Minimum Payment Time Multiple Loans Different Interest Rates

[scatalano6]

I have a student loan that is spread out into 8 groups all with different balances and different interest rates. I am trying to optimize which groups I should pay off first, second, third, etc. I will most likely increase my monthly payment, but let's assume I pay $336 towards the student loan each month until all of the group balances are $0. In what order should I pay off the group of loans to have them all paid off in the shortest amount of time?

A: Balance = $2,834.49 Interest Rate = 3.40%
B: Balance = $3,670.39 Interest Rate = 3.86%
C: Balance = $1,843.01 Interest Rate = 3.86%
D: Balance = $2,412.14 Interest Rate = 4.66%
E: Balance = $1,223.97 Interest Rate = 4.66%
F: Balance = $4,419.49 Interest Rate = 4.29%
G: Balance = $1,746.78 Interest Rate = 4.29%
H: Balance = $3,996.05 Interest Rate = 3.76%

If I choose to just pay towards the overall balance, the loan company automatically pays the balance down in the following order: E, D, G, F, C, B, H, A

[bednobs]

is this a trick question?

[TonyV]

Bednobs either that or homework?

[bednobs]

perhaps there's some mathematical formulae i dont know about, but isnt it EDGFCBHA as you have said?

[davebro]

The interest rates are not very different so without going into a complicated calculation I would pay down the largest outstanding amount until it got down to the next largest then split the payment equally until they got down to the 3rd largest & so on until they are all at the level of the smallest. Then pay the 8 off equally.

[lankeela]

Get rid of highest interest first is what is usually recommended as you will be paying more over longer.

[Prudie]

I agree with dave, pay off the 3 & 4000$ amounts first as you will be paying more actual interest to them.

[davebro]

"Get rid of highest interest first"

Do you mean highest interest rate or highest interest payable?

[CrapAtCryptics]

If it was me I`d pay them off in order of payment size - largest first, so you free up more cash to pay down the rest. Provided you get it done fairly quickly the interest would be minimal.

[davebro]

20,000 + interest at 4000 ish pa, maybe 7 years.