If you have received a notification or letter requesting directions on how you would like payments applied, you will only need to take action if you are not enrolled in Auto Pay and are intending on making extra payments toward your loan. An extra payment is any amount received that is more than the past due amount (if applicable) plus the current amount due. When an extra payment is made, and you are not enrolled in Auto Pay, you have the option to either “advance your due date” or apply the payment towards your loan balance. This allows clients the flexibility of paying ahead on their loans or paying down their loan balances faster.
What does “advance your due date” mean?
Extra payments will be applied toward any interest that has accrued since your last payment, and the remaining amount applied toward your principal balance. Advancing your due date, however, is the ability to extend your upcoming payment due date to future months. For example, if your monthly amount due is $100 and you make a payment of $500, you will not have a payment due for the next 4 months. This is because $100 would go towards your current amount due, and $400 would be applied as payments for the next 4 months. Please keep in mind that your current monthly minimum payment amount must be satisfied in order to be paid ahead. This means that if you were to make a payment of $450, you would have a payment due in 3 months since the $100 threshold was met for only 3 additional months. The remaining $50 would be applied to your principal balance for the current month.
It’s important to note when paying ahead, you agree to make a principal-only payment towards your next billing cycle(s) since you cannot pay interest that has yet to accrue and interest will continue to accrue on the borrowed balance during the paid ahead months. This means that if you are paid ahead for 4 months and don’t make any payments during this period, you will have 4 months' worth of interest accrue by the time you make your next payment. If you enroll in Auto Pay while paid ahead, your next Auto Payment will become due immediately.
How do I change my billing direction?
If you are making your payments manually and have received a letter in the mail, you can let us know your billing preference by sending it back to the address listed on the notice. If you have not received a notice and would like to make adjustments, please feel free to let our team know by clicking on the “Get In Touch” button at the bottom of the page.