- Total current student loan monthly payments
- Total payments for all of your outstanding student loans. If the current payment total is less than the payment for your new consolidated loan, there will be no payment savings.
- Student loan debt
- The total amount you owe on all of your student loan debt.
- Interest rate for new consolidated loan
- The annual interest rate for your new consolidated student loan
- Term of new loan
- The term in years for your new consolidated student loan is calculated as: 30 Years for debt of $60,000 or more, 25 years for balances of $40,000 or more, 20 years for balances of $20,000 or more, 15 years for balances of $10,000 or more. Any balance under $10,000 has a term of 12 years.
- New monthly student loan payment
- This is your new calculated monthly payment for your consolidated student loans.
- Monthly savings
- This is the difference between your current student loan payments and your new consolidated loan payment. If the current payment total is less than the payment for your new consolidated loan, there will be no payment savings.
- Additional payment
- This dollar amount is in addition to your monthly minimum payments that you will use to pay down your non-student loan debt, such as credit card debt, auto loans and other loans. The higher this amount, the faster your debt will be paid off. The tool defaults this amount to be equal to your monthly payment savings from consolidation of your student loan debt. It is important that your additional payment is one that you can afford. For this reason, the tool allows you to adjust this amount higher or lower than your actual payment savings from consolidation. For this debt payoff strategy to be effective you must be consistent in your payments. Should you choose an amount that is too high, you may become discouraged if you are unable to meet your payment goal.
- Pay off highest rate first
- Leave this box checked to have the calculator pay off your balance with the highest rate first. You can uncheck this box to see the results of an alternate payment method. The alternate method pays off your balances starting with the lowest balance.
- Use minimum payment
- If you checked the "use credit card minimum payments" box, your monthly payment is calculated as 4% of your current outstanding balance. With the "use credit card minimum payments" box checked, your monthly payment will decrease as your balance is paid down. This can greatly increase the length of time it takes to pay off your credit cards. Uncheck this box to enter your own monthly payment that will remain the same until your balance is paid in full.
(The tool calculates your minimum monthly payment as 4% of your current outstanding balance. While your actual minimum monthly payment may be slightly different, this is one of the most common methods used by credit card companies to calculate minimum payments.)
- Credit Card Balance
- Your total current balance for this credit card.
- Credit Card Interest rate
- The annual percentage rate you pay for this credit card. The rate you enter is used to calculate the interest on all future credit card payments. The length of time to pay off this credit card may be much greater than calculated if you enter a low promotional interest rate that is only good for a short period of time.
- Credit Card Payment
- This is your initial monthly payment. If you checked the "use credit card minimum payments" box, your monthly payment is calculated as 4% of your current outstanding balance. With the "use credit card minimum payments" box checked, your monthly payment will decrease as your balance is paid down. This can greatly increase the length of time it takes to pay off your credit cards. Uncheck this box to enter your own monthly payment that will remain the same until your balance is paid in full.
(The tool calculates your minimum monthly payment as 4% of your current outstanding balance. While your actual minimum monthly payment may be slightly different, this is one of the most common methods used by credit card companies to calculate minimum payments.)
- Loan balance
- Your total current balances for an installment loan.
- Loan interest rates
- The annual percentage rate you pay for this loan. Enter the current interest rate for this loan. This calculator assumes your rate will remain the same for the entire repayment period. The tool uses this to calculate the interest you will pay on this loan and the number of payments that are remaining.
- Loan payment
- This is your monthly payment. Enter the actual monthly payment for your loan. The tool uses this to determine your payment totals and to calculate the remaining payments.
- Remaining loan payments
- This is the calculated number of payments remaining for this loan. It is based on your current balance, payment and interest rate.
