The Best Student Loan Calculators You Can Find Online
Kiddies and students, it’s that time of the year again! Time for you to figure out your student loans. Don’t we all just love begging the state for money that’s slowly gaining interest as time goes on, possibly throwing you into student debt for the rest of your life? No? How’re you going to pay for college?!
Okay, for the people who do have student loans and want to get a student loan so you don’t drown in payments, here’s a ton of student loan calculators for you. Some of these student loan calculators are pretty straightforward, and don’t require a ton of information. Some of the other student loan calculators require a bit more information like if you’re legally married, your discretionary income from REPAYE, and a few other informational bits.
Other than that, let’s get into all of these student loan calculators!
1. Calculator.net
The first website contains three different student loan calculators. They feature student loan calculators for an Amortized Loan, a Deferred Payment Loan, and a Bond.
Definitions! An amortized loan means paying fixed payments that are paid periodically until loan maturity.
A deferred payment loan means you pay a single lump sum payment at loan maturity.
And a bond is a predetermined lump sum paid at loan maturity.
For the amortized loan calculator, you need your loan amount, loan term, interest rate, compound, and pay back. The deferred payment loan calculator needs loan amount, loan term, interest rate, and compound. And for the bond calculator, you need the predetermined due amount, compound, interest rate, and loan term.
2. FinAid.org
The good thing is about this website is that there’s only one calculator. However, it does require a fair bit of information. This student calculator requires you to have your loan amount, interest rate, loan term, loan fees, and the minimum payment.
As you read on, you’re going to learn that most, if not all student loan calculators, are usually going to require the loan amount, loan term, and interest rate. Those are the most common forms of information for all of these student loan calculators.
3. BankRate.com
BankRate.com provides you with a pretty basic, easy to understand calculator. You just need a loan amount, the loan term in years (or months), and the interest rate per year. Pretty simple right?
What makes this website stand out a bit from the rest of the student loan calculators is that it actually has a ton of helpful information about how much your should borrow, facts about student loans, and some other student loan resources!
For example, did you know that student borrowing from their college only comprises 13% of the total cost, while borrowing from parents only comprises of 7%? This is according to a 2016 student loan report by a student loan company called Sallie Mae.
4. StudentAid.gov
Ah, the financial aid website. We’re sure you’re familiar with this one. Here, you get all your aid. And here is also where you cry because guess what? They have three different student loan calculators! On their website they call them Loan Simulators, but we think you get the idea.
They have a calculator for finding the best repayment strategy, one for when you’re struggling with payments, and one to simulate you borrowing money.
You got the whole package!
5. NerdWallet.com
Ooh, okay, so out of the student calculators we’ve seen so far, this one is the most in-depth.
Nerd Wallet states that you should use their calculator to estimate your monthly payments on a single federal loan or a private student loan, calculate the total payment on multiple student loans at different interest rates, or calculate the total interest you’ll have to pay. They also say this on their webpage.
All you’ll need is the loan amount, the annual interest rate, the loan term, your monthly payment, and the interest paid. Nerd Wallet gives you information on how to understand their results, as well how to use the results to save money and other student loan calculators as well!
6. Sofi.com
This is one of the most basic and standard student loan calculators. All you really need is the loan amount, the average interest rate, and the loan term. Sofi.com also helps you out in understanding those same results. It’s pretty simple and pretty neat!
7. WellsFargo.com
Well who coulda thunk? Wells Fargo has a student loan calculator!
This calculator comes in several steps. What you need from this calculator is the annual amounts from: your job or work study, financial assistance from relatives, scholarships, grants, savings, and other income. It also makes you input your expenses, so things like tuition, room and board, insurance, phone and internet, and several other things. The final step just gives you your results!
8. CollegeBoard.org
Despite all of the controversies that College Board has, some of which are very questionable at best (Search up r/APTests2020 or read this article, it’s crazy), but besides that, this student calculator is here, and it’s a good resource.
It’s one of the several student loan calculators that is pretty detailed and pretty extensive. This calculator needs a lot of you.
It asks you for your future plans, and makes you fill out how much you’ve borrowed or how much you’re expected to borrow from the school for each year that you’re in school, undergrad or otherwise. This is the same for the Federal Student Loan Program, and another category called the Perkins Student Loan Program. It also lets you input any other loans you have.
9. Earnest.com
This is a bit different from the rest of the student loan calculators. It’s actually a student loan repayment calculator!
All you need for this calculator is a loan amount, loan term in years, and your expected graduation date. It also needs your loan interest rate type; they have two options: fixed or variable. They also have repayment options that you’ve gotta choose to get your results!
10. StudentLoanPlanner.com
StudentLoanPlanner.com touts that its the best student loan calculator out there!
What you need for this calculator is your adjusted gross income for last year (whatever your year you’re reading this from, input info from last year), whether you’re legally married, your principal balance for for your federal student loans, your family size, your average loan interest rate, your discretionary income for REPAYE, and finally, discretionary income for PAYE and IBR.
This calculator bases its results on your future career and family plans! It even shows you how to use it.
Well folks, we hope you have some leftover tears for the next time you decide to cry over money because trust us, it’s gonna happen. All joking aside, hopefully this extensive list of student loan calculators helps you out and fixes some confusion.
Did this help you out? Which calculator are you going to use? Comment down below and let us know!
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