Well, it’s time again to do one of my favorite things: Write up a post on making a final debt payment. I did one for when I finally paid off my last credit card here and now I can do one for my Nelnet Student Loan. (I’m talking strictly the steps needed to take to pay off the loan. If you want to know How to Pay off debt, check out this post)
This loan and I have kind of had a rough history. When I first had to start paying back my student loans, I thought I only had 2, and didn’t know about this one until I got a missed payment note in the mail. Whoops! I remembered taking it out, but I had figured that it had been lumped in with my other loans. Unfortunately it wasn’t, and that is one thing that really bothers me about student loans. Many students have payee’s coming out their hind parts, and consolidation isnt always the right move. It wasn’t for me because I was planning on paying them off in a few years, and once I did that, it wouldn’t matter. I also had some very low interest rates on my student debt, and some were subsidized as well. I would rather just pay 1 person, but that’s just me.
With this loan specifically, I’ve gotten questions on it before regarding the payoff schedule. In short, a reader wanted to know what nelnet did if extra was paid on the loan. Short answer: They moved your next due date forward to get their (interest) money. He also asked me what happens when you pay off the loan. Here’s what I did to to pay it off. (I tried calling, but was told to go online)
First, you need to log in to your nelnet account. You should already know how to do this if you’ve been making payments to your loan thus far. Once you’re logged in, go to the My account tab, and you should see this:
As you can see, after I made the big payment at the beginning of this month, it pushed my due date into 2014. I don’t want this stupid little thing hanging over my head (and accruing interest) until then. I want to pay it off. Above the box, you’ll see I’ve circled the “click here” to obtain your 10 day payoff quote. Once you do that, it will take you to another page that will tell you how much you need to pay them in the next 10 days for them to consider the loan paid in full. It takes into account interest that has accrued on the loan that is outstanding, estimated interest over the 10 day period (I’m assuming this was more relevant when people paid bills by paper check and snail mail) and the current principal balance on the loan. Here’s what mine looks like:
So, I can happily say that I submitted the online payment on 10.21, and it has cleared the bank. Since this is the first student loan that I’ve ever paid off (but not the last, rrrrgh) I was curious as to what would happen next. Would I get a letter from the servicer saying that it has been paid off ? (Not sure, but I don’t think so) Would my credit report score improve? (not sure on that either) Would I have not sent the right amount and owe them something ridiculous like 32 cents? (not at all). After the payment clearing the account, here’s what my “My Account” section looks like:
I now have a $0 amount outstanding – it’s awesome! Here’s another shot of the group summary. This is what you’ll want to see when you’ve sent them the final payment. Notice on the “status” it says PIF by borrower, Paid In Full. Not sure why it still shows me needing to make a 38 dollar payment, though. Here’s the shot:
There is the process to pay off your student loans. Make sure to keep your focus and you’ll be here in no time! Good luck, and if you have any questions, contact me or leave them in the comments. I’d be happy to answer them.