments on any loan, gov or private.

Is that true with sofi/private loans? With my car loan, if I paid extra one month, it would just very, very slightly lower all my monthly payments, not rollover to the next month.

ETA: pretty sure it's the same with CC and mortgage payments, but could be wrong.

[JenDarby]

^ I got the sense it's because she's overpaid required payments. They credit those towards future payments on any loan, gov or private.

Is that true with sofi/private loans? With my car loan, if I paid extra one month, it would just very, very slightly lower all my monthly payments, not rollover to the next month.

ETA: pretty sure it's the same with CC and mortgage payments, but could be wrong.

If I over pay my car loan (TD) it deducts from the next required payment, same with my refi student loans (common bond).

[Mr. Peanutbutter]

^ I got the sense it's because she's overpaid required payments. They credit those towards future payments on any loan, gov or private.

Is that true with sofi/private loans? With my car loan, if I paid extra one month, it would just very, very slightly lower all my monthly payments, not rollover to the next month.

ETA: pretty sure it's the same with CC and mortgage payments, but could be wrong.

If I over pay my car loan (TD) it deducts from the next required payment, same with my refi student loans (common bond).

That's awesome (unless it means that paying early doesn't save you any interest). With Wells Fargo, if I paid over on my car loan it wouldn't move the needle much on the next month's payment at all. If you wanted to prepay, you had to pay one month, wait for them to process the payment, and then pay the next month, and repeat.

[bk1]

If I over pay my car loan (TD) it deducts from the next required payment, same with my refi student loans (common bond).

That's awesome (unless it means that paying early doesn't save you any interest). With Wells Fargo, if I paid over on my car loan it wouldn't move the needle much on the next month's payment at all. If you wanted to prepay, you had to pay one month, wait for them to process the payment, and then pay the next month, and repeat.

You can generally ask them to apply it to the principal rather than future payments (and vice versa). Overpayments applied to future payments do not save you any interest because they aren't reducing the principal.

[Mr. Peanutbutter]

If I over pay my car loan (TD) it deducts from the next required payment, same with my refi student loans (common bond).

That's awesome (unless it means that paying early doesn't save you any interest). With Wells Fargo, if I paid over on my car loan it wouldn't move the needle much on the next month's payment at all. If you wanted to prepay, you had to pay one month, wait for them to process the payment, and then pay the next month, and repeat.

You can generally ask them to apply it to the principal rather than future payments (and vice versa). Overpayments applied to future payments do not save you any interest because they aren't reducing the principal.

Is that true though? When I had my car loan, at the beginning of every semester I would just pay 3–4 months of payments (but they all had to be separate transactions). The first payment would pay the accrued interest first, then principal. The next few payments would be like $.01 of accrued interest and then all principal, and then the interest that would accrue until I made another payment would be on the lower principal amount.

I get that this is a different thing than crediting future payments, but why wouldn't it work the same way? (IE if your student loan payment is usually $2k with $1k to I and $1k to P, then making a $20k lump payment would pay $1k I and then $19k P, with interest accruing on the lower balance in the 10 months until you make another payment)

[JenDarby]

Yea, that makes no sense to me bk. If I over pay my car loan the principal IMMEDIATELY goes down. I then ALSO owe less on my next payment. It's not like they hold the money and then apply it when the next payment is due.

[Johann]

If I over pay my car loan (TD) it deducts from the next required payment, same with my refi student loans (common bond).

That's awesome (unless it means that paying early doesn't save you any interest). With Wells Fargo, if I paid over on my car loan it wouldn't move the needle much on the next month's payment at all. If you wanted to prepay, you had to pay one month, wait for them to process the payment, and then pay the next month, and repeat.

You can generally ask them to apply it to the principal rather than future payments (and vice versa). Overpayments applied to future payments do not save you any interest because they aren't reducing the principal.

ding ding ding. another advantage for fed loans. you can prepay and knock down the principal and then in retrospect if things turn shitty change those prepayments to regular payments. cannot do that with private loans (school loans, mortgages, etc).

[Johann]

If I over pay my car loan (TD) it deducts from the next required payment, same with my refi student loans (common bond).

That's awesome (unless it means that paying early doesn't save you any interest). With Wells Fargo, if I paid over on my car loan it wouldn't move the needle much on the next month's payment at all. If you wanted to prepay, you had to pay one month, wait for them to process the payment, and then pay the next month, and repeat.

You can generally ask them to apply it to the principal rather than future payments (and vice versa). Overpayments applied to future payments do not save you any interest because they aren't reducing the principal.

Is that true though? When I had my car loan, at the beginning of every semester I would just pay 3–4 months of payments (but they all had to be separate transactions). The first payment would pay the accrued interest first, then principal. The next few payments would be like $.01 of accrued interest and then all principal, and then the interest that would accrue until I made another payment would be on the lower principal amount.

I get that this is a different thing than crediting future payments, but why wouldn't it work the same way? (IE if your student loan payment is usually $2k with $1k to I and $1k to P, then making a $20k lump payment would pay $1k I and then $19k P, with interest accruing on the lower balance in the 10 months until you make another payment)

well no. youd owe interest the next month. you cant skip 10 payments.

[Mr. Peanutbutter]

If I over pay my car loan (TD) it deducts from the next required payment, same with my refi student loans (common bond).

That's awesome (unless it means that paying early doesn't save you any interest). With Wells Fargo, if I paid over on my car loan it wouldn't move the needle much on the next month's payment at all. If you wanted to prepay, you had to pay one month, wait for them to process the payment, and then pay the next month, and repeat.

You can generally ask them to apply it to the principal rather than future payments (and vice versa). Overpayments applied to future payments do not save you any interest because they aren't reducing the principal.

Is that true though? When I had my car loan, at the beginning of every semester I would just pay 3–4 months of payments (but they all had to be separate transactions). The first payment would pay the accrued interest first, then principal. The next few payments would be like $.01 of accrued interest and then all principal, and then the interest that would accrue until I made another payment would be on the lower principal amount.

I get that this is a different thing than crediting future payments, but why wouldn't it work the same way? (IE if your student loan payment is usually $2k with $1k to I and $1k to P, then making a $20k lump payment would pay $1k I and then $19k P, with interest accruing on the lower balance in the 10 months until you make another payment)

well no. youd owe interest the next month. you cant skip 10 payments.

You were just talking about prepayments, though. So are you saying that if you pay $20k all at once, by default they'll just pay $1k I, $1K P, and then hold the rest in limbo and apply it to months 2–10 as those due dates come along? That doesn't seem right.

At least in the scenario I have first-hand knowledge with, if I paid several months in advance, interest would accrue, but it wouldn't be owed until I hit whatever month I had paid up to. I remember this in vivid detail because the first semester I was at law school I made a $1200 car payment and they just applied it all to the principal and then in October I still had to make a normal payment.

[gk101]

you can prepay and lower your principle with refi too. With sofi, the monthly payments just go down by a few dollars if I pay extra one month.

eta to add fake numbers: if my monthly payment was 1k, and I pay 10k in June, my payments for July-end of loan term are adjusted to $900. I would still owe a monthly payment in July though

[JenDarby]

I've been drinking and I'm still shocked by the idiocy on this page. Yes fed loans have protections. But they don't protect you for overpayments in a way that private loan servicers don't.

[Mr. Peanutbutter]

I can't decide if I can't wait until I'm making money/paying back loans so this doesn't all feel so hypothetical, or if I never want this time to be over so I don't have to come to terms with the reality of it all.

[Tiago Splitter]

I can't decide if I can't wait until I'm making money/paying back loans so this doesn't all feel so hypothetical, or if I never want this time to be over so I don't have to come to terms with the reality of it all.

Just PAYE and keep the mirage alive.

[JenDarby]

I can't decide if I can't wait until I'm making money/paying back loans so this doesn't all feel so hypothetical, or if I never want this time to be over so I don't have to come to terms with the reality of it all.

Just PAYE and keep the mirage alive.

I'm still banking on "I'm going to be taking so many money baths that this won't even matter."

Just dream big

[Johann]

$200 balance; 5% interest; 5 year term so $50 a year roughly we'll just $5 a month is your payment.

If you pay $10, that payment can be one of two things: (1) $5 of normal ($3 principal $2 interest or whatever) and then $5 pure principal; (2) $6 principal and $4 interest.

If the first, then the next month, the loan provider will still ask you to pay $3 in principal and $2 in interest. If the second then no payments are necessary in the second month but you've given time value of money to the creditor and there was no really benefit to pay early.

Now consider the fed loan situation with EP (not sure if they just fucked up or if this is how it actually worked)
But you pay $50 and they process the payment as $5 payment and $45 principal. Then as you don't pay, they just continue to pull from that $45 prepayment principal and you owe nothing the next 9 months. Had you paid $50 to the private lender you are either paying 10 payments of $3 principal and $2 interest so there's no prepayment of principal benefit or you owe the company interest payment the next month.

It's nothing revolutionary changing but essentially guarantees you the best option of your prepayment with FedLoan. A prepayment will ALWAYS optimize your loan based on future actions. Whereas in private loans you have to decide at the initial time of the prepayment which you are making. nice little benefit.

[Johann]

you can prepay and lower your principle with refi too. With sofi, the monthly payments just go down by a few dollars if I pay extra one month.

eta to add fake numbers: if my monthly payment was 1k, and I pay 10k in June, my payments for July-end of loan term are adjusted to $900. I would still owe a monthly payment in July though

exactly. and with fedloan its like you can pay in july if you have the money. but if you dont have the money, they just pull from your prepayment. i mean its nothing huge, but still nice to know you can use the benefit of hindsight in the fedloan. id probably pay like $200 for that option on a $200k loan over the life off the top of my head without doing any math.

[El Pollito]

wait so i haven't actually paid my loans? i'm confused