Work out your student loan payment, see how much extra payments save, and estimate what you will owe when you graduate.
Give any three values and leave the fourth empty to find it.
Compare paying it off normally, with extra payments, or all at once. The balance, payment and rate are on your monthly bill.
Estimate the balance and repayment after graduation. Meant for people still in school or about to start.
A student loan is repaid in monthly payments, much like any other loan. Interest builds up each month on the remaining balance, and each payment covers that interest first and then reduces the principal. Early in the loan most of each payment is interest, and the share going to principal grows over time. The simple calculator works out any one of the balance, term, rate or payment from the other three.
Extra payments go straight to the principal, so they cut the interest charged in every later month. The repayment calculator shows what a regular extra amount each month, a larger sum each year or a single lump sum would do. It reports the new payoff date, the time saved and the interest saved. Even a modest amount, paid steadily, can take years off a long loan. Check with your loan servicer that extra payments are applied to the principal.
While you are in school, an unsubsidized or private loan can add interest to the balance. If you do not pay that interest, it builds up and is added to the balance, and the same happens during any grace period after you leave school. This is why the amount you owe at the start of repayment can be much more than the amount you borrowed. The projection calculator estimates that balance, the monthly payment that follows and the total interest. Choose to pay the interest during school and the balance stays at what you borrowed.
A grace period is a set time after you leave school before repayment begins, often six months on federal loans. Interest may still build up during that time, which raises your balance, so the calculator adds it before working out the payment.
Paying the interest while you study stops it being added to the balance, so you start repayment owing only what you borrowed and pay less in total. If you cannot afford it, the interest is added to the loan instead.
Interest is charged on the balance still owed. An extra payment lowers the balance right away, so less interest is charged every month after that. The calculator shows the interest saved against the normal schedule.
If your payment is no larger than the interest that builds up each month, the balance never falls and the loan cannot be paid off. Raise the payment above the monthly interest to get a payoff time.
It uses a fixed interest rate and equal payments, so it fits most federal and private student loans on standard repayment. It does not model income-driven plans, deferment or forgiveness.
Pick another tool to jump straight to it.