Here We Go Again… Student Loan Update – Down Another Grand

Before I even begin this entry let me reiterate what I wrote last month about my student loan repayment plans – I don’t plan on increasing my focus on the USDOE student loan until the end of this coming summer. And even at that, I’m still not entirely convinced that I’m going to engage in the same type of extreme repayment like I did with the NJHESAA student loan. More on that in the coming months…

The purpose of this entry is to report that my student loan debt is down another thousand bucks as of Monday when I used the USDOE’s online payment system to send in some extra cash to pay down this loan’s balance. I’m a big fan of the USDOE’s online payment system primarily because it’s free, but also because it’s very simple and easy to use. In fact, when I wrote that great entry about repaying my NJHESAA student loan, I talked about why I liked the USDOE online payment system. Here is the blurb that I wrote at the time:

And the other part about the USDOE Direct Loans Program that I love is how their online payment system doesn’t charge any additional fees to make a payment! A borrower logs online, makes a payment, only pays the amount of the payment, and that’s it! No additional fees. Period. Much different from the online payment system over at NJHESAA. For almost a year I’ve been on the USDOE’s automatic debit plan where they take an ACH transfer from my checking account each month to make the monthly payment that is due. I’m going to stay on that plan and then make some additional payments here and there to bring down the total amount of principal outstanding on this loan.

In any event, there is no further update on my remaining student loan at this time. Clearly, the next big “goal” to reach in repaying this loan is to break $50 thousand left outstanding in principal. Ideally, I’ll be able to get down to that level soon, but – again – I’m not putting a date on when that will happen just yet. Soon enough, I’m sure. Soon enough…

In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. After completely repaying over $61 thousand in student loans from the federal Perkins loan program, the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, and CitiBank, I currently owe $53 thousand to the United States Department of Education’s Direct Loans program. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.