Calculator 3 Compare Student Loan Consolidation

So you want to consolidate your student loans but you're not sure "what it looks like?" Download our free student loan consolidation comparison file and see for yourself. Our Student Loan Consolidation Comparison calculator comes complete with amortization schedules for up to eight student loans. This Excel file calculates the information you need most. Simply enter the required student loan values: (1) your loan amounts, (2) annual interest rates, (3) repayment terms in years, and (4) a comparison start date. Instantly review a student loan consolidation comparison results summary set above a full student loan amortization schedule. This student loan consolidation comparison calculator is easy to navigate, features clearly labeled input cells, improves the readability of financial results, and has pre-set print commands.

compare student loan consolidation with amortization schedule (1.56MB)

Important — Read This Before You Download!

The Student Loan Consolidation Comparison calculator is a downloadable Excel file (1.56MB) that contains advanced Excel functions. The calculation sheet and cells are password protected, however, no password is needed to download, save, and use the calculator. Though very easy to use, some students and parents find the instructions and screen shots displayed below on this web page helpful.

Please do not rely on these calculations. They can never match the terms and product specific calculations as presented by your student loan lender. All of our calculators are copyright protected and carry an "as is" legal disclaimer. If you own a web site and would like to recommend this calculator to others, please link to this instruction page and not to the Excel file directly.

Downloading The Excel File

Click the Excel file link above to download the Student Loan Consolidation Comparison with amortization schedule. When prompted, "Save" to your computer or temporarily "Open" the file. A "Macro" warning may appear if your Excel security is set to high or if you currently have macros disabled. The only macro we set in this file is to facilitate printing. You can print just as easily without this macro, therefore, disabling this feature should not disrupt the calculations.

Enter Your Student Loan Values

Your first step is to enter the loan values from your existing unconsolidated student loans, and enter any quote you received (or hope to receive) from a student loan consolidation lender. There are four student loan values you will need to enter for each student loan you wish to consolidate. The fifth value required is to set a comparison start date. Please review the bullets below and also the screen shot of Step 1 to follow:

1. Lender's Name (for your records only)
2. Loan Amount
3. Annual Interest Rate
4. Repayment Terms Years
5. Comparison Start Date (example: 8/1/06)

Please notice that this student loan amortization schedule was designed to accept no more than 360 payments per loan. For example, a 30 year student loan with 12 monthly payments per year equals 360 total payments. Student loans in general will not exceed 30 years and are paid monthly by check or electronic debit.

All input into the Student Loan Consolidation Comparison calculator is done in Step 1. You can review any individual loan amortization schedule by selecting the appropriate Excel worksheet: Loan 1, Loan 2, Loan 3, etc… If you enter a number incorrectly, an alert will appear with instructions on how to correctly enter the student loan value. If you attempt to enter information into a protected cell, an alert message will appear stating that the cell is locked or protected. Basic guidelines for entering values into the Student Loan Consolidation Comparison calculator are as follows:

• Lender's Name — used for your records only, enter any name as text.
• Loan Amount — enter whole number between 1 and 200000
• Annual Interest Rate — enter as decimal .01 to .200 or number 1 to 20
• Repayment Term Years — enter whole number between 1 and 30 years
• Payments per year (monthly) — this can't be changed, cell is protected
• Comparison start date — enter any date greater than 1/1/1970

Review Student Loan Comparison Summary

Once you've learned which student loan values to manipulate, you can begin comparing student loan consolidation offers. You can compare multiple offers from the same lender when given different combinations of student loan consolidation year terms (10, 15, 20, 25, 30) and annual interest rates (5%, 6%, 7% 8%). Or you can compare student loan offers from competing lenders. Simply print the first page or the whole worksheet after entering the values for each student loan consolidation offer. You will want to understand the impact of the loan amount, term length, and annual interest rates on your minimum monthly payment. You will also want to understand the total amount of interest due over the life of the loan.

Using the student loan consolidation snapshot pictured above (Step 2), we can describe our results as follows: A 30 year student loan consolidation with an annual interest rate of 4.5% will require a minimum monthly payment of $177.34 per month. A total of 360 payments are to be made, of which $35,000 will be applied to the original principal borrowed, and $28,842.35 will be applied to interest owed to the lender. The sum of all 360 minimum monthly payments equals $63,842.35 — total principal plus interest paid.

Important points to notice while reviewing this student loan comparison summary:

• Monthly Payment required decreased 59% or $251.94, from $429.28 to $177.34.
• Number of Payments (checks to be written) decreased by 600, from 960 to 360.
• Interest Paid increased 75% or $12,328.25, from $16,514.10 to $28,842.35.
• NOTE: A common strategy is to consolidate to reduce both the required monthly payment and annual interest rate, then make extra principal payments each month. This can effectively decrease your total interest paid versus increasing it as we have shown here. See our student loan calculator with extra payments to review an example calculation.

Review Minimum Payments By Month Schedule

Since an immediate decrease in monthly minimum payments is a common goal while consolidating student loans, we've included this month by month comparison schedule. We have listed some general information related to each column heading:

• Pay No — lists payment numbers in order up to each loan's repayment term years
• Payment Date — first payment begins one month after the comparison start date
• Loan 1 to Loan 8 — monthly payment as calculated for each loan in Step 2
• Minimum Pay Before Consolidation — total of individual monthly loan payments
• Minimum Pay After Consolidation — monthly consolidation loan payment

For the student loan pictured above, the first minimum monthly payment is due on 9/1/2006. If the loans remain unconsolidated, eight payments need to be made each month, a total of $429.28 per month. If the loans are consolidated, only one new monthly payment of $177.34 is need. For unconsolidated student loans with different repayment terms in years, please review the schedule to ensure each payment stops when appropriate. For example, an unconsolidated 10 year loan should display no more than 120 monthly payments. An unconsolidated 20 year loan should display no more than 240 monthly payments.

Review Student Loan Amortization Worksheets

Loan amortization schedules are available for review for each student loan listed in Step 1. To view an amortization schedule, simply view the appropriate Excel worksheet. For example, to view the amortization schedule for Loan 1, click on the Loan 1 worksheet tab. Please note that these amortization worksheets are not for input of loan values. They are for review of student loan calculation details only. For more information about the amortization worksheets, please review our Student Loan Amortization Schedule calculator web page.

Print Your Student Loan Consolidation Schedules

To compare student loan consolidation offers or to share your results with others, we've built in a print function. If you have macro's enabled on your computer, click the button labeled "Click for Print Preview." Verify that the page setup and number of pages to print are correct, then click any available print icon or select File, Print from the menu.

The print range we pre-set should exclude the first two left columns. This will save ink or toner by not having to print the background colors and the Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3 headings.

Related Student Loans Ed Web Pages » Student Loan Consolidation Information
» Student Loan Consolidation Comparison
» Student Loan Amortization Schedule
» Student Loan Amortization Schedule with Extra Payments