Determining Your Student Loan Balance: Here’s How to Do It

One of the most difficult things about paying off these loans is that you may not know how much of your student loan is outstanding. While your bank or other lenders will send you periodic statements, it can be hard to keep track of all your balances. Plus, if you have both federal and private student loans, there’s no way for one agency to track both types of debt at once, so one balance may be larger than the other because they don’t work together. That’s why we’re here: to help you understand how to get a good idea of what your total debt is and how to check your student loan debt so that it doesn’t spiral out of control!  

If you want to know how much is, and how to check your student loan balance, there are a few options for finding out. You can check your balance online at the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS), which can be found on the Federal Student Aid website. This website allows you to see all of your federal student loans and their balances in one place. You can also use this site to fill out applications for repayment options such as income-driven repayment plans or consolidate your loans if needed.  

As for private student loans, you can check their stat by contacting each individual lender directly and asking them how much you owe on that particular loan.  

Finally, if you’re looking for an easy way to determine how much all of your individual debts add up to as a whole, perhaps consider contacting a credit counseling service that specializes in helping people deal with debt management issues.  

Why Is Knowing Your Student Loan Balance Important?

Knowing your student loan balance is important because it can help you figure out both how much you have paid off and how much you still need to pay. It’s also useful for determining whether or not your payments are on track. For example, if you’re paying a monthly payment but the amount due is increasing each month, then this means that the interest on your loans may be accruing quickly.  

In case you are struggling with how to find student loan debt you have, keep in mind that there are also student loan servicers that are actually the companies that handle your loans. They’re responsible for collecting your monthly payments and applying them to your student loans. They’re also responsible for sending you a bill each month, along with any other correspondence regarding your loan. If you ever have questions or want more information about your student loans, it is the servicer that will be able to answer them for you.  

Determining Your Federal Student Loan Balances

If you are wondering, where can you find your student loan balance, the answer is easy. You can check your federal student loan balance directly through the NSLDS. Log in with your FSA ID and password to see the total amount you owe.  

To determine how much you owe, use a student loan calculator. This tool will give you an estimate of how much money you have borrowed for each type of loan, as well as how much interest has accrued on those loans in addition to identifying any payments that have been made toward them over the years.  

Another way to calculate what you owe is by using an amortization calculator, which will show you exactly how much each payment is going toward paying off your principal balance each month so that at some point in time (usually within 20 years), all remaining debt will be cleared out entirely. You can also use this tool to get to know how long before your student loans are paid off.  

Finally, in case someone wants to know how long it takes for them personally based on their current income level, then they should use a payoff calculator instead because this tool uses information such as age, salary range, and the number of children along with other factors like inflation rates or interest rate increases into account when calculating repayment periods between two different scenarios: one where extra money is added on top of monthly payments versus one where no additional funds are added onto existing ones at all!  

Determining Your Private Student Loan Balances

If you have a private student loan, and you want to know how to check your student loan balance the best way is to contact your lender. You will likely be able to find the name and contact information on the first page of your bill. However, if you are not sure how much you owe or if it’s time to pay back your loan yet, this information may be buried in fine print on an inside page.  

In case none of these methods are helpful for determining how much interest has accrued on top of what you originally borrowed, then it may be time to take advantage of a free tool like Credit Karma that will show updated balances for all three major credit reporting agencies such as Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.  

How to Keep Track of All Your Total Student Loan Balances

We recommend you use one of the following methods to keep track: 

• Spreadsheet  
• Mobile app  
• Website  
• Personal finance software  
• Debt management tool  
• Credit score tool  

How to Reduce Your Student Loan Debt

• Consolidate your student loans. If you have multiple student loans, consolidate them into one large loan to simplify the repayment process. You’ll also save money by locking in a lower interest rate and getting out of paying fees on multiple small accounts.  

• Refinance your student loans. If you can qualify for a lower interest rate through refinancing, this option may be worth exploring if it is otherwise more affordable than consolidating your debt.  

• Make extra payments toward your debt each month, if possible, even just an extra $50 per month can help reduce how long it takes to pay off the debt over time!  

• Switch to an income-driven repayment plan that caps monthly payments at 10% or 15% of discretionary income (your adjusted gross income minus 150% of the federal poverty guidelines) and extend the length of repayment from 10 years to 20 or 25 years depending on how much you owe (or switch back after two years). This will reduce monthly payments significantly but increase the total interest paid over time due to higher principal balances remaining on the loan during repayment periods.

Bottom Line

You’ve managed to pay for your education but now also have some debt acquired as well? But how much exactly do you owe? There are several ways to find out the total amount of your student loan balance:  

Use a student loan calculator. This is one of the easiest ways to get an estimate of how much money you owe in student loans. All it takes is entering some basic information about yourself (like your name and social security number), and then letting the calculator do its thing—it’ll spit out a ballpark figure for what that balance might be based on factors like current interest rates, payments made so far, length of the repayment period and more.  

Check online with your lender or servicer directly. If you want to know exactly how much money has been taken out in loans at each stage along the way (and who knows why anyone would want this information?) then this may be right up your alley—but keep in mind that these sorts of inquiries will likely show up on credit reports if they aren’t already there by now!