ASA Toolbox—Tools and Calculators

When you are considering your loan repayment options, there are many choices available to you, but what do those choices look like? You can see the difference with ASA’s Tools and Calculators. Do you want to know what your student loan payments will be if you chose a Graduated Repayment schedule? Considering the income you now make, would Income-Sensitive Repayment help reduce your payment amount and better help you manage your education debt? These tools will tell you!

Just start with your loan’s principle balance and your interest rate. The Repayment Tools and Calculators will do the rest. You can compare the difference in monthly loan payment amounts quickly and easily.

With ASA’s loan origination tool, ASA Direct^®, you can:

– Electronically Sign (e-Sign) your Master Promissory Note (MPN)
– Apply for Stafford, PLUS, or Graduate PLUS loans online
– Obtain information about your past and present loans guaranteed by ASA

The ASA Toolbox: Managing your debt has never been easier.

Plan Ahead With the ASA Toolbox

These are the tools and what they can calculate for you:

Budget Calculator

The Budget Calculator will assist you in setting a budget for yourself. With this tool, you’ll be able to track how much money you make, and how much you have to pay in student loans, insurance, utilities, transportation and miscellaneous expenses.

Debt/Salary Wizard

The Debt/Salary Wizard can help you figure out the minimum salary you’ll need to pay off your student loan debt, and it will help you figure out how much aid you could borrow in the future.

Student Loan Repayment Calculator

The Student Loan Repayment Calculator helps you figure out what your future student loan payments will be, and learn the minimum annual salary you’ll have to earn in order to make your payments.

Standard Repayment

This repayment schedule lasts 10 years and is the standard when you graduate or separate from school. 6 months on your own (referred to as your Grace Period) and you’re ready to begin repayment. Find out what an estimate of your monthly payment would be using this 10-year repayment plan. The Standard Repayment Calculator makes it easy to see how much interest you’ll be paying during this 10-year period: Would it make sense to make higher payments each month to keep the interest down? This is the place to find out! Just enter your loan balance, interest rate, and number of scheduled payments (for 10 years, that would be 120 payments), and you’ll have an instant estimate of what payments to expect.

Graduated Repayment

Graduated Repayment is a method that enables you to pay less now and more later on your federal loans. This is particularly important for borrowers who are entering the workforce just after college. No single payment may be greater than 3 times any other previous payment. This repayment option also has a 10-year maximum repayment term. Simply input your full loan balance and your interest rate, and the tool will calculate an approximation of your expected payment over the next 10 years. Use the Graduated Repayment Calculator to find out if this option is right for you.

Income-Based Repayment Calculator

The Income-Based Repayment Calculator calculates payments based on the standard 10-year repayment plan and your income and family size with a cap at 15% of your discretionary income.

Income-Sensitive Repayment

Based on your expected gross income, Income-Sensitive Repayment allows borrowers to have their monthly payments adjusted to suit their income. This is adjusted annually. This loan option is available for borrowers of Stafford and/or PLUS Loans. Calculate how much your monthly payment will be (based on your gross monthly income). Remember that your payment can never be less than your monthly accrued interest.

Comparison

This side-by-side comparison shows how the Standard, Graduated, and Income-Sensitive payment plans stack up against one another. Remember, these 3 payment plans exist for Stafford and Graduate PLUS Loans only. It’s a quick and easy way to see what your monthly payments will be and how much that will total by the final payment amount of your loan. As always, it’s better to pay more now than later—but see for yourself by using the Comparison Calculator.

Extended Repayment

If your loans were borrowed after October 7, 1998, you are eligible for an Extended Repayment plan. A minimum of $30,000 in loans is required in order to benefit from the plan. With this calculator, you can see what options under the plan would work best for you (for example, choosing a fixed monthly payment amount or a variable rate similar to the Graduated plan). Your maximum repayment term is 25 years. To use the calculator, you’ll need to know how long you’ve been paying your loan, how many payments are expected, and your interest rate. Use the Extended Repayment Calculator to see if this is the answer for you.

Deferment

Deferments allow you to temporarily postpone payment of your loans. While in deferment, the government pays the interest for the subsidized portion of your loans. The unsubsidized portions still collect interest (as do Graduate PLUS Loans).

The most common deferments are:

– Economic Hardship
– Unemployment
– Full-time enrollment in school
– Military deferment (for loans taken after July 1, 2001)

In order to see how your loan will fare while in a deferment status, use the Deferment Calculator to find out.

Forbearance

If you do not qualify for deferment but are having difficulty repaying your loans, you may request a forbearance from your lender. This is a temporary postponement of payments. It usually results in an extension of the repayment period. Interest continues to accrue during forbearance, causing the total loan amount to increase.

Common reasons for forbearances are:

– A temporary economic hardship that doesn’t meet the Economic Hardship Deferment criteria
– To cover the period of time before a new Consolidation Loan is finalized

It’s important to understand how interest can accumulate while a loan is in forbearance. The Forbearance Calculator will prepare you for what to expect when you decide to use forbearance time to temporarily postpone your payments.