<prompt> Human: Loan thru: Great LakesTotal: 23,000Paid ahead: 4,500So I pay almost double what I am required to pay monthly for my student loan. But instead of the extra money going to pay off my loan right now it just says Im paid ahead until a certain date now over a year in the future. They excess payment setting are just letting me give a percentage of my monthly payments to one of the loans inside my loan I have no idea how or why. I cant totally pay off any of those smaller loans individually, and the sum of all of them is too much right now.I really want my extra 4,500 to go towards the total right now and not be paid ahead anymore. If I cant do that should I keep paying over the monthly required amount?Assistant: The paid ahead date is just the next date at which you are required to make a payment, because you have a repayment schedule where the final due date is like 10 years out or something. Your payments should still have been applied to your loans.Source : I also have loans through Great Lakes and I am far paid ahead, my next required payment date is like 2021 or something.Human: But if you dont have to pay anything for 4 years then the loan will still be with you in 4 years! Thats what I dont want. Yes Im glad to be ahead but Id rather be done sooner than later!  <response>: Im not even sure what you are complaining about? The date is the next REQUIRED payment. You can continue to pay it back faster whenever you please.Your loans should have a minimum required payment per month once the grace period is done. If your next payment was due 9117 for 200 and you paid 400 instead, the next required payment would be 11117 instead of 10117 because you already paid ahead the 200 for 10117. That doesnt mean they arent applying the extra 200 yet. That doesnt mean you cant pay again until 111. You could pay another 200 tomorrow, next week, a day later, 3 times in one day, etc. Every time you pay ahead it will shift the next required payment date back because you are going ahead of schedule.So you dont have any problem here. You ARE going to be done sooner rather than later if you keep it up.I had 5 loans with 10 year due dates and 4 of them are paid off with the 5th not having a next payment due of 2021 or something because I have kept paying ahead of time. Doesnt mean I wont be rid of the loans until 2021.When making your normal required payment it is paying the minimum for each loan. But when you make extra payments, I believe the default for Great Lakes is that it will be applied to all outstanding interest first and then will be applied pro rata towards the loans with the highest interest rate, but there is an option on the payment screen when you manually make one that lets you choose exactly how you want to apply it. Ex. if you have a few unsubsidized 6.8 iirc itll apply principal payments equally to those first but if you want to completely eliminate one before the other you have the option. 