You were ecstatic when she was awarded that merit scholarship. Even better when she still got a need-based grant. She accepted the admission offer, and then life was a swirl of senior year ceremonies, graduation, parties, and maximizing her last summer before going off to college.
You hadn’t really thought more about college costs until you got the first college tuition bill. Sure, the college had sent information about federal loan options and payment plans before now. But you were hoping that, at some point, you’d get something to help you figure out how this huge cost would fit into a monthly payment, just like your house and car. That information never came.
That’s why College Parents of America is so pleased to see a new tool that helps parents to pay the complete cost of college. Pay4Edu.com is the first personalized decision platform helps parents like you balance your cash from income, college savings, and educational loan financing options. Plus, it’s free!
A Quick, Simple Tool to Find Your Best College Affordability Plan
In less than a minute, the simple user interface asks only 6 questions in quiz-like about the family’s financial resources, the college’s net cost, and who will be financing only (parent and/or student). Then, you see detailed calculations on parent and student loan options side-by-side. This allows you to compare the real costs of Federal Student Direct Loan, Federal Parent PLUS Loan, Private Parent Loan, and Private Student Loan options in a single view based on your self-reported credit profile.
With the option to adjust the amount of cash you can pay on a monthly basis while she is in college, you can determine how paying for college fits into your budget options for not just one year of college, but for all four years. Nowhere else can make a plan that will help you set realistic, personalized expectations of in-school and after graduation payments, if financing is needed. This gives you the confidence that you can afford college for her first year and then all the way through graduation and beyond.
You also need to know the steps to carrying out your paying for college plan. With the touch of button, you not only get a summary of both your and your student’s annual student loan plan but also the instructions to get these funds disbursed. The step-by-step instructions include how much time each stage in the plan takes.
We see Pay4Edu.com as an easy and valuable tool that help college families make the best financial decisions for your family. The service returns complex calculations in understandable terms. You can have the confidence that the number crunching is accurate and is giving you college cost transparency you need. The tool also displays the full financing costs, APR, repayment schedules on all loans, and most importantly your monthly payment.
Boost Your Kid’s Borrowing Awareness
Since student loans may be a part of the plan, you can use the Pay4Edu Affordability Plan to have a candid conversation about credit and good financial habits with your kid. A parent of a Macalester College student, Class of 2023, had this to say about Pay4,
“What a useful tool! We were able to estimate the monthly costs and get a better handle on the apples to apples comparison of his choices so that our family could have a meaningful kitchen table conversation about the differences.”
Use the Pay4Edu Affordability Plan to walk through the cumulative student loan total as well as the monthly payment after graduation with your kid. With student loans, she is signing up for years of monthly repayment based on their future earnings. The rule of thumb for student loans is to borrow less than the first-year salary after graduation. PayScale estimates that the typical post bachelor’s degree income for the first five years after graduation is $48,400. Assure her that with the average student loan indebtedness in 2018 of over $30,000, so repayment is doable after she graduates.
We understand the anxiety and dificulty of making a plan to pay for the total cost of college and are pleased to see how easy it is for college families to create their custom plan at Pay4Edu.com.
