There are no easy debt fixes Student Loans |
- There are no easy debt fixes
- "Re-disclosure" confusion.
- Fed Loan Servicing - how to figure out minimum interest payment
- ICR & taxes: please help!
- Private loan options when going to medical school
- IBR and two incomes, two student loan debts
- GradPLUS loans with a rehabilitated default?
- Looking for forgiveness. Here are my reasons I might be able to get it, in the text. Advice on how to start applying?
- Student loan funding 2a Gt 2013 trust sounds like a scam
- Should I take a loan on my 401K to pay off student loans?
- $250k Student Loan debt
- Missed deadline for re-application for pay as you earn program, my payment for next month now up by 200x
- I messed up. How to deal with old defaulted loans?
- Just refinanced my loans but didn’t know it would take so long to process.
| Posted: 29 Mar 2019 03:57 PM PDT Hey all, I'm a fellow student-debt-haver. Until recently I've mostly been a lurker. I'm posting this because I've seen lots of posts with variations on "How do I get rid of my debt ASAP?" posts. While there is usually more nuance, and every individual situation is different and includes different options, I find that many posts lately here are stemming from that formula. I want to emphasize that, generally speaking, the fastest, most reliable way to get out of any kind of debt is simply to pay it off. Pay as much as you can, as soon as you can so you can make compound interest work in your favor - or, at least work against you less. We're increasingly seeing that federal student loan forgiveness is unreliable, even in many cases where people have legitimate claims. Income-driven repayment options are lifesavers (literally in many cases) and I want people to take advantage of that when they need it; however, they will keep you in debt longer. Federal loan servicers have little to no real incentive to help you, so it's luck of the draw of which servicer you get and if they care about helping you (even the individual rep that you talk to can make a difference). Private loan companies provide very little fallback options, other than refinancing. Call me cynical, but generally speaking companies are not going to provide an option that is both easy and less costly to you long-term. With that in mind, here is my "get out of debt ASAP" advice:
I have yet to see a more reliable way to get out of debt than simply paying as much as you can into it. Remember that simplicity != difficulty; the opposite is true. Debt is hard. (That's why I recommend people avoid it in the first place, but in our cases it's too late for that.) When you have income that goes beyond your basic needs, it's really hard not to spend it. Just remember that any extra you can contribute now will pay dividends and will put you even closer to being debt-free. Your mileage will vary, but when I do the math, every extra dollar I pay today is about 40 cents less I'll pay long-term. That's a 40% guaranteed return on my investment. I'm open to being wrong, so if there's an easier/more reliable way, let me know. In my experience, there is no such thing as a free lunch. (Somewhat obligatory student loan street cred - I graduated in 2015 with around $150k in debt, mostly with sallie mae. At this point, after a couple refinances, job changes, budgeting changes, lucky breaks etc, I've whittled it down to about $115k - I still have a long way to go.) tl;dr The most simple, reliable, fastest way to get out of debt is to pay as much as you can toward your loans. It's simple but not easy. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Mar 2019 02:36 PM PDT In 2005, I refinanced my student loans on a 30 year term with Company A. (Yeah, 30 years, I know, but I was working for a government agency for very little pay.) Over the next three years, I received interest rate reductions for setting up auto-pay and on-time payments at 6 and 36 months. This lowered my interest bu kept my payments the same. Under the old provider, I could see that I had shaved off about 6 years off the due date on my loan. Two years ago, my loan was sold to another provider, Company B. I was notified by mail. The letter said I did not need to do anything, and that my interest rate and payments had not changed. When I went online with the new company, I saw that my interest reductions were still in place and that my monthly payment was the same, and the autopay was still in place. All good so far. However, what I could NOT get from the new company, either in writing or through my online account, were the number of payments I still had remaining. Over the last two years, I've made attempts to please have Company B send me this information, or to make it available on my account. Each time, I was told it had been emailed to me or mailed out, but nothing ever arrived. Finally, today, a woman told me that they could not send me that information because my loan had not been "re-disclosed" by my old provider. If I wanted that information, I would have to authorize a re-disclosure first. However, she warned me that it could result in raising my payments. She then told me how many payments I had remaining. The payments remaining would have my loan paid off exactly 30 years from the original refinancing. I said that I had I asked how that was possible, as I'd never missed a payment and when I'd last checked with the old provider my last payment would be in 2029. She said she didn't know, and that I would need to do a "redisclosure" if I wanted any information about anything. I told her I did not authorize a re-disclosure, and that I would get back to them. Any suggestions here? I probably still have my original consolidation paperwork from 2005 around the house somewhere. There is no longer any information on my loans on the website for Company A. [link] [comments]  |
| Fed Loan Servicing - how to figure out minimum interest payment Posted: 29 Mar 2019 07:54 PM PDT Has anyone had any luck on finding out how to ascertain what their minimum interest payment is on any given loan? I have looked all over the website, but it's possible I overlooked it. FWIW, I am on the IBR plan, but want to start putting extra income to targeted loans to start to whittle down not only interest but principal too. I have not been clearing minimum interest payments in the last few years. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Mar 2019 12:23 PM PDT Hello all, looking for a little expert help from the people in the know. The information I've been given is contradictory, even among the government sources. The Situation My wife has two very large blocks of consolidated subsidized and unsubsidized direct federal loans. At the time of consolidation, there were parent plus loans in her total loans. (I have no student loans myself). The inclusion of the parent plus loans limits us to the ICR payment program as our only PSLF qualifying payment plan. She is about 6/10 of the way through PSLF and has been recertifying her employment and number of payments on an annual basis since about year 3. I recently switched jobs and received a large pay bump - enough that it will increase our loan payments dramatically. Since she is working towards PSLF, we want to keep payments to a minimum. Previously, we had been filing jointly as the difference between the loan payments and tax payments was fairly negligible. This year, however, we want to file separately to exclude my income from her ICR calculation. With my new raise the income differential between us is large enough that the tax disadvantage would have to be absolutely enormous to offset the increase in loan payments if our combined AGI is considered. Nevertheless, those tax disadvantages absolutely will be there if we file separately and they will cost us out of pocket to pay (witholdings for the year were calculated on a married filing jointly rate). I absolutely don't want to file separately and then find out they are still going to consider both our incomes - succeeding in paying more taxes and the same higher loan payments. The Problem I am getting contradictory information from multiple sources - and some of the governments own sources contradict themselves. This is giving me serious pause before filing. Can someone please verifying that if we file married filing separately under the ICR plan this year that they will consider only her AGI and not our combined AGI? Page 6 of the government's own resources for borrowers says
Which agrees with what I thought I knew, and what I thought were the regulatory rules governing ICR plans in section B(2) of this link However, this site says:
And this site says:
I would disregard this as misinformation from 3rd party sources, except for the fact that when I run the student loan calculator at studentloans.gov married filing separately makes no difference in the calculated values for ICR! This is absolutely maddening. Someone please help? TL;DR: Governments own resources disagree with whether filing taxes separately when married will reduce payments under ICR. Please help personal experience or good information so we can decide whether or not to file separately or jointly this year. EDIT: Updated link to ICR regulations, linked to IBR regulations by mistake [link] [comments]  |
| Private loan options when going to medical school Posted: 29 Mar 2019 09:43 PM PDT Hello everyone, I was fortunate enough to receive an acceptance to a US MD school this past month and I will be starting there this coming summer. Now that I've had a chance to celebrate the journey to get to this point for a few days, I am beginning to consider what my current options are in regards to my undergraduate loans. I currently have 100k at roughly 9.45% variable interest borrowed from Sallie Mae, was this a smart decision? No, not at all but I had no clue what I was doing when I picked where I wanted to go. I graduated school a semester early as well so my 6 month grace period on my loans ends in about 3 months. I want to know what my options are for these loans since medical school is more than a full time job and I won't be able to make full payments on the loans (which come out to roughly $1200 per month after the grace period). Is refinancing my loans to a lower percentage and then deferring throughout medical school a valid option? Is staying with Sallie Mae and deferring a better option? I just have no clue what to do and I am feeling extremely overwhelmed due to the huge amount of loans and the large amount of time before I'm able to start paying just my undergraduate loans. **extra info: medical school loans will be taken out through the government and as such will be eligible for income based repayment throughout residency and into the early stages of my career. My current goal is to make to to attending status, make no lifestyle changes while aggressively paying off my undergraduate loans in full before moving on to the medical school loans. [link] [comments]  |
| IBR and two incomes, two student loan debts Posted: 29 Mar 2019 05:15 PM PDT Hi, I have fed loans that are serviced with Navient and my spouse has his federal ones serviced elsewhere. We file our taxes jointly. Does Navient factor in his loans into our income to determine my monthly payment? [link] [comments]  |
| GradPLUS loans with a rehabilitated default? Posted: 29 Mar 2019 04:05 PM PDT Hey there. I will be applying for GradPlus loans soon for a master's degree. They are needed to cover tuition. When I was younger and ignorant, I let my undergrad loans default for a while. 4 years ago I rehabilitated and consolidated my loans. My credit report (on creditkarma) shows no evidence of any loan default. In fact I have an overall 100% payment history and no adverse marks on my report. However, since my loans have been in a default state within the past 5 years, am I at risk of being turned down for GradPLUS loans? I've read that if they are rehabilitated it should be ok, but I've also read this 5 year rule, so I am confused. Any experts on this particular topic or people with first hand experience? Thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Mar 2019 10:41 AM PDT I am in the military right now, pending a very very likely medical discharge due to a mental health diagnosis (not service related). I also dropped out of my classes due to the symptoms of my mental illness. I owe about $3500 in a federal loan that was meant for the 2019/2020 fall/spring semesters. What sort of path should I take and who should I talk to, to try to get this taken care of? I'm very poor and really need this to go away. I'd rather it disappear now, rather than spend the next 8 years or more paying it off. If I pay minimum, the Mohela calculator said that's how long it would be, and by the end I would have paid an extra $2000 in interest. Would talking to the school financial counselor help at all? I'm still technically a student there even though I'm not enrolled in classes. I would like to go back and finish my associates but I don't think I can due to the loans. Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Student loan funding 2a Gt 2013 trust sounds like a scam Posted: 29 Mar 2019 05:41 AM PDT Ive received a letter from Credit Control LLC telling me I owe $4k for a student loan I have never heard of and isn't listed on my credit report. The current loan name is: student loan funding 2a Gt 2013 trust. I do have one student loan in default and is scheduled to be expunged from my credit history as of September. The name of the owner of the debt on my credit history is different than the name on the letter. It feels like they're trying to end run it and get to acknowledge the debt and reset the clock on it or something.Either way something smells like bullshit. Has anybody else received letters like this? Is this student loan funding thing a scam? Any guidance/peace of mind would be deeply appreciated. Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Should I take a loan on my 401K to pay off student loans? Posted: 29 Mar 2019 11:22 AM PDT I graduated with a BA 25 years ago and a masters degree 20 years ago and managed to run away from my student loan debt until a couple of years ago. I finally faced up to it after becoming financially responsible for the first time in my life (I'm in my 40s). I found that my student loan debt was 160K (original debt was 75K with interest of 85K). After the shock wore off, I began making payments and enrolled in online college classes part-time to stop interest accumulating on my subsidized federal loan. I was able to pay off 60K during the last three years. I have roughly 50K in unsubsidized loans and 50K in subsidized loans. I consolidated the loans in 2002 (can't recall now why I did that) so Navient takes my payments and splits them across both the loans. If I call them and beg them they will allocate a payment to the unsub loan. Interest is 6.625% on both the loans I want to get these loans paid off as fast as I can. I am allocating 20K/year to pay these loans off, but I would like to pay them off sooner. Considering taking a loan of 50K on my 401K account to pay unsub loan off if Navient will allow me. Thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Mar 2019 04:48 AM PDT Sorry to bring this topic up again, as I am sure this has been discussed many times before. But I'd like to discuss my story of how I accrued such a high amount of student debt and am hoping I might get some tips from anyone in a similar situation. So my story starts off with me going to nursing school for my undergrad and which cost me $75k. I was a real stupid kid then and didn't care about the cost, thinking I'd eventually pay that off. The worst part about it was that the majority of those loans were private loans from sallie Mae. So as you can imagine, those loans have high interest rates. Anyway, when I graduated and started working, I just made minimum payments on those loans with my $75k/year salary. Stupid, i know 🤦♂️. I eventually decided I needed to make more money and go back to school to become a nurse anesthetist (CRNA). If you're unfamiliar with CRNA school, it's a full time program with which you're required to go to clinicals 40 hours a week along with didactics for 2-3 years. So there's no possible way for CRNA students to work, requiring me to use more loans and place my current loans on forbearance. Now I'm getting ready to graduate and I decided to go look at my combined loan amount. And as my title states, I am closing in on $250k. The good news is I do have a job lined up for me that's starting at $146k with a $10k sign on bonus. My contract states most CRNA make $180k their first year because of overtime. The years after, we can make between $180-200k. So to summarize: Student loan debt: $250k total ($75k high interest private loans) Job: $146k with $10k sign on bonus (possible $180k) I usually like to look at the positives and think, at least I have a job. But please help. lol Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks all [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Mar 2019 08:16 AM PDT Completely slipped my mind this tax season since it's something you do on a yearly basis. Just got a bill yesterday on my new bill and it is now 20x what I used to pay. I immediately submitted the re-application for pay as you earn. I called fed student loans this morning and they told me that it may take up to 20 days to process my application and change my monthly payment (given high volumes recently), but this will be long past my payment day coming up apr 8th I can suspend for this next month and not pay and just wait til my payments are adjusted for May, but in terms of public service loan forgiveness, April will just not count towards the 120 payments needed. Question is, is it worth it to pay the 20x amount now, or should i just suspend and have 1 extra month to pay later? Hope that makes sense Edit: 20x, not 200. Apparently education did not improve my mental math [link] [comments]  |
| I messed up. How to deal with old defaulted loans? Posted: 29 Mar 2019 07:33 AM PDT I won't go into the how, but I have lots of defaulted loans. I'm in a much better place now, and I'm looking at my options. The original loans are all over ten years old. I messed up a rehabilitation years ago: is that option totally gone? $45k principal, ~$14k interest. I'm partially disabled, and could probably get a full-time local government job in my field in the next couple years. I'm looking at drastically simplifying my lifestyle, maybe even eliminating housing cost for a while. Anyone have experience settling? Negotiating? My servicer appears to have sold my loans. Could I buy them somehow? Do I actually have any options to get out of debt bondage? [link] [comments]  |
| Just refinanced my loans but didn’t know it would take so long to process. Posted: 29 Mar 2019 06:39 AM PDT Hey guys I finally was able to refinance my 12% variable loan down to a fixed 6.25%! I'm so excited that I cut 10 years and ~$200 a month off my payments! The issue I'm having is I thought with refinancing my loan I wouldn't have to pay the month of April because my new loan said my first payment is due in May. I just realized that the payoff process is going to happen after my due date and I won't have the money for my current lender's April payment. At the start of March I switch jobs(15k raise) and moved over 2000 miles across the country. I've had some unexpected bills come up like my car breaking down and having to Uber to work everyday until I got a new car. I also knew money would be tight in March to begin with because I had to take time off to move and then wait for my new job to start paying me. What am I able to do? Should I contact the new lending company and ask if they can speed up the payment process or should I contact my current lender and show that the loan is being refinanced? I don't want my loan/credit to be screwed up because I'm a few weeks late on the payment. [link] [comments]  |
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