Weekly Politics Discussion Megapost Student Loans |
- Weekly Politics Discussion Megapost
- Best strategy to pay off $133k in Federal Student Loans
- Long post (sorry)- desperately needing help/advice
- Finally finished
- Extra $3k monthly payment
- Teacher Loan Forgiveness - Computer Science Teacher?
- Which loan should I pay off first? Highest Debt or Highest Interest Rate
- Wife Consolidated Her Loans after 60 PSLF Payments
- Options or Recommendations? I’m screwed.
- Understanding Student Loans
- Have 10k in college fund...
- Student loan consolidation
- Quick question about interest and MyFedLoan servicing
- Do I need to complete exit counseling if I graduated from a community college and am now at a university?
- I have six different loans with different amounts and interest rates. Is putting extra payments into the loan that accrues the most interest the optimal way to pay them down?
- How long does it take for a student loan to go through underwriting?
- Loans have not changed out of "In School" status
- Earnest Refi - How long it took for the balance to show on your old bank?
- Getting out of my overdraft...
| Weekly Politics Discussion Megapost Posted: 09 Oct 2019 01:07 PM PDT /r/StudentLoans is not /r/Politics, but student loans have a political component (especially this election season) and that deserves discussion! This is an automatic weekly post designed to host discussions about legislative proposals, candidate platforms, and other political topics relating to student loans. Posts and comments that fit these categories will be removed from other areas of the /r/StudentLoans community. Comments that only loosely relate to student loans should be taken to /r/politics or a similar sub and may be removed from here. Links to external websites or other subreddits must primarily relate to student loans. The rules of /r/StudentLoans still apply. Personal attacks, speculation about the motives or debt situation of other users, and unsolicited advice will be removed. This is also not a platform for specific political advocacy; this includes linking to petitions and soliciting campaign contributions. (This weekly aggregation post is an experiment. Please let the mods know your thoughts and if you have suggestions for improvement either by commenting here or via modmail.) [link] [comments]  |
| Best strategy to pay off $133k in Federal Student Loans Posted: 09 Oct 2019 04:53 PM PDT I have $133k in Federal Direct loans. Two-thirds of that is in Unsubsidized at 6.8% interest rates and the rest Subsidized at 3.4%-5.6%. Servicer is Navient. I'm making $85k a year now. First payment of about $750 is due tomorrow. Some of my loans are still in grace. What is the best way to tackle these loans? Refinance? Consolidate? [link] [comments]  |
| Long post (sorry)- desperately needing help/advice Posted: 09 Oct 2019 05:41 PM PDT Hey, hi. I'm going to try to make this as non convoluted and short as possible. I am in desperate need of help and as of right now, every purposed solution turns out to be a dead end. I currently owe an absurd amount of money in student loans $100,000 (I know) which honestly, at the time I was going to school, no one ever sat me down and said "here's how much you're going to be end up borrowing, here's how much it'll cost, xyz" - I'll get into that more in a bit. I ended up going to two different schools, which now no longer exist. Both for possible fraud, one was for sure found guilty of fraud. Both closed. I have both government loans and private loans. The government loans I can deal with, it's the Private loans, which is where unfortunately the majority of them lie that have become my massive problem. My Private loans are through Navient, (formerly Sallie Mae) and I've been paying them monthly consistently for at least 7 years through an "income based payment plan" originally, once a year I would re-enroll with my income and they would come up with a number. But over the last year or so that's changed. They now increase the payment every 6 months. I had been paying $470 a month for a good year or so, which to be honest was already stretching me really thin, but as of last month they told me that they were going to increase it, and now my new monthly payment is $525. They informed me that it will increase every six months until it reaches $800 a month, which is where it's apparently intended to be. When I told them I didnt think I could do that, and I didn't understand how it could go up every 6 months without my income also increasing they told me that "it's not REALLY meant to be an income based repayment plan and that it was just supposed to be a stepping stone to get to where my original payment should be." I know you might be thinking that the $55 difference increase they just made might not seem that significant but when you're barely making it from pay check to paycheck at a $470 payment $55 is truly a lot. Additionally, I have a chronic illness and my health has started failing significantly. I've had 17 surgeries in the last 10 years, and just started taking a low dose chemo drug, so I'm roughly $70,000 in medical debt. I can't even begin to pay any of those bills because I'm being crushed under the weight of my student loan payments. I am still employed full time. Here's where things get complicated - my grandmother is my co-signer and that seems to be where all the possible solutions lead to a dead end. I am unable to remove her as co-signer until I pay the $800 a month for an entire year straight. So, I can't let them default, as she is 91, has dementia, doesn't deserve to have her credit ruined because of my crappy choices, and most importantly, I cannot risk them taking her pension or assets. I also cannot consolidate them as long as she is my co-signer. As of right now, it's looking like I have no choice. I'm starting to panic, I have no idea how I'm going to pay for anything this month, and 6 months from now when they try to raise it again, well. I want to be clear about one thing here. I know I borrowed the money, I know I have to pay it back, and I intend to do so. It's my responsibility. But what I AM asking for is a livable payment. Even if they settled on $470 which was a struggle, I'd be willing to accept it. Ok, if you're still with me, I appreciate you hanging in there for this very wordy and lengthy post. I'm just hoping there's some loan genius out there that knows something [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2019 05:18 AM PDT Finally free from FedLoan!!! Where to begin... Graduated May 2015 and began repayments after my 6 month grace period. For 4 years I followed the avalanche method and never once had an issue with FedLoan and never even made a call to them. I had my spreadsheet at home tracking every payment I made and everything was lining up perfectly with their website. Started it all at over 60k and was in paid ahead status for the majority of the repayment. Made minimum monthly payments on direct debit for the interest rate reduction and made manual additional payments to the highest interest loans. Started with 14 total loans all through FedLoan at fixed interest and was at 6 remaining Monday. Three months ago is when everything went to hell with these folks. I began to notice my spreadsheet I had all figured out for repayment was moving further and further away from what these jokers were doing. So I began calling, explaining my legit concerns, providing all my documentation and I got absolutely nowhere. I am no further along now then I was three months ago. My one single question will not be answered directly and every answer I was given directly contradicted what I was told the previously. I was hung up on more then once. My phone number was taken for a return phone call more than once and never happened. I was told by one representative I'm paying to much, just be grateful I can do that because many in this situation cannot. I was told by one respresentative this is too complicated for them can I call back and try with someone else. I was also told my monthly payment will continue to increase every month until I pay them off. Just absolute nonsense. It was the most frustrating, incompetent, useless, bad faith customer service experience I have ever dealth with. My opinion is that not one single soul in that entire organization knows how loans work and unless that computer screen shows them the answer they want they are completely clueless. Zero critical thinking skills. Finally this month, I began receiving letters stating my minimum monthly payments that are direct debit were not meeting the required minimum and I was in danger of being deliquient? How when I'm paid ahead until April 2020 and on direct debit am I not satisfactory? Good question ,If I had an answer I'd tell you but I couldn't get one. Because that sounds about right. So I did what any reasonable person does when these criminals started playing games. I just won't deal with them anymore and cleaned out my savings and paid them off. 15K gone just like that but I wouldn't want it any different. To never deal with them again is maybe the best feeling in the world. My mental health has probably improved 110% in the two hours since they cleared. I was so exhausted, I did everything by the books. Followed all the advice. Worked as much overtime as humanly possible, didn't buy Starbucks coffee every morning, drive a Jeep with 150K+ miles on it. My cell phone is a 4 year old Motorola piece of trash, I hate avacodo toast. They still will screw you no matter what [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2019 06:28 PM PDT I feel like I'm losing steam on my motivation here and I'd like to post my situation. I'm not really seeking any specific information really, just want to put it into words for my own sanity really. I went to a private university. Fortunately the grants/scholarships were good but housing was a bit expensive still. I took out about $25k but paid back $9k from working at the time. As I finished there, I didn't care for the career choices available so I went straight to grad school. As some of you know, scholarships are very tight for higher ed, and federal loans have a higher interest rate and are unsubsidized while in school. In addition to the $16k from undergrad, grad school cost me another $37k. Interest accumulated to another ~$3k for a grand total of $56k. I just finished grad school this last May so my forbearance is nearing its end. It cost me nearly a thousand sleepless nights over 3 years, but I landed on my two feet with gainful employment. Since I started I've been making about $3k in voluntary payments for each of the last ~5 months to reduce my burden to $40k. Taking into account a year-end bonus, reimbursed PTO, and tax refund, I hope to finish in about 8 months. I wake up every day imagining how warm that day will feel. I work with the military and I am hours away from anyone to whom I remotely relate. I never go out to eat. I never travel to visit old friends. All for extreme cost-cutting measures, I don't do anything really, and it's super weird to admit that out loud. I'm young and am okay with the choice to separate myself from society for the remainder of my first year out of school. It is, after all, the inevitable cost of the career I've come to love. I am just relieved to be able battle it on my own terms. Thanks for listening. [link] [comments]  |
| Teacher Loan Forgiveness - Computer Science Teacher? Posted: 09 Oct 2019 08:51 PM PDT I'm in my 4th year teaching 7th grade math at a Title I school. I know that at the end of my 5th year I (should) qualify for the 17.5k teacher loan forgiveness. However, I have been going back and forth about possibly teaching Computer Science at my same school since the position keeps opening up every year. My question is, if I taught my 5th year as a Computer Science teacher would that make me ineligible for the 17.5k? Or does that count as "math or science"? Any Computer Science/Programming teachers have experience applying for TLF? Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Which loan should I pay off first? Highest Debt or Highest Interest Rate Posted: 09 Oct 2019 10:41 PM PDT Hello Reddit! I've been lurking in this sub for a while and I didn't want to know your input on determining which loans I should target first--the one with the largest amount or the one with the highest interest rate. Currently I have loans that amount to a total of about $30,000 (+Parents loans which I intend on paying as well, $45k...ugh). I want to just focus on the ones that I owe personally to keep it simple for now. A few facts. All my loans are federal with half of them being subsidize and the other unsubsidized. I don't plan on refinancing or consolidating these loans because according to this sub, one should never consolidate Federal Loans. Now my plan is to pay each loan (loan1, loan2, loan3...) one by one by maximizing the amount I pay into one loan while paying the minimum amount for the others. My dilemma now is deciding which loan I should pay off first. Should I focus on the loan with the most amount of money owed: $4,500 with 4.45% interest OR the one with the highest interest rate: $2,200 + 5.05% interest? Side note. I make about $2500 a month and I plan on using $1000 to pay off these loans. What are your thoughts? What's my best course of action here...I'm trying not to freak out and all of your posts here have been helpful thank you for this community. [link] [comments]  |
| Wife Consolidated Her Loans after 60 PSLF Payments Posted: 09 Oct 2019 04:30 PM PDT My wife and I are both teachers paying back our student loans under the Repaye program. Student loans are the one bill we handle separately. Last month however, without my knowledge, she consolidated her loans after already having made 60 qualifying payments. She did this not realizing the affect it has on the PSLF program. I just found out today, and am wondering if there is any solution or any way to get credit for the 60 payments which are now back at zero, or at least to minimize the damage? Obviously un-consolidating is not an option, but I'm just having a hard time accepting those payments are lost, as it is going to mean a significant portion of our income in the future. This effectively extends our payments on the program an extra 5 years, which takes payments based on 10% of income. Will switching to Married filing Separately after my payments are forgiven help lower the payments, or will hers increase to 10% of our total income? Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Options or Recommendations? I’m screwed. Posted: 09 Oct 2019 09:19 PM PDT My monthly student loan payments have gone up almost $300 a month and on top of that my balance has only gone down $100 *since April* and I just noticed the interest is up from 5% two years ago to 15% now! At this rate I won't be able to pay this off until I am in retirement age - except I can't save for retirement! Regardless of how I got here, here is the current situation. Any suggestions on how to address the interest/balance/monthly payment issue? I don't mind paying forever as long as I can get the monthly down and have some breathing room. What companies/banks can take over the loan and not sell it back to Navient or something? Btw, I never got a degree because the school went out of business, and as far as I can tell I don't qualify for any forgiveness because the lawsuit doesn't cover my state, unless there is something else I'm not aware of, which is why I'm coming here. Navient (all Private due to consolidations/re-finance in the past) - Signature Student $50,089.79 @ 14.875% - Consolidation $12,410.45 @ 4.75% - Consolidation $7,116.67 @ 4.75% - Total $69,616.91 Income (Monthly) - Job 160hrs/month = $2,200 Net Expenses (Monthly) - Rent $500 - Car Insurance $83 - Car Gas $80 - Mobile $50 - Groceries $175 - Lunches $80 - CC Payments (Combined) $375, outstanding balance $1,897.09 - Dental $200 (needed work), outstanding balance $800 - Total $2344.76 Credit Score: 678 [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2019 04:52 PM PDT How did you guys learn about your student loans - meaning how did you understand the type you have, how much money is owed every month, etc.? Do you have any tips for someone just entering this world (graduated school and now needs to pay off the loans but doesn't know where and how to start)? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2019 02:33 PM PDT So, next month officially ends my grace period. My total loan debt is around 30k. My 10 year plan requires about $250 a month. Luckily, I have saved up $10,000 in a separate bank account to eat away at this debt. Question; would it be wise to dump all 10k in at once making my debt a lot easier to manage? Or should I let the 10k cover 3 years of payments? Thanks guys! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2019 10:37 AM PDT My girlfriend is 23 with $51,000 in student debt with Sallie Mae between 7 or so separate loans of varying amounts and varying interest rates. Most of the interest rates are around 10% APR, give or take. Does consolidating these loans into one make financial sense? Are there any drawbacks to consolidation? If consolidation seems like the right move, who should she go through? I've seen Laurel Road and Sofi recommended on here before. Is one necessarily better than the other? Are there other ones that we could be overlooking? Currently, her monthly payment is about $775 a month and she'd like to bring it down a bit since she's making around $35,000 a year right now. Any advice is greatly appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Quick question about interest and MyFedLoan servicing Posted: 09 Oct 2019 06:40 AM PDT Hey guys. I'm a 27 y.o. recent grad, 149k in debt (just from my masters, have like 2k in undergrad). I have monthly payments of 1,600 dollars, daily interest is around 21 dollars. When I make payments for my loans through my fed loan servicing, half of my payment, or 800 dollars goes to interest, the rest 800 goes to principal. Is this right how it should be? Should the interest drop to $0 dollars every month. I'm trying to pay of my principal first of course, but if only half is going to it, its gonna be a pain. Thank you. I'm a mid level provider physician assistant, salary is around 90k fyi I sent the letter that I copy and pasted to myfedloan that tells them how I want my payments to be distributed, its been 3 weeks and they still have not applied that to my account, thats pretty annoying. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2019 09:30 AM PDT I'm using government loans at community and university. I got a letter from community college saying to complete exit counseling. Do I have to? I obviously dont want to trigger repayment until I graduate from university Other question: Is there an easy way to check that I am showing as enrolled at a university on the government loan's end? I qualified for and use gov loans at my current university but I want to make sure me graduating from cc didn't trigger repayment [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2019 06:35 AM PDT |
| How long does it take for a student loan to go through underwriting? Posted: 09 Oct 2019 12:14 PM PDT My loan has been in underwriting for 2 days. I am try to get a loan through PA Forward student loans [link] [comments]  |
| Loans have not changed out of "In School" status Posted: 09 Oct 2019 11:25 AM PDT Hey guys, As the title above states, I graduated in may and expected to start paying my student loans in november. However, to my surprise, Navient says that I am still in school and that my repayment start date is in mid to late 2020 depending on the loan. Has anyone else had this issue? Have I slipped through the student loan bureaucratic cracks, or is this normal? I'm going for PSLF, so I might start the payments earlier, but it would be nice to be able to choose when to start my payments (between now and next year obvi) [link] [comments]  |
| Earnest Refi - How long it took for the balance to show on your old bank? Posted: 09 Oct 2019 11:04 AM PDT Hi everyone, I finally did it. Refi-ed from Sallie Mae variable rate at 10-11% to Earnest fixed rate at 5.3%!!! Amount was $35k. My credit is 640 so I can't complain. Same length term (7 years) with a lower monthly payment. I also heard Earnest is now Sallie Mae's too, but I'm happy with what they offered. I've been with Sallie Mae and their ridiculous variable rate of 11% for almost 3 years, and I have got enough of them. Problem was I entered the pay-off loan amount short $400. I don't know how Earnest is going to handle that. I'm ok with making another $400 to kiss evil devil Sallie Mae a goodbye. Should I make that extra payment now to eliminate any potential delay, or should I just wait until the balance shows and pay an exact amount? It's been 7 business days since I got approved, and nothing has shown yet. I was promised 5-7 business days upon approval. How long did it take for you guys? Thanks a lot to r/StudentLoans and good luck to everyone here. [link] [comments]  |
| Getting out of my overdraft... Posted: 09 Oct 2019 05:50 AM PDT I start my first full-time job after graduating in May and I am currently -£350 into my overdraft. My new job pays MINIMUM of £300 a week (weekly pay). Someone, please tell me I'm crazy when I am stressed about never getting out of it?? [link] [comments]  |
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