Earlier this month, Federal Student Aid unveiled a new online, interactive loan counseling tool, the Financial Awareness Counseling Tool (FACT), to help students and families better manage their finances and understand their obligation as borrowers.
This online resource provides students with the basics of financial management and information about their federal student loan debt (and total student loan debt if they enter information about their private student loans). The tool also estimates what their student loan debt is likely to be when they leave school.
FACT includes topics such as:
- Understand Your Loans: This section will allow logged-in users to see their existing federal student loan debt based on National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS®) data. Users can enter additional loans that are not reflected in NSLDS. Outside the log-in, users can enter their student loans.
- Manage Your Budget: This section includes an in-school budgeting tool that compares living expenses vs. a user’s current income. The user can export his or her data to an Excel spreadsheet.
- Plan to Repay: This section includes a budgeting tool which compares living expenses vs. estimated income after leaving school and calculates monthly payment amounts for each of the basic repayment plans. This section also includes a tool that allows the user to see the effect of paying extra toward his or her loans to reduce overall debt and the amount of interest paid over time.
- Avoid Default: This section provides tips on how to postpone repayment or lower monthly payments, if needed.
- Make Finances a Priority: This section discusses developing a financial plan and making financial decisions.
- Summary Page: This page gives a summary of the data used and/or entered and can be printed.
To take advantage of this new resource, visit the Financial Awareness Counseling Tool on StudentLoans.gov.
