<prompt> Human: Ive been seeing in a lot of places that any extra or early payments towards my student loans should go towards principal instead of interest. This should save me some interest in the future. My payments dont kick in for another 4 months and since I am already working full time I want to pay down some of my loans early. I submitted a payment and picked the majority of the payment to go towards the two loans with the largest interest rate. I then later got a confirmation that the payment went through and was applied 100 towards interest. When I contacted Great Lakes they said that any payments made will go towards interest until it is paid off, only then can they go towards principal. Im a little confused and wondering what my options are here. I have 25k in debt and around 700 in interest right now. I could probably pay down the 700 before the payments kick in but am I really getting ahead if I do that? Obviously paying anything is better than nothing, but it seems wrong that I cant pay principal.  <response>: This is normal; you cannot pay off the principal with Great Lakes until youve paid off all of the accrued interest. Its still very useful, as once you leave the grace period, any interest accrued is consolidated into the principal amount, which could raise your required monthly payments. My guess is that these are unsubsidized loans?x200B;Regardless, keep making the payments and youll prevent the interest from becoming a part of the principle and thus resulting in more accrued interest post-grace period. So yes, it will get you ahead if you pay off the interest now before it gets bundled into the principle amount. 