How to Calculate How Long I Will Have to Repay My Student Loan

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By eHow Contributing Writer

Article Rating: (4 Ratings)

When students graduate from college, one of their first worries is paying back the large amounts of student loans. Most loans have specific periods of time in which you have to pay them back. Here are some ways to determine how to calculate a student loan repayment period.

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Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

loan information
lender statements
loan documentation

Step 1

Gather the documentation of all your loans. If some are missing, contact the lender to reissue a statement.
Step 2

Find the total of all your loans. Double check to make sure this includes everything.
Step 3

Calculate yearly loan payments. Take the overall total of your loans and multiply it by your interest rate.
Step 4

Divide your yearly amount by 12 to find your monthly payments.
Step 5

Look into loan repayment plans. They include the income contingent plan, standard plan, extended plan and graduated plan.

Tips & Warnings

Income contingent plans have monthly payments that are adjusted each year according to your annual income, family size and total amount of direct loans. Once you've been paying for 25 years, any of the unpaid loan amounts will be forgiven.
Standard plans consist of fixed monthly payments up to 10 years.
Extended plans depend upon the total of your direct loans and have a fixed monthly payment for 12 to 30 years.
A graduated plan depends upon your direct loans as well. This plan starts with a lower payment that gradually increases over the repayment period.
You are allowed to change loan plans at any time without penalty if necessary.
Look into consolidation. This could reduce the interest rate and monthly payments.
Be sure to check your interest rate on each loan as it may differ, unless you had all loans consolidated into one.