Total monthly student loan payments: Total payments for all of your outstanding student loans. If the current payment total is less than the payment for your new consolidated loan, there will be no payment savings.
Total outstanding student loan debt: The total amount you owe on all of your student loan debt.
Interest rate for new consolidated loan: The annual interest rate for your new consolidated student loan
Term of new loan: The term in years for your new consolidated student loan is calculated as: 30 years for debt of $60,000 or more, 25 years for balances of $40,000 or more, 20 years for balances of $20,000 or more, 15 years for balances of $10,000 or more. Any balance under $10,000 has a term of 12 years.
New monthly student loan payment: This is your new calculated monthly payment for your consolidated student loans.
Monthly savings: This is the difference between your current student loan payments and your new consolidated loan payment. If the current payment total is less than the payment for your new consolidated loan, there will be no payment savings.
Additional payment: This dollar amount is in addition to your monthly minimum payments that you will use to pay down your nonstudent loan debt, such as credit card debt, auto loans and other loans. The higher this amount, the faster your debt will be paid off. We default this amount to be equal to your monthly payment savings from consolidation of your student loan debt. It is important that your additional payment is one that you can afford. For this reason, we allow you to adjust this amount higher or lower than your actual payment savings from consolidation. For this debt payoff strategy to be effective you must be consistent in your payments. Should you choose an amount that is too high, you may become discouraged if you are unable to meet your payment goal.
Credit cards: Enter up to four credit card accounts, one on each line.
Balance: Your current balance on your credit card.
Interest rates: The average annual percentage rate you pay. This interest rate is calculated for each of the categories of debt you have including credit cards, Auto Loans and other installment loans. For credit cards the rate you enter is used to calculate the interest on all future credit card payments. The length of time to pay off this credit card may be much greater than calculated if you enter a low promotional interest rate that is only good for a short period of time.
Auto loans: Click on the "details" button to input any auto loans you may have into the details page. This details page is designed to let you input your current balance, current monthly payment, and the interest rate for each loan. It then calculates your number of remaining payments. You can enter up to three installment loans.
Other loans: Click on the "details" button to input any additional installment loans you may have into the details page. This details page is designed to let you input your current balance, current monthly payment, and the interest rate for each loan. It then calculates your number of remaining payments. You can enter up to six installment loans.
Payment: This is your monthly payment. For credit cards, if you checked the "use credit card minimum payments" box, your monthly payment is calculated as 4 percent of your current outstanding balance. With the "use credit card minimum payments" box checked, your monthly payment will decrease as your balance is paid down. This can greatly increase the length of time it takes to pay off your credit cards. Uncheck this box to enter your own monthly payment that will remain the same until your balance is paid in full.
(We calculate your minimum monthly payment as 4 percent of your current outstanding balance. While your actual minimum monthly payment may be slightly different, this is one of the most common methods used by credit card companies to calculate minimum payments.)
Pay off highest rate first: Leave this box checked to have the calculator payoff your balance with the highest rate first. You can uncheck this box to see the results of an alternate payment method. The alternate method pays off your balances starting with the lowest balance.

* Consolidation extends your repayment term and may increase the total amount you will pay over the life of the loan.