Direct Payment

[SyntheticMemories]

I have the following student loans:

Federal Direct Consolidated: Payments start next month and under the IBR plan they will be zero! (yay, plus it counts towards the PSLF program!) (28,060)

Private Loan through AES: Payments start 9/10            55.00 (not official) (8,052)

Private Loan through AES; Payments start 9/10          175.00 (not offical) (22,938)

Private Loan through Wells Fargo: start 7/11                 50.03                      (5,428)

Private Loan through Sallie Mae: start 12/8                   30.43                       (3,335)

Private Loan through Sallie Mae: start 12/8                   37.11                       (3,675

Private Loan through Sallie Mae: start 12/8                   50.00 (not offical)  (3,503) 

Total of about $397 a month. This is lower than my car payment(which will be paid off in Aug.) I make about $1,300 a month. 

My question is: should I sign up for direct deposit on these? Should I just send the money through Bill pay through my bank? OR what? I've heard of people not giving there bank information to these companies and I wasn't sure what I should do. I don't forsee myself getting into any kind of trouble...with them (even though 397 a month is killer!) 

[2NE1]

From my understanding, when I spoke with a SallieMae CSR, she said that if you sign up for direct payments for 12 months straight without getting the checks bounce, they lower your APR by some percent. Same if you do for next 12 months and so on.

[lolabelle]

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@2NE1 wrote:
From my understanding, when I spoke with a SallieMae CSR, she said that if you sign up for direct payments for 12 months straight without getting the checks bounce, they lower your APR by some percent. Same if you do for next 12 months and so on.

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+1

There are often APR incentives with auto-draft.  It's definitely worth a call to your lenders.  

On a personal note, I have two lenders and I do auto-draft with both, even the lender that doesn't offer any incentives.  It's really great to not have to think about making the payment each month.  

[Anonymous]

I strongly suggest setting up autodraft, you can always cancel it. You never want to miss a payment on your loans, and also as fellow members have said, you do get a discount. Also- I should add, if you do get a little more money and can afford just a little more, see if you can put more towards the principle half way through the month. Your interest compounds all the way through the month. if you make another payment half way through, you will eat interest and some of the principle. My perkins loan was once every 3 MONTHS! I called and had them change it to monthly, so interest isn't building over three months. If you organize your loans by APR, and pay more on the one with the highest, you will save the most on interest. This is very unsolicited advice, but I am so glad I learned this and I hope it helps you!