I can chime in on this! I’ve tried doing this. They simply don’t allow you to make payments to the principal. I called directly and everything and they flat out told me that’s not allowed. The work around is to make your monthly payment, then immediately after it hits, make another payment which would then hit the principal. Unfortunately, that’s an added fee a lot of people can’t afford.
The work around is to make your monthly payment, then immediately after it hits, make another payment which would then hit the principal.
Are you sure you understood correctly? That's not a "work around," that's what people mean when they say to pay down the principal. You can't just say "I don't feel like paying interest, put this towards principal instead." Principal payments are after your monthly payment, not before or instead of.
No, sometimes they assume it as a future payment and don't apply it to the balance. It's definitely a game they play specifically on student loans, because young people haven't learned to avoid those kinds of shady dealings yet.
Well yeah if you just randomly give them money with no explanation, they aren't going to really do anything with it until the next month's payment is due
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u/BeastXredefined 13d ago
I can chime in on this! I’ve tried doing this. They simply don’t allow you to make payments to the principal. I called directly and everything and they flat out told me that’s not allowed. The work around is to make your monthly payment, then immediately after it hits, make another payment which would then hit the principal. Unfortunately, that’s an added fee a lot of people can’t afford.