Navient - Can I increase minimum payments?

[Anonymous]

Hi Community,

Reading around here and there, I noticed some people mentioning that monthly payments can be altered.  I'm not talking about lowering my payment through an income-driven plan - rather the opposite.  I want to get rid of these loans.

I currently have two subsidized and two unsubsidized federal loans left with Navient with a total minimum monthly payment of about $225.  I would like to bump it up to about $1,000 a month.  Currently, autopay only matches the minimum monthly and will not go any higher - so I have to log in every month to make the additional payment.

Before I call Navient, I was wondering if any of you have done this recently and what the effects are.  First of all: Can I do this?  Second: How quickly does it take effect?  And third: Will my credit report show any changes?  (Some things that came to mind: AAoA reset?  I know it's not a consolidation, but I'm just being cautious - I've had these loans since around 2011-2014.  And will the bureaus visually show the increased minimum payments on my reports resulting in a change to my DTI?  I assume so?)

Thanks in advance.

[SCF]

There are no prepayment penalties on student loans, so you can feel free to pay extra in order to pay off the loan sooner.  Doing this will reduce the amount of interest you pay each month as the principal is reduced.

What do you mean by "take effect"?  You can choose to make an extra payment at any time.  If the servicer's website won't allow a change to your auto-pay amount, then you could just set up an automatic payment from your bank to the servicer for the extra amount so that you don't have to worry about it each month.

Your credit report will reflect the decreasing balance on the loan, but there won't be any other changes.  Paying extra on your loan also doesn't change your average age of accounts or reset the age of a particular account.  AAoA is based only on when each account was opened.

Your DTI is generally measured by comparing your required minimum payments with your monthly income.  Since paying extra on your loans doesn't change your minimum payment, the payment amount shown on your credit report and your DTI  won't change (by most standards, some lenders or formulas might look at your total amount owed vs. income, but I don't think this is very common).

[Anonymous]

Hi SCF.  I was inquiring to see if anyone had contacted Navient and requested that their actual, stated "minimum monthly payment" amount be increased.  

As of now, their autopay system will only use the minimum monthly payment amount - a mere $225 a month for me since its on a 10-year repayment schedule.  There's no way to alter that stated amount through their portal.

For the last year or so, I have been logging onto the website every month to make an extra $1,000 payment.  My goal is to request that Navient increase my stated minimum monthly payment amount so that I would not have to continue my monthly ritual - autopay would take over that task;  however, I don't know what the implications are - if any - with such requests.  (Implications being: AAoA, DTI, etc.)

Hope that clarified it a bit more?

I've never set up bank automated payments - I'll look into that.

[SCF]

I don't think it will be possible to change the minimum payment amount.  With federal loans your repayment amount is calculated by the payment plan you choose - unless a particular payment plan would result in the minimum payment you want, you have to choose from among the available plans.  With a private loan, the payment amount is dictated by the terms of your loan agreement, and generally it cannot change except in specific circumstances (for instance, if you have a variable interest rate).

You could refinance your loan to a loan with a shorter repayment period (and therefore higher payment), but that seems like a lot of work to accomplish the same thing as simply setting up an automatic payment through your bank.  It also gives you far less flexibility if you have financial difficulties.  With your current situation, you could subtantially reduce your payment if you needed to.

[Mantis350]

You can just hit the pay now button and pay the extra $775 whenever you'd like.  The balance will report to the CRAs the next time the bill cuts.  Make sure you apply it to principle. 

[Anonymous]

Well, are you trying to pay off these loan early? These are standard payment for 120 months.

Question, if you are trying to make your credit report better, I would suggest consolidating because it would payoff those 4 loans and your credit report will show paid in full. Now, your paymentsite my best lower depending on your income and family size.

[Stylez]

Your minimum payments are based on the interest rate, amount owed, and length of the loan. So some combination of that needs to change. It's not a good idea to increase your minimum payments. When it comes to lending decisions, they look at credit score and cash flow. If your minumum payment goes from $225 to $1,000, potentinal lenders will see you as having dramactically less cash flow. Your best best is just to manually make the extra payment. You get the same effect in terms of paying of your loan faster, and lenders will see your loan as taking up only $225 a month instead of $1,000.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi Community,

Reading around here and there, I noticed some people mentioning that monthly payments can be altered.  I'm not talking about lowering my payment through an income-driven plan - rather the opposite.  I want to get rid of these loans.

I currently have two subsidized and two unsubsidized federal loans left with Navient with a total minimum monthly payment of about $225.  I would like to bump it up to about $1,000 a month.  Currently, autopay only matches the minimum monthly and will not go any higher - so I have to log in every month to make the additional payment.

Before I call Navient, I was wondering if any of you have done this recently and what the effects are.  First of all: Can I do this?  Second: How quickly does it take effect?  And third: Will my credit report show any changes?  (Some things that came to mind: AAoA reset?  I know it's not a consolidation, but I'm just being cautious - I've had these loans since around 2011-2014.  And will the bureaus visually show the increased minimum payments on my reports resulting in a change to my DTI?  I assume so?)

Thanks in advance.

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I cannot remmember exactly what I did, I think I called them and set up a payement plan over the phone, but they were able to take more than minimum payment.  I paid $100 over every month (they charged me $5 for this for some reason) .  Anyway, I did this for almost a year and I lost my job.  I called them to see if I could lower my payemnts back to minimum and they told me since I had paid so far ahead that I didnt have to make payments until April (This month) and they were not wrong.  I started paying again last month and on my report I never missed one payment.   

Call them, they are great to work with.