How Do I Find Out How Much I Owe In Student Loans
It’s no secret that college is a major investment. But while most people think of tuition costs when they think about how much they paid for their education, there are other costs that add up quickly.
If you’re in the process of paying back your student loans, it can be hard to keep track of exactly how much money you’ve borrowed, let alone how much you still owe. Here’s a breakdown of where to find the information:
- Federal Student Aid Website
The U.S. Department of Education maintains a website called “Student Financial Aid” that has all kinds of useful information about student loans. On this website, you can find out what types of loans you’ve taken out and what kind of repayment plan you have in place (if any). You can also determine if any of your loans have been forgiven or discharged due to circumstances beyond your control—for example, if you became disabled after graduation and were not able to work enough hours to repay them on time. The website also has an “estimate calculator” tool that helps calculate how much money will be due each month based on current interest rates and other factors including whether or not there are any deferments or forbearances currently in effect for any particular loan(s). This
How Do I Find Out How Much I Owe In Student Loans
Whether you are in the midst of your college career, just graduated or have been out of school for a while, knowing the most up-to-date information on the total amount of student loans you borrowed and how much you now owe is important for many reasons.
Knowing your student loan balances and payment obligations – such as due dates and the minimum amount due every month – will play a big part in your overall financial wellness. For example, it is important to understand that the loan amounts originally borrowed are likely not the same amount owed over time due to the type, length and terms of your loans, particularly federal student loans where unpaid interest accrued and was added to the principal, called capitalization.
For recent graduates, depending on your specific financial situation, knowing current information about grace period policies gives you time to develop an overall financial plan that works for your budget. For borrowers who are several years out of school and into a career, keeping documentation about each student loan’s balance and repayment schedule can help you manage monthly payments along with other debt and expenses.
Additionally, getting a clear understanding of the makeup of your student loan portfolio is beneficial if you have taken out a mix of federal student loans and private student loans through the years.
For borrowers looking to keep track of how much they owe and who to contact about their student loan balances, as well as other critical information, here are some helpful resources.
Where to Find How Much You Owe in Federal Student Loans
For federal student loans, the best place for borrowers to start is the U.S. Department of Education’s National Student Loan Data System, or NSLDS. Once you create a Federal Student Aid ID – or log in using your existing FSA ID – you get secure access to this national database of information about federal student loans and grants awarded to you under Title IV of the federal Higher Education Act.
Due to the sensitivity of personal information on the site, keep your username and password in a safe location, such as a secure password file.
The NSLDS centralized listing is a one-stop resource for the complete life cycle of all federal student loans you took out, from approval through disbursement, repayment, deferment, delinquency and payoff, when applicable.
The portal will display how much you borrowed, the type of each loan and interest rate, payment history and the current servicer or holder for each loan, meaning the company that currently administers your account and receives your payments. The database also provides information about any federal grants you received while in school.
The system receives data from schools, agencies that guarantee the loans, the federal direct loan program and other Department of Education programs.
Where to Find Out What You Owe in Private Student Loans
While there is no centralized website for private student loan information, there are resources that can help these borrowers understand how much they owe.
Start with your credit report, which tracks current and past credit obligations including private and federal student loans. At AnnualCreditReport.com, you can get a free copy of your credit report once a year from each of the three national credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Each report will list the amounts you borrowed and the loan servicers or holders, as well as your credit score calculated by that bureau.
forbearance vs deferment
Both allow you to temporarily postpone or reduce your federal student loan payments.
The main difference is if you are in deferment, no interest will accrue to your loan balance. If you are in forbearance, interest WILL accrue on your loan balance.
If you have a loan, especially a student loan or a mortgage, there may come a time when you aren’t able to keep up with your payments. But there are options when it comes to repayment relief, including one called a forbearance and one called a deferment. Both can involve temporarily postponing or pausing (or temporarily lowering) loan payments.
But there can be a crucial difference between the two, and it’s whether the interest on the loan stops accruing (accumulating) or continues accruing while regular payments are on pause. That’s a big difference, and it can add up to a lot of money.
Luckily, we’re here to loan you our expertise—interest-free—and provide an easy-to-understand breakdown of exactly what both options mean, including specific examples of how each works in terms of mortgages and student loans.
What is forbearance?
Forbearance is “a form of repayment relief granted by a lender that temporarily postpones payments due from a borrower, while interest on the loan typically continues to accrue.” Let’s break that down. The lender is the one providing the loan—the bank or institution loaning the money. The borrower is the one receiving the loan—the one responsible for paying it back.
When a borrower is not able to keep up with their regular payments, the lender may offer the option of a forbearance, meaning that the borrower can pause payments for a temporary period of time. But the terms of a forbearance usually require interest to keep accruing on the balance that’s owed. This means that a forbearance can result in an increase in the final amount required to be paid.
Let’s look at a simplified example involving student loans. Say you have $10,000 in student loans, and you’re paying a 1% interest rate per month. At the end of the first month of forbearance, the total loan amount you need to pay back will actually be $10,100, because the interest has continued to build up. And it will be even more with each subsequent month, as the interest rate is applied to the balance (in accordance with the specific terms of the loan).
Or, say that you have a $250,000 mortgage. Let’s keep it simple and set the interest at a monthly rate of 1%. Your lender may allow you to temporarily stop payments on your mortgage, such as after the loss of a job. At the end of the first month of a forbearance, your new balance will be $252,500, due to the accrued interest.
The terms of a forbearance vary for different types of loans and different lenders.
Outside of finance, forbearance has other, more general meanings related to self-control and refraining from doing things.
What is deferment?
In the context of loans, deferment often refers to a pause on payments during which interest does not continue to accrue. In other words, a deferment allows you to temporarily stop making payments on your debt without the interest continuing to pile up. The word deferral is sometimes used in the same way. Taking this option is sometimes called deferring a loan.
In the student loan and mortgage examples above, if you were granted a deferment of your loan payments, you would still owe the same amount ($10,000 or $250,000) whenever you were able to resume payments. Your loan would neither grow nor shrink—it would be temporarily frozen.
Sometimes, lenders use the word deferment in other ways. For example, it’s sometimes used to refer to an option that follows a forbearance, in which the skipped payments are set aside to be paid after the rest of the loan has been paid.
Like forbearance, the word deferment has other, more general meanings outside of finance, but it usually involves the postponement of something.
What is the difference between forbearance and deferment?
Forbearance and deferment can both refer to temporary pauses on debt payment, but forbearance usually involves the continued accumulation of interest, while deferment does not. If this is the case, and you have a choice between deferment and forbearance, it obviously makes sense to choose deferment when all other terms are equal.
However, the terms can be used differently by different lenders and for different types of loans. Sometimes, an option may involve both forbearance and deferment. And sometimes, such options come with other catches, such as a change in credit status. It’s always important to know the exact terms before entering into any agreement.
You can see if you qualify for student loan deferment or forbearance at StudentAid.gov.