Student Loan Details

Unknown

I am trying to set up all of my student loans in Quicken 2018 (v R7.5, build 21.1.7.5). When I go to add the loan details I cannot get past the first screen without entering the length of the loan and the payment amount. Student loans are different from regular loans in that they can be in deferment and don't necessarily have a fixed length. 

Why does Quicken give you the option to say that your loan is a student loan if it won't treat the loan any differently than regular loans? Student loans are very common and Quicken should add features in the "Add Loan Details" that are specific to student loans. This would make the experience much better.

mshiggins

Would a student loan in deferment not have a fixed length with just the starting date for payments being variable?

Unknown

Only if you are using the standard repayment option. If you use any of the income-driven-payment options then it gets more complicated. It would be nice for student loans to have the ability to leave that field blank. This is especially true while still in school while the loans are deferred.



Also there is no option to put in the payment as $0 while in school. There should be a tick box added that you can check if the loans are in deferment or not. Otherwise, it forces you to create a reminder for the payments automatically even if they are deferred.



For people like me, who were in college for nearly 10 years pursuing a PhD, it would be nice if these features were included. Otherwise, don’t bother having a drop down menu where you can select loan type as student loan. What is the point if it doesn’t modify the options for setting it up in Quicken?

Unknown

The issue I'm having is with the monthly payment. I can't get past the loan details because it says my payment is less than the interest accrued monthly but I'm using an income based repayment and a lot of times that is the case.

Unknown

Was this ever resolved? I'm trying to set up accounts for my student loans and am having the same problems in setting up the payment details. I am on an income-driven payment plan and part of a loan forgiveness program. As a result, my required monthly payments are below Quicken's payment threshold. 

I accepted the minimum payment required by Quicken to create the account. But there is no way to change the payment amount or account for things that impact the interest accrual and principal balance (e.g., impact of in-school deferrals on the payment schedule, whether interest is accrued during the grace period, adjusted payment programs). Entering student loans as a loan account seems to be a waste of time and energy as there is no way to customize payments, set up accurate payment reminders or an accurate estimate of the balance. Although, if any one has found a workaround, please let us know.

So far the upgrade to 2018 Quicken has been a disappointment. Student loans, particularly Federal loans, do NOT work like mortgages or auto loans. The ability to differentiate between types of loans sounds like a great feature; however, the student loan type is meaningless right now.   

mshiggins

Was this ever resolved? I'm trying to set up accounts for my student loans and am having the same problems in setting up the payment details. I am on an income-driven payment plan and part of a loan forgiveness program. As a result, my required monthly payments are below Quicken's payment threshold. 

I accepted the minimum payment required by Quicken to create the account. But there is no way to change the payment amount or account for things that impact the interest accrual and principal balance (e.g., impact of in-school deferrals on the payment schedule, whether interest is accrued during the grace period, adjusted payment programs). Entering student loans as a loan account seems to be a waste of time and energy as there is no way to customize payments, set up accurate payment reminders or an accurate estimate of the balance. Although, if any one has found a workaround, please let us know.

So far the upgrade to 2018 Quicken has been a disappointment. Student loans, particularly Federal loans, do NOT work like mortgages or auto loans. The ability to differentiate between types of loans sounds like a great feature; however, the student loan type is meaningless right now.   

kbb, which version did you upgrade from? Did that version handle student loans better than 2018?

Unknown

I'm in agreement here.  Quicken's approach to student loans is clunky at best.  As has been stated previously, many of the repayment plans offered are income-based.  This means that the amount of the payment fluctuates based on a student's income. . . and it often means that most of that payment is headed to interest with little towards the principal.
Plus, for students under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, the principal is forgiven after 10 years of payments have been made.  It would be nice to be able to track this, but Quicken does not seem to register a payment unless it includes some contribution towards the principal.
Quicken is far too rigid in requiring a payment to consist of both a principal contribution and an interest contribution.  Plus, capitalization of student interest while the loan is in deferment could be better, too.

kuwayamad

I agree with everyone on this thread.  The loan module is too rigid.  As best I can tell, there is no way to record capitalized interest without Quicken interpreting it as a negative principal payment.  Even if one makes a split transaction into the loan account with the first line (principal) being 0, the second line (interest) being 0, the third line (extra principal) being 0, and the fourth line recording the capitalized balance adjustment total, Quicken still interprets it as a negative principal payment.  This makes tracking total lifetime principal payments in the Property and Debt module inaccurate.
Hopefully Quicken coders will make the loan module more flexible in future versions.

NotACPA

The "Loan Wizard" is for traditional, monthly-interest loans only.  It doesn't work for other loans because the interest upon them is dependent upon when the lender RECEIVES your payment for the prior month.

The best way to deal with other loan types is to consider your splits in the monthly payment to be an estimate ... and then correct the estimate when you get the next statement.

UKR

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BassMan

I agree that even trying to do student loans with a standard repayment process via FedLoan does not work in Quicken Deluxe R18.16 build 27.1.18.15.  FedLoan uses daily interest accruals, so even though I have a set monthly payment for each loan (I have three loans with capitalized interest), Quicken never matches the interest assessed by FedLoan.   I can't get Quicken to even match the FedLoan payment amount.

I make one Fedloan payment per month and need to allocate the fixed payments to three different loan amounts with different interest rates per loan, calculated on the daily interest formula.  How can Quicken help on this?