{"id":7722,"date":"2018-08-02T17:00:04","date_gmt":"2018-08-02T23:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/?p=7722"},"modified":"2020-02-27T10:44:05","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T17:44:05","slug":"more-you-know-student-loan-interest-rate-truths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/more-you-know-student-loan-interest-rate-truths\/","title":{"rendered":"More You Know: Student Loan Interest Rate Truths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s not just students who struggle with the concept of interest rates. Pretty much anyone that borrows money has questions about interest rate facts.<\/p>\n<p>That doesn\u2019t mean that you should just let it be, though. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/interest-rate-options-picking-a-type-of-loan\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Interest rates are a crucial aspect to any loan<\/a>, but they are especially important to students who have to borrow to pay for their education. Need proof? Watch the video. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"770\" height=\"433\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MexHHR24Zgo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>The Other Kind of Principal<\/h2>\n<p>One thing briefly mentioned in the video is how the interest you accrue in school gets added onto the principal balance. And while many people understand how that leads to earning interest on your interest, we wanted to really hammer it home. <\/p>\n<p>The amount of interest you have to pay on a loan depends on your principal balance, which is usually the amount you borrowed. So while you are busy paying off interest, you are paying off less of your principal balance to cover the cost of interest. This is one of the lesser discussed \u2018interest rate facts.\u2019 <\/p>\n<p>The only way to pay off more of your principal balance is to increase how much you are paying each month&#8211;you can\u2019t choose to pay principal instead of interest just on a whim.<\/p>\n<p>THAT is why it is important to pay off any interest you can while in college. It may not be a financial possibility for every student, but once you graduate that interest amount will be added to your principal balance. <\/p>\n<p>Chipping away at interest may not feel like you\u2019re doing a lot, but when it comes to student loans, every little bit counts. <\/p>\n<h2>Beyond Interest Rate Facts<\/h2>\n<p>Paying for college is much more complicated than just understanding how interest rates work. The good news is that this is just the beginning of our tips, advice and <a href=\"https:\/\/studentloans.gov\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">resources<\/a> on how to pay for college. <\/p>\n<p>Need help with something specific? Have an interesting fact or story to share with us? That\u2019s the point of what we\u2019re doing. <\/p>\n<p>Feel free to reach out to us on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/petersons_com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, send us a message on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Petersons\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a> or follow us on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/petersons\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> to get in touch. We want to hear from you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s not just students who struggle with the concept of interest rates. Pretty much anyone that borrows money has questions about interest rate facts. That doesn\u2019t mean that you should just let it be, though. Interest rates are a crucial aspect to any loan, but they are especially important to students who have to borrow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[439,429,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-7722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scholarships","8":"tag-interest-rates","9":"tag-loans","10":"tag-undergraduate"},"better_featured_image":{"id":7726,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":1400,"height":500,"file":"s3:\/\/pcom-wp-media\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/10124039\/myk-interest-rate-.jpg","sizes":{},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"post":7722,"source_url":"https:\/\/wp-media.petersons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/10124039\/myk-interest-rate-.jpg"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Student Loan Interest Rate Facts | What you Need to Know<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We put your knowledge of Student Loan Interest Rates to the test in the debut of our \u201cMore You Know\u201d series on paying for college. Learn more here.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.petersons.com\/blog\/more-you-know-student-loan-interest-rate-truths\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Student Loan Interest Rate Facts | What you Need to Know\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We put your knowledge of Student Loan Interest Rates to the test in the debut of our \u201cMore You Know\u201d series on paying for college. 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