Paying for college with student loans has become the norm, but unfortunately things can get confusing quickly when you take on educatee debt. That's because most students don't become merelyone pupil loan -- they get new student loans for each semester or school yr and have a mix of dissimilar kinds of federal and private educatee loans. Those balances add together up fast, so much and then that the average student loan residuum after graduation was $28,650 in 2017.

When you lot accept multiple student loans to pay, and multiple different loan servicers to bargain with, information technology's like shooting fish in a barrel to lose track of the total loan remainder you owe. The problem is, unless you know what your loan residue is, it'south really hard to make a payoff plan or even estimate what your monthly payments volition be. In a worst-case scenario, paying some of your loans could slip through the cracks and you could end up tardily in making loan payments.

You'll want to make certain you lot know your total student loan remainder then you don't terminate up making costly mistakes -- simply how exactly can yous figure out the full you owe? In that location are a few different steps you may need to take depending on what kinds of debt you've taken on.

How to figure out your full student loan balance

To effigy out the full amount you owe in student loans, you'll need to find both your outstanding federal pupil loan balance too as the total corporeality you owe in individual student loans.

Determining your federal student loan balance

In that location are ii ways to detect out the total balance of your federal pupil loans: You lot can sign into your My Federal Student Assistance account and check your total loan balances, or you can sign onto the National Student Loan Information System (NSLDS). The NSLDS is a database used past the Department of Education to keep rail of all outstanding federal loans, including subsidized and unsubsidized loans.

To sign into either of these websites, you'll need a username and password. You lot can create one on either website, but you may already have i for your My Federal Educatee Assistance account. The same username and password will be used on the NSLDS site as well.

While these websites will tell you your federal student loan residue for each outstanding loan you accept, chances are good you besides owe individual lenders. Many students have out private loans once they've exhausted their bachelor federal funding. These loans won't be listed in the NSLDS or on your My Federal Pupil Aid account.

Determining your private student loan residue

There are two means to find out how much you owe in full private loans. You could call your schoolhouse's financial help role and request a listing. But if you lot attended more than one school -- say if yous have undergrad and grad school loans -- y'all'll need to contact all of the different educational institutions you attended.

You could likewise bank check your credit report, which will list your full outstanding debt balance for all your loans. You tin get a free copy of your credit written report from each of the iii major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion). Yous're entitled to one gratuitous credit report each year from each of these reporting agencies and tin request that report at AnnualCreditReport.com.

By checking your credit and the NSLDS database, you can go a comprehensive list of each lender you owe. You'll likewise find out the highest balance on each loan, too as the current balance. But you lot should contact private private lenders -- or bank check your online accounts -- to find out loan rates and other terms, such every bit monthly payment amounts due.

How to keep track of your full student loan residual

Attributable multiple lenders makes tracking repayment complicated, and so it's helpful to have a comprehensive listing. Your list should include:

  • The proper name of the lender
  • The type of loan (federal Directly Subsidized Loans, federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans, federal PLUS Loans, or individual pupil loans)
  • The outstanding balance due
  • The monthly payment
  • The interest rate

You lot tin can apply a simple spreadsheet to tape all of this information. Apps such as Mint tin can also assistance you lot keep rail of your loan balances, but won't ever provide all of the details about every loan, such as your involvement rate.

Making a list that you update each fourth dimension you make a payment or if loan terms change -- such as when you switch to a different federal repayment plan -- will allow you to see at a glance how you're doing on debt repayment. You can besides refer to your list when deciding if you should make extra payments on any of your loans.

Refinancing and consolidating could simplify the repayment process

If y'all are frustrated with keeping rail of multiple student loans serviced by different lenders, you may desire to refinance and consolidate your debt.

Consolidation loans are actually a specific type of loan you can get from the Department of Education to scroll all of your existing federal loans into one large loan. When you consolidate using a Direct Consolidation Loan from the Section of Educational activity, your new loan volition have an interest rate equal to a weighted boilerplate of your sometime rates. In other words, y'all won't alter the total amount of involvement you pay on your loans merely by consolidating. Straight Consolidation Loans tin can give you admission to unlike payment plans, and you'll accept just 1 big loan to pay down.

Information technology's as well possible to refinance loans with a individual lender. Y'all tin refinance just your private loans, taking one new loan to pay them all off. Or y'all tin can refinance both private and federal loans in one big loan. While this solution may seem simplest, you lot lose many important borrower protections by refinancing federal loans -- including flexibility in repayment, deferment and forbearance options, and loan forgiveness options. So before you brand this move, you demand to consider all you lot're giving up by refinancing to but ane loan.

If y'all tin refinance to a lower charge per unit loan, you tin can save substantial interest costs. And having just one lender for all your loans definitely makes life a lot easier.

Figure out your student loan balance today

Use your My Federal Educatee Aid account or the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) to notice out how much you owe in federal loans and visit AnnualCreditReport.com or call your schoolhouse's financial aid office to find out your individual loan remainder. Once you know your current balance, proceed tabs on what you owe to each lender so you lot tin can make a payoff plan and monitor your progress towards becoming free of your educatee debt burden.