I am testing the micro payment method of cutting down loan debt and have sent Sallie Mae my extra payment (with loan # and PAY to PRINCIPAL/CAPITALIZED INTEREST specified). With all the history in Excel I can find some other interesting data that Sallie does not feel the need to provide to the consumer in its reporting. For example I have totaled up all my past payments and on my private loans after about three years I have sent in payments equaling about half the principal yet I have barley even scratched the surface of the outstanding balance. It is nice to see this as a little extra motivation to send in extra payments to get out from this burden as soon as possible and to educate myself, something Sallie definitely does not want.
I will still be watching them because I have to start tracking what the balance is after a transaction such as the 10$ payment because they don’t provide that, perhaps they would like to keep that a mystery. My suspicion is that they are still going to take it off the next months payment but we will see.