<prompt> Human: Yesterday I received communication from Wells Fargo indicating a change to how additional payments will be applied to student loans. The exact phrasing is as follows:Any extra payments submitted with your billed monthly payment, or before your next statement is sent, will no longer satisfy future payment due dates on your loan also called paying ahead. This means that regardless of the number of extra payments submitted, the next payment due date will remain unchanged, and you will need to make your scheduled payment each month. Extra payments will continue to pay down your overall loan balance. I currently have four student loans through WF that Im paying off as aggressively as possible. As a result, Im paid ahead on all:Loan 1 Due: 422015Loan 2 Due: 622015Loan 3 Due: 622015Loan 4 Due: 1222015While I never intended to have any payment lapse, I did enjoy the piece of mind in knowing that if my circumstances changed and I couldnt make a payment, I had a cushion of time to work things out. Now it appears I wont have that luxury, despite any extra finances I throw at these loans. Why is WF doing this? What is the benefit? Could someone please give me some insight here? Even though I wont ever miss a payment, so this wont technically impact me...I feel Im somehow being taken advantage of.  <response>: This is how my SOs students loans are as well and theyre not through WF. I dont think its an out of the ordinary practice. She can double up one month, but she still owes the next month as if she hadnt done it.Strictly speaking, the benefit SHOULD be that theyre applying any over-payment immediately to the principal balance which will decrease the actual interest accrued on the loans. If youre paying them all on time anyway, it really shouldnt affect you.If youre concerned about a change in circumstance where you would somehow miss them, I would suggest putting a decent cushion in a checking account, setting them up on auto-draft, and placing whatever extra you were aggressively paying down into an emergency fund type account until youre comfortable attacking them again. 