How Payments Are Applied

You may pay your loans in full at any time without penalty. If you would like to pay one or more loans in full, please call (800) 243-7552 or log in to your online account for an accurate payoff amount.

Note: The loan balance listed on a billing statement is not a valid payoff amount because it does not include daily interest accrued since the bill was created. Insufficient payoff amounts may be returned to you.

After obtaining your payoff amount, send payment in full to:

Special Handling
Aspire Servicing Center
Attn: Payment Processing Supervisor
6805 Vista Drive
West Des Moines, IA 50266-9307

Payments received with a bill stub in the exact amount listed on the stub will be applied to loans listed on that billing statement.

Overpayments (paying more than the amount due) and underpayments (paying less than the amount due) are applied to certain loans first.

You may choose to allocate your payments in a different manner.

Interest accrues daily, and your payment is first applied to either outstanding interest or late charges, as shown below. Any remainder after interest and late charges are paid is applied to principal.

Income-Based Repayment Plan

1. Outstanding interest
2. Late charges
3. Principal

All Other Repayment Plans

1. Late charges
2. Outstanding interest
3. Principal

More about late charges

Late charges may be assessed when a payment is not received by the due date. The amount of the charge and the day it is assessed depends on loan type.

More about outstanding interest

Any outstanding interest that has accrued must be paid before any amount is applied to principal.

A payment may be applied — reflected on your account transactional history and viewed through your online account — one to two business days after it is received but it will be treated as effective according to the guidelines below.

• The date the payment is received for mailed, dropped off or in-person payments. Postdated checks are not accepted.
• Effective dates provided with electronic, phone and online payments.
• Your due date for auto-debit payments.

The frequency of your payments can affect the amount of interest that accrues on your student loans. Student loans accrue interest on a daily basis. If more days pass between payments, more interest accrues and less of your payment is applied to principal.

Making payments before the due date

If your previous payment was received on your due date, and the next month's payment is received prior to the due date, less daily interest will have accrued than if you had waited until your due date to make the payment.

If you consistently make your payments fewer than 30 days apart, your account may pay off earlier than the final payoff date or maturity date, and you may pay less in overall interest.

Making payments on the due date

When your payments are effective on your due date every month, your loan will be paid in full by the end of its term.

Making payments after the due date

If your previous payment was received on your due date, and the next month's payment is received after the due date, more daily interest would have accrued than if you had made your payment on your due date.

Billing statements are created approximately 20 days before your next due date. If you make a late payment after your next statement is created, that statement will not reflect your recent payment.

If you continually make payments late and pay more interest than your repayment plan originally set forth, your monthly payment amount may increase so that your loan pays off within the term of the loan.

The amount of your payment in relation to the amount due affects future payments.

Overpayment (Paying more than the amount due)

You may pay more than your minimum monthly payment on your Aspire Servicing Center account at any time without penalty. Paying more than the minimum monthly payment amount or making extra monthly payments may save you money on interest.

Unless you direct otherwise, your overpayment will be applied to the loan with the highest interest rate. If more than one loan has the same highest interest rate, the overpayment will be applied proportionately to any unsubsidized federal loans and any private education loans. If you do not have unsubsidized federal loans or private loans, the overpayment will be allocated proportionately across subsidized federal loans. You may choose to allocate your payments in a different manner.

Underpayment (Paying less than the amount due)

If you are not able to pay the full amount due each month and make only a partial payment, the remaining amount will be considered past due and added to the amount due for the next billing period. If your account has multiple loans, you can give us special instructions to allocate partial payments to individual loans within your account. Doing so may allow you to avoid late charges or negative credit reporting on those individual loans. Unless you allocate your payments in a different manner, partial payments will be allocated from the most delinquent to least delinquent.

After satisfying as many full bills as possible, any remaining funds will be allocated to any loans that will be reported as delinquent to the national consumer reporting agencies first. If all loans have the same delinquency, then funds will be allocated to any loans that may accrue late fees. If no late fees are accruing, then the remaining funds will be posted to the loan with the least amount due to satisfy the monthly payment.

If loans have the same total amount due and the same interest rate, the payment will be allocated to any unsubsidized federal student loans or private education loans, starting with the loans with the highest balance. If the balance on the loans is the same, the payment will satisfy the loan with the oldest first disbursement date. If there are no unsubsidized federal loans or private student loans, the payments will be allocated to the subsidized federal loans in the same manner.

Making no payment or skipping a payment

If you don't make a payment, your next billing statement will reflect the past due amount along with the current payment amount.

If you are unable to make your monthly payment, you may be able to delay a payment.

Aspire Servicing Center reports all borrower accounts to the national consumer reporting agencies every month and may report late or missing payments at 30 days or more past due. Even if you later bring your account current through payment or assistance, or even pay your account in full, that does not change previous, accurate credit reporting.

In addition, if you make partial payments, miss payments or pay late, more daily interest accrues on your account and you may incur late charges. Greater portions of your subsequent payments will apply to outstanding interest and late charges and less to principal. Over time, partial, missing or late payments can increase your loan balance through capitalization of accrued interest.

You may pay more than your minimum monthly payment at any time without penalty. Your account may become paid-ahead.

Sending an additional amount along with my required monthly payment

When you send an additional amount along with your required monthly payment, the additional amount will apply to principal as long as all outstanding interest and late charges have been satisfied.

Sending an additional amount separate from the required monthly payment

When you send an additional payment separate from your required monthly payment amount, your payment will apply to interest accrued from the date of your most recent payment, any late charges and then to your principal balance unless you request to allocate the payment differently.

Accounts are set up so that when you pay more than the required monthly payment, extra funds satisfy or pay a portion of one or more future bills, resulting in your account being paid ahead.

Note: Interest continues to accrue on student loans every day, even if your billing statement shows $0.00 or a reduced amount due. Continuing to make payments that at least cover interest will ensure that more of your next payment is applied to principal.

Satisfying one or more future bills

If you have satisfied the entire amount of a future bill, your billing statement will reflect a $0.00 amount due, but it does not mean that the interest has stopped accruing. If you choose to not make a payment while paid ahead, your loan will not be considered past due, but the next payment you make will first be applied to the outstanding interest that has accrued since the last time you paid and then any remaining amount will be applied to the principal balance.

Satisfying a portion of a future bill

If you satisfy only a portion of a future bill, your billing statement will reflect a reduced amount due, but it does not mean that the interest has stopped accruing. If you choose to make a reduced payment while paid ahead, your loan will not be considered past due, but the next payment you make will first be applied to the outstanding interest that has accrued since the last time you paid and then any remaining amount will be applied to the principal balance.

Removing the paid ahead status from your account

If you prefer to have your billing statement reflect the monthly installment due and not be applied to future bills, you may:

• Create or log in to your online account to manage paid-ahead status.
• Specify that you do not want overpayments credited to future bills in Section 3 on the Future Payment Allocation Form (PDF).
• Contact us.

Without special instructions, payments are allocated to multiple loans in your account. You may allocate payments as you choose, but please consider paying at least the minimum monthly amount due for each loan to avoid delinquency.

You may allocate a one-time payment differently or you may provide allocation instructions for all future payments.

One-time special payment instructions should be submitted with the payment or provided via upload , fax or mail. Be sure to include your account number.

You may use the Future Payment Allocation Form (PDF) or log in to your online account to allocate all future payments.

Note: Regardless of any special handling instructions, all outstanding interest on the affected loans must be satisfied before funds may be applied to principal. Bill pay and auto-debit payments are automatically applied to your account, and each payment will then be reapplied according to your instructions.

You may allocate payments to only cosigned loans.

To make online payments to cosigned loans, create or log in to your online account.

If your payment fails or is rejected, Aspire Servicing Center will notify you through your online paperless inbox or, if you are not signed up for paperless correspondence, by mail. Please resubmit your payment as soon as possible either by mailing a check, paying over the phone or paying online.

When a payment is rejected your account may become past due, which in turn may result in late charges, more accrued interest and negative reporting to the consumer reporting agencies.