I have about $10K left in student loans.. with 3 different creditors. I know I can pay the entire balance off by this June/July. My plan is to pay all three creditors all but $50 on each on.. so I will still owe a total of $150. These loans have GREAT history.. meaning no lates or anything. I just started paying this last year as well.. I am on the 5 year plan for each I believe. Now, my question is would this be the optimal way in doing this? I plan on paying the remaining $50 on each one maybe in about 3 years from now or so.. that way, the tradeline stays open for a few more years. Does anyone know for sure or does it not make a difference and I should just pay the entire balance by june/july? Thanks in advance everyone!
Re: student loans - best way t I would pay the balance off if I were you. I've heard that student loans don't make a big difference in your report - at least not like a regular installment loan does. I doubt they will let you do it the way you propose anyway. The way it works is: if you pay them that much, any amount over the payment due will be applied to your principal balance. The next month, you will still have your regular payment amount due, though it would be reduced to $50 if that's all you owe.
Re: student loans - best way t YOU MAY END UP WITH A MINIMUM PAYMENT OF $50.00 FOR THE FOLLOWING MONTH. Then if you don't pay it...30 days late...60 days late...90 days late...120 days late... JUST GUESSING I HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF STUDENT LOANS ~ ASK RONI?
Re: student loans - best way t Actually, you guys are wrong on that.. the past few notices I've received from all 3 creditors shows that the next payment due is March 2002 because I overpaid all of them and have been the past few times. There is actually a checkbox I can check if I want to make payments every month however.. but I never check that. Now, what do you guys think? Should I leave $50 on each to keep the tradelines open? I am assuming on the CR they will report: TOTAL BALANCE, TOTAL PAID, etc. but not really report how much I actually do a month.. so it won't really show. It will just show the length of time the installment loan has been open, how much has been paid, and how much is left.. so having this tradeline I figured would be beneficial - especially if I can have it for a few years as opposed to just 1 1/2 years.. what do you guys think?
Re: student loans - best way t Student loan payments don't help your credit. You can call up experian,TU, or equifax and ask them. I did , and they said its neutral, unless its late or in default. The reason , as best I understood it, was that the debt goes on forever....
Re: student loans - best way t IF YOU GET NO BENEFIT TOWARDS F.I.C.O. AND FUTURE CREDIT, I WOULD PAY IN FULL.
Re: student loans - best way t Credit reports also show your "most recent payment amount" so if you are paying $5 (or $0) a month on a $50 loan, it's not going to do much good anyway. Besides, as stated above, student loans don't make much difference on your report. They really are a different kind of trade line. They are guaranteed by the government, so you HAVE to pay them (therefore, to a lender the payment history isn't necessarily a good indicator of how you might pay an unsecured credit card, etc.) Also, 3 years payment history isn't going to do you much better than 1.5 years. At least not enough to justify the hassle of having that loan unpaid, taking a chance that it could somehow haunt you in the future. I think it would look much better to have that loan paid off in full.
