<prompt> Human: TL;DR Answer - It was said that its illegal to charge future interest. Payments must first go to fees, then interest, then principle. Eliminate fees first, then interest, and then you are allowed to pay toward principle. Edit: Thanks everyone. I obviously didnt understand how this works and yall helped me out which is why I asked since I was confused. Thanks for being so helpful and putting the effort into helping me and anyone who reads this in the future out.---Below is a message from their representative.Sorry if this has a lot of ambiguity. Im trying to be clear as possible. To me, its silly to pay the future interest if Im paying the principle ahead of time. Paying principle now would lower future interest ever so slightly, right? Doesnt this current situation ensure that Im paying the same interest that I would have in the future anyway?Also, would it be beneficial if I kept my payment gap between now and the future, but had my monthly autodebt go towards the next payment, but my manual payments go directly towards my principle? Would it be beneficial for my autodebt payments to keep the safety cushion.Loan Representative:Your account is currently paid ahead. Student loans are simple interest loans, and interest accrues daily. Payments are applied to outstanding interest first, and the remainder is applied to principal.When you pay more than the required monthly installment, the additional funds are applied to the interest and principal at the time the payment is received and may also be applied toward the principal balance on a future installments. This may cause the next months bill to reflect a lesser amount than normal, including an amount of 0.00, due. If this occurs, you have the option to pay nothing for that month or to continue paying your usual monthly installment amount and paying your account further ahead. Please note that if you are enrolled in Auto Debit, your account will continue to draw your normal monthly payment. Also note that interest continues to accrue on a daily basis, and the next payment remitted will be applied to outstanding accrued interest first, as detailed above.If you would like your paid ahead status to be removed permanently, please reply to this email, requesting to permanently remove the paid ahead status. Please note, the best way to ensure any additional payments are applied towards the principal balance is to make the payment on the same day the monthly installment amount is due. As long as your monthly installment amount satisfies the outstanding interest accrual any additional amount will automatically be applied to your principal balance.  <response>: If these are federal loans when you login you should be able to see a breakdown of how the payment is applied. Mathematically it is always best to pay principal first because then interest is calculating on a smaller amount. With my federal loans which are administered by Edfinancial my payment comes out automatically on the 14th for 175 and that payment does cover all accrued interest and part goes to principal.If I make an extra payment for 50 on the 1st then that payment is applied towards accrued interest immediately often wiping out the entire 50 but when my next months payment comes out 50 less is applied to interest and 50 more is applied to principal. If the 50 had been applied directly to principal slightly less interest will accrue each day between when that payment is applied and when my payment comes out for me at this point my student loan interest rate is relatively low so the difference is minimal in it being essentially applied on the 1st or the 14th so I dont worry about it. The important note is that it does immediately get applied to accrued interest and then principal. There is no reserve waiting to be applied until the payment is due. They just would technically allow you to skip payments if youve paid ahead in the past. 