How to pay down your student loans faster
If you want to get out of student loan debt but aren’t ready to fully pay off your loan, you can do it by paying a little extra each month. Making extra payments, along with your regular monthly payments, may reduce the total amount you pay for your loan or help pay your student loan off faster.
You don’t need to make an extra payment every single month to pay down your student loan faster—do it whenever your budget allows. The easiest way to do this is to make a one-time payment online, by phone, or by mail.
Paying extra will also reduce the Current Amount Due shown on your next billing statement(s). Even if there’s no required amount due on the billing statement, continuing to make payments will reduce your Total Loan Cost.
Note: If you’re enrolled in auto debit or have requested the pay-ahead feature for your loans to be turned off, the Current Amount Due will not be reduced in the following billing period(s).
Examples of paying more every month
Assume you have a student loan with a Current Balance of $10,000, at an interest rate of 8.0%, and a repayment term of 10 years.
If you pay your amount due every month
- You’ll make 119 monthly payments of $121.32, with a final payment of $119.89.
- You’ll pay off your student loan in 10 years and you’ll pay a total of $14,556.97.
If you pay an extra $20 a month
- You’ll make 96 monthly payments of $141.32 with a final payment of $7.10.
- You’ll pay off your student loan in 8 years and one month—almost 2 years earlier than with the standard repayment term and you’ll save $983.15.
See how additional payments are allocated and applied
Paying off your student loan
Ready to pay off your student loan completely? Congratulations! To do this, you’ll need your final payoff amount.
Interest accrues daily, so today’s Current Balance won’t include all of the interest or fees through the payoff date.
When you’re ready to pay off your student loan in full, call us at 800-472-5543 (800-4-SALLIE), and we’ll give you your final payoff amount.