Making payments on currently differed student loans.

[redwalker2929]

If I begin to make payment on my differed student loans will it help raise my fico??

I know I will save money in interest and the overall balance will be lowered but will the fico system acknowledge that I'm making payments?

[JM-AM]

IME having your school loans deferred kept them from being calculated into your scores. If you start paying and it is reported it may help your scores but it also may hurt your scores depending on the rest of your credit profile. 

[laz98]

i have not noticed a difference in my scores between periods of repayment & periods of deferment.  i don't think it would help OR hurt you.

[Tazman81]

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@laz98 wrote:

i have not noticed a difference in my scores between periods of repayment & periods of deferment.  i don't think it would help OR hurt you.

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+1.  I have not noticed a difference in my scores with making payments on loans whether they are deferred or not deferred.  I recommend going ahead and making payments to save on that interest in a long run.  If you have subsidized & unsubsidized federal loans, I recommend paying on the unsubsidized ones first since you are paying for the interest on those.  So, keep them in deferrment, and start making payments.  Try to pay religiously each month, but as long as they are in deferrment, if you have to miss a month, then there is no harm.  Believe me, I wish I could go back a few years and have made payments on mine.  :-)

[chia04]

Sorry to reopen an old post, but is there away to ensure your payments go towards the unsubsidized portion.  I'm currently looking for a part-time job and if I'm hired somewhere (have had several interviews, here's hoping), I'd like to start making payments on those loans.  When I go to my DL servicing site it shows a single loan combining both subsidized and unsubsidized?

[Tazman81]

@Chia04:  Who is holding your student loans?  And when you start working, will they be in repayment, or are they still deferred?

[laz98]

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@chia04 wrote:

Sorry to reopen an old post, but is there away to ensure your payments go towards the unsubsidized portion.  I'm currently looking for a part-time job and if I'm hired somewhere (have had several interviews, here's hoping), I'd like to start making payments on those loans.  When I go to my DL servicing site it shows a single loan combining both subsidized and unsubsidized?

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are they somehow coded differently?  for example, my sallie mae loans are coded as 1-01, 1-02, 1-03, etc.  so i could mail a payment & specify that particular loan.

[chia04]

They are still deferred until about 2015.  I have one Sallie Mae loan which I pay seperately, but all of the rest are held by Direct Loans.  I looked a little more closely and it does break them down by loan 1 versus 2, but the online payment doesn't allow you to specify that payment goes towards unsubsidized.  I hadn't though of mailing in a payment, which shows how focused I am on online banking and payments.

[laz98]

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@chia04 wrote:

They are still deferred until about 2015.  I have one Sallie Mae loan which I pay seperately, but all of the rest are held by Direct Loans.  I looked a little more closely and it does break them down by loan 1 versus 2, but the online payment doesn't allow you to specify that payment goes towards unsubsidized.  I hadn't though of mailing in a payment, which shows how focused I am on online banking and payments.

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sallie mae's online payment system doesn't allow you to specify either.  or at least, i haven't been able to figure out how

i do everything possible to pay things online, but sometimes it just isn't possible.  i have to either find a workaround or just suck it up & mail the payment

[Tazman81]

I use my bill pay from my Credit Union and it still send it to them electronically.  This is how I have mine setup.  For the below, notice the difference in the account number.  This way I can pick and choose what loan I want to pay.  If I want to send a "normal" payment that goes to all of the loans, I do my bill pay to the Sallie Mae Billing Group that I have setup.  If I want to send money to the unsubsidized loans, then I just choose that one.  Of course, as I've gotten a couple more Sallie Mae loans last year, I had to add more to my list.  But it's been working like a charm for me.

Sallie Mae (Billing Group) xxxxx

Sallie Mae Subsidized      xxxxx-01

Sallie Mae Unsubsidized xxxxx-02

Sallie Mae Subsidized   xxxxxx-03

etc....