Weekly Politics Discussion Megapost Student Loans |
- Weekly Politics Discussion Megapost
- PSA: Most people are denied their PSLF application because they didn't do it correctly. The nitty gritty details matter.
- Is it legal to make payments on deferred student loans?
- 80k in private loans and facing default.
- School won't give me my Stafford Loan refund
- Requirements for updating income on an IBR plan?
- Future Teacher Expecting Around $60K in Student Debt: how much trouble am I REALLY in for?
- Did I make a mistake?
- No updates from HESAA after verbal agreement to Rehabilitation plan
- General rules for how much in loans to take out?
- Will I pay more with income based repayment?
- First payment due date is soon, when will I get billed?
- Are there negative consequences to student loan forbearance prior to a deferment for graduate school?
- 7.6% fixed interest or 21% APR
- Is an OSAP loan reduction possible?
- Is there a way I can pay my student loans in rmb (Chinese yuan) rather than usd?
- Need to temporarily reduce/stop student loan payments. What is the best option?
- Student Loans, Marriage, Taxes. Eventual Tax Bomb, Insolvency, Help!
- Grad Student with Six Figure Income Seeking New Loan Advice (private vs federal)
- STUDENT LOAN REFI HELP!!
- Reduction in Student Loan Rate
- First time loaner
- Any studies on student loans and quality of life?
- IRS takes my taxes every year
| Weekly Politics Discussion Megapost Posted: 04 Mar 2020 12:06 PM PST /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]  |
| Posted: 04 Mar 2020 06:02 PM PST Whether or not the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is best for any individual person, spending 10-years in a public service job instead of something potentially more higher-paying in the private sector, is something everyone has to decide for themselves and weigh the interest accumulation vs total debt that would be forgiven. However I think we can all agree the idea of working for ten years expecting your loans to be forgiven, only to have your application denied, is a nerve-wracking possibility compounded by the fact that the program is a little complicated and hard to understand for the average borrower who may not read the fine print carefully. If you've researched PSLF at all you've probably seen the statistic of 1% of applications being approved for this--For a program which is meant to incentivize otherwise low-paying work, it sure seems like a risky bet to base career decisions on. Apparently I am not the only one concerned about this, because I recently attended a webinar about student loan repayment and forgiveness, and most of the questions ended up being about the PSLF. I found it quite illuminating and I no longer find the low success rate of the program as worrisome, so I thought I would share. Unfortunately I can't offer any solid verification as I can't link to the webinar, but please feel free to offer corrections if any of this information is incorrect. Most people who were turned down for loan forgiveness through PSLF didn't read and understand the parameters of the program properly. Period. That's basically the takeaway. I don't think it's fair that to be approved you have to scrutinize the program terms so thoroughly and be so careful to do everything exactly right, but that's the reality of it. Your loans can only be forgiven if you've made 120 payments. This was the main sticking point and I was shocked at the number of people who applied after 10 years expecting to be approved when they hadn't been making payments because their loans were deferred. 10 years is rough shorthand but it is not enough alone. That's just how long it takes to make 120 monthly payments. These payments must be made:
Your loans have to be direct loans serviced by FedLoan and you cannot apply PSLF to private loans. However sometimes it's possible to consolidate loans that don't qualify for PSLF into ones that do, but it has to be done before the payments are made. Consolidating your loans resets the clock and you have to start over at payment #1. Also note that on an IDRP, it's possible that if your income is low your calculated monthly payment might be $0. This can still count towards PSLF even if you're not actually paying anything. Also (and this part I am hoping to get some external verification on): according to the person leading the webinar, making payments while your loans are in deferment will still count towards PSLF even if no payment is legally due. (I'm not sure if this is true if they're in forbearance.) Certifying your employment yearly or when you change employers is recommended, but not required. Basically certifying is confirming that your job qualifies you for PSLF. Many people who were turned down weren't actually working for organizations that qualified. When you certify, it IS retroactive to all the payments you've made while working there. If you haven't certified you can still apply but it's really the only way to know you're on the right track. You can't speed things up by making more than one monthly payment or paying more than is required. It's one payment per month, regardless of amount, for 120 months (they don't have to be consecutive months). Also, you have to be working full-time for an employer, BUT if you work two part-time jobs, and both jobs qualify for PSLF, then payments made during that time of employment will count if they add up to full-time hours. If you work less than full time hours (>30 hours/week) there is no way to qualify. Another point of concern is what will happen if the program ever goes away. According to the webinar everyone who already has loans has been grandfathered into the program and will always have that option. Can anyone confirm this? One bright side: PSLF-forgiven debt is not considered taxable income, which is a huge relief. It's also possible to check how many qualifying payment's you've made through the FedLoan website for a little extra peace of mind. I hope someone found some of this information useful. Learning all this made the low approval rate make sense and made me reasonably confident I would know how and when to apply and not be turned down. If anyone has any corrections, additional details, or other factoids about qualifying for this program please share, because I feel like it has the potential to help people take full advantage of the PSLF. [link] [comments]  |
| Is it legal to make payments on deferred student loans? Posted: 04 Mar 2020 02:39 PM PST I have a deferment on 2 of my loans for 6 more months. 1 is an 'unemployment/economic hardship deferment' and another is through the 'Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE)' plan. The payments and interest are essentially paused because I have no income. I'm starting a new job and I'll have some money to pay off my student loans before the deferment ends. That could say me a lot on interest. My question is: is it legal to pay off deferred student loans? [link] [comments]  |
| 80k in private loans and facing default. Posted: 04 Mar 2020 04:46 PM PST Hi there, lovelies! A really long story very short: when I was way too small to know what I was getting into, my abusive/alcoholic father convinced me to take out 80k worth of private loans with the express promise (and the money to back it up, at the time) of paying them off as soon as I got out of school. Of course, his income at the time prevented me from being able to take out more federal loans and, of course, I believed him. He's my father, I was small, life's tough. Well, I got out of school five years ago, and it's been an uphill battle ever since. I moved to NY fresh out of school, and my father was in rehab at the time. I deferred, then deferred again, and used up all my forbearance time in the first three years of living in NYC. I thought, "I'll get my feet on the ground, he'll get his feet back on the ground, this will sort itself out." Ha. It started off (started!) with a 700/month payment on the loans. I was able to pay it without help by scrounging and working several side hustles. Then, the payment went up to 1100/month. You know, more than I pay on rent. I was able to get by for a while. But slowly and surely, I got behind. And now I'm sitting pretty at over 6k behind, and looking at default at the first of next month (April). No, there's no repayment plan I can do. No, there's no refinancing I can do-- I couldn't refinance BEFORE I got into deliquency, since my income-to-debt ratio was so shitty, and I definitely can't now that the deliquency has taken a huge chunk out of my credit score (I think we're sitting pretty at <600 now, for sure). Consolidation wouldn't help any, if I even could. Barring an absolute miracle, and I mean an absolute miracle, I am facing student loan default. And... I don't know what to do. I tried contacting a lawyer, but there's no way I can afford one. I've talked to the loan company, and to debt counsellors, and to everyone I know, and... there's nothing I can do. I know there's plenty of people that go through this. But the world feels lonely, and vast, and I feel like the only lost kid here. So. Hi, reddit. What do I do? Is there anything to do? Or do I just have to jut my chin out and wait for the blow to come? TLDR: My PRIVATE student loans are too much, and I'm about to go into default. [link] [comments]  |
| School won't give me my Stafford Loan refund Posted: 05 Mar 2020 04:41 AM PST I signed up for beauty school Full Specialist Program. It's a 600 hour program. When I signed up I was told that I would be funded by $4000 Pell grant, $2000 in direct subsidized, $4000 direct unsubsidized loan. I took an extra $2000 out though my unsub loan for the cost of supplies. After I signed up I was told that I won't receive my loan money until I completed 300 hours of my program, that it's federal law to make sure students are actually taking class (full attendance requirements). I can understand that. So when I hit my 300 hour mark, I went to the schools financial aid officer and her is now ching the story. I can't get my disbursement until I reach 501 scheduled hours. Now I feel I've been bamboozled. I contacted Student Loan Support and they confirmed the school has had my disbursement since Jan 22. There is no reason to hold the funds from the students. It was suggestion I complain through federal student aid ombusman group which I have done. Does anyone in redditland know of a faster resolution? [link] [comments]  |
| Requirements for updating income on an IBR plan? Posted: 04 Mar 2020 06:31 AM PST 3 months ago, I received a promotion with a significant raise. Do I need to report this change in income with Fed Loans? My 2019 tax return won't reflect this raise, so if I just report my 2019 income when I recertify in September, it won't accurately reflect my actual income. Am I required to report this income change in any specific time frame? The fed Loans website was pretty vague on this item. [link] [comments]  |
| Future Teacher Expecting Around $60K in Student Debt: how much trouble am I REALLY in for? Posted: 04 Mar 2020 04:13 PM PST Hi all, I just discovered this sub, so bear with me. I am going to grad school for my Master in Teaching at a private university. I am expecting to get some "you should have gone to a public university" comments, but alas, that is not happening. I will be teaching in WA state, if that matters. I am expecting to have a total loan amount of about $60K, which not gonna lie scares the living heck out of me--it has gotten to the point that I am second guessing my choice to go back and get a Masters degree. Anyways, I believe my starting salary will be around $58-65K and I am having a really hard time visualizing how I can still live and pay off these damn loans--obviously I won't be coming out with a 6 figure job lined up to make paying them off just the slightest bit less daunting. Does anyone have any sage advice on how to manage paying off the loans and still like...enjoy life a little bit? Thanks everyone. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Mar 2020 03:33 PM PST I'm currently in my last semester. I don't have a horrible amount of loan, did all the math before I accepted my terms and planned to have everything paid off in about 5 years time. However, I did not realize that interest was compounded daily. Right now anyways it's stressing me out. It's been about 5 I've been paying about $150 extra month and I've only seen the total go down about 300 dollars. Is this common? Can I beat the interest? I owe under $15000 since I only took out a loan so I could step down. I took the option to pay the interest down while I am still on school so my payments will increase in about 3 to 5 months. However, by my calculations I should still be ahead of it. [link] [comments]  |
| No updates from HESAA after verbal agreement to Rehabilitation plan Posted: 04 Mar 2020 07:01 PM PST In 2015, I defaulted on about $100k in undergrad debt and have spent the last 5 years clawing out of the hole. I paid off 2 of 4 loans with the collections attorney and have been throwing all my income to get rid of these loans. In January, I read about a relatively new statute in New Jersey that would allow HESAA borrowers that have defaulted like myself a opportunity to rehabilitate those loans (https://focusedlaw.com/njsa-18a-71c-31-8-njclass-loan-determined-to-be-in-default-settlement-agreement/) and I contacted the Ombudsman for HESAA to speak to someone about rehabilitation options.
I have not heard from HESAA since. I have sent over a dozen emails to the Ombudsman and left voicemails for him and others at HESAA. My emails and voicemails have been professional and kind. Customer service acts like they have no idea what I'm talking about and only offers to forward me to his line. I did recently receive the promised removal of those loans from my credit report, but I am concerned I will not receive this paperwork from HESAA. I continue to pay the collections attorney, but I'm scared that if I do get the paperwork for HESAA it will not include the most up-to-date balance and I'll have to duke it out between the collections attorney and HESAA. Unsurprisingly, the collections attorney is shady and not easy to work with. Am I being impatient? According to the statute, they have 30 business days to send over a written agreement once we agree to a verbal. We would be a bit over 30 business days now. Should I escalate this issue? If so, who can I escalate to? [link] [comments]  |
| General rules for how much in loans to take out? Posted: 04 Mar 2020 02:19 PM PST Are there any general rules on how much in student loans should be taken out compared to your expected income following graduation? [link] [comments]  |
| Will I pay more with income based repayment? Posted: 04 Mar 2020 10:01 AM PST Currently have about 36k in loans that are on deferment. I'm in an unpaid internship program that will be finished this April. I'm not sure when I'll secure a full time job and I'm currently not working now, other than a few shifts at an old job that covers day to day expenses. I'm thinking of doing an income based payment plan until I get a steady job to really start on my payments. Is this a good idea or will I end up owning more in accrued interest fees? Any suggestions welcomed! [link] [comments]  |
| First payment due date is soon, when will I get billed? Posted: 04 Mar 2020 04:59 PM PST My first student loan payment is supposed to be due in 8 days and it still says no payment due when I log in to myfedloan. Is this normal? I can make the payment I just don't want to take a credit hit for a late payment because they didnt bill me. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Mar 2020 04:56 PM PST Background: I have just under $20K of subsidized, 3-5% interest student loans from undergraduate. I will be attending medical school in August during which my loans will go into deferment. I recently received an email from Nelnet, my servicer, telling me that my loans were eligible for natural disaster forbearance, due to a tropical storm in my hometown late 2019. These would be 30 days at a time and I would need to renew the forbearance. I called Nelnet and asked if there would be any negative consequences regarding my credit score or to take out student loans in medical school, and the operator was not confident about either question. I wasn't personally affected by this natural disaster, and I make enough money to pay the student loans off. No documentation of personal damages is necessary to get the forbearance, and Nelnet will mark the account as "Current". However, it would be preferable to me to put off paying the student debt, so that I have another 4 years (medical school) to push this back. If I do choose forbearance, I would just pay the interest before it capitalizes at the end of the month. Questions:
Thank you in advance for any help. [link] [comments]  |
| 7.6% fixed interest or 21% APR Posted: 04 Mar 2020 01:09 PM PST I graduated with a degree in Computer Science. So I'm not well rounded with loan and credit terms. I have a good job and I expect to my loan in about 1 year. Should I consolidate my loans to 21% apr or remain on 7.6 % fixed interest? [link] [comments]  |
| Is an OSAP loan reduction possible? Posted: 04 Mar 2020 04:54 PM PST Hello fellow Ontarians. I, like many others have accumulated a decent chunk of student debt. However, I have never had the chance to get a job in the fields I studied ( MLA and then welding) In total, I have just over $14 000 in student debt. I was wondering if anyone here knows if OSAP offers some kind of relief for student loans or not. Any answers are appreciated, thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Is there a way I can pay my student loans in rmb (Chinese yuan) rather than usd? Posted: 04 Mar 2020 11:40 AM PST So I'm teaching in china right now and I want to repay my student loans but I cannot send money home to my US bank account because all the banks are closed due to the virus. Can I just pay via rmb or does it have to be usd? This is with nelnet. [link] [comments]  |
| Need to temporarily reduce/stop student loan payments. What is the best option? Posted: 04 Mar 2020 07:37 AM PST Long story short I was working two part time jobs but was just let go from one. I am ideally trying to find a full time position, or depending on how/duration of my job search pans out, I may pick up another part time job. In the interim though and in the interest of making sure I can cover all of my bills, I need to temporarily reduce or stop my loan payments while I look for a job. This would only be for a few months at most so I was wondering what would be my best course of action? Should I try for a deferment or forbearance or should I try for IBR? (For reference: I am current on my loan payments and they are serviced through Navient. In the past, I was pretty aggressive when it came to paying down my loans and now have less than $10k left. I have never previously had my loans deferred (except when I was completing my degree) or applied for a forbearance) [link] [comments]  |
| Student Loans, Marriage, Taxes. Eventual Tax Bomb, Insolvency, Help! Posted: 04 Mar 2020 06:31 AM PST My fiance and I are trying to map a future financial plan in regards to my student loan debt. Any knowledge, insights, tips, opinions, personal experience would be so helpful! The only thing that isn't helpful is shaming me for my debt, so please refrain from answering if that's all you have to add to the conversation (glares in the direction of r/personalfinance). -I have around $150,000 in federal debt from undergrad and graduate school. I'm a recent graduate and I currently work 3 part-time jobs in libraries, meaning I could potentially start on the PSLF path. However, as my jobs are part-time/non-permanent, I don't feel very secure in this plan. I'm looking for full-time library work, but it this may take some time as full-time jobs are scarce in this field and almost always involve moving cross country (which I can't do because of my fiance's job). -I don't feel extremely confident in my ability to get PSLF due to how the program is run, how quickly the program can be cancelled based on who is in office, etc, and how erratic the library job market is. **For this reason, I want a back-up plan. This is what I need help with.** -My fiance (31) makes around 67K (f/t w/ benefits) and I (33) make around 55K (p/t, no benefits). I have no other debt, but he has around 40K in high interest private loans that we are putting all of our extra money towards currently. I'm on an IBR plan to keep my loan payments manageable. My loans go up around 1.5K per month just in interest. If I put every cent I made at them for 15 years, I could pay them off...but this would mean sacrificing my dream of having a family and a home. I would much rather try for forgiveness, plan for insolvency, or save money in a high yield savings account to pay off the tax bomb in 20 years. -As it stands now, if we get married, we will need to file separately until this loan is forgiven (if we file jointly the IBR payment amount would be astronomical). That means we won't get any of the benefits of marriage/filing jointly, and will both actually be penalized (if you file separately, you can't itemize your deductions --this means I won't be able to claim any of the student loan interest I paid and he won't be able to claim any mortgage interest he paid, etc. -I'm also afraid that, even if we are married filing separately, and even if he buys the home in his name only, the IRS may consider this an asset in the case of a future insolvency. For this reason, we are actually considering not getting legally married. (I've also seen on here that people wait until one partner buys the house before getting married, so the house is considered a pre-marital asset). -What should we do??? Should we cancel or delay our marriage? Should we get married and file separately? Does any of this matter in the case of insolvency? If we are planning on insolvency, should we even keep our bank accounts separate? Should we just say screw all this worry and just squirrel away money in a savings account and pay the tax bomb when it hits? Also, does anyone have a handy site that tells you what your loans will be in 20 years, and what you will owe to the IRS if they are forgiven? We are generally just feeling lost and overwhelmed and don't want to make another mistake that will ruin us financially (considering I already made that mistake). Thank you for any insight. [link] [comments]  |
| Grad Student with Six Figure Income Seeking New Loan Advice (private vs federal) Posted: 04 Mar 2020 09:40 AM PST Hello, I have searched this sub for advice for someone in a similar situation as me and have not found much relevant to my situation, so I appreciate your advice or guidance to a helpful resource. I am enrolled in a 2-year MBA graduate program, graduating in Fall 2020. I work full time earning $100,000 annual salary (before bonus). To date, I have self-funded my tuition and program costs and fortunately, I have no debt (no undergraduate student loans, auto loans, etc). I have three semesters left until graduation which will total approximately $22K in tuition between March 20th and December 2020. I have a large upcoming purchase ($10K) that I do not want to finance, so i am evaluating my student loan options in lieu. My questions: Can someone tell me a good reason why I should not take a private-loan, with a lower interest rate, and begin paying principle + interest immediately vs a federal loan with a higher rate? Given my loan size needs, and an aggressive repayment structure, wouldn't I stand to benefit from paying less interest? From my research, un-subsidized graduate loans carry a 6.079% interest rate while I found a private loan with a 5.5% fixed - interest rate for 10 year term. I should also mention that I have an excellent credit score. Furthermore, given the current interest rate environment, would it be wise to take a variable loan to minimize interest burden even further? Again taking my situation into account, am I incorrect to believe that this is the best option? I found a variable rate loan for 4.37% for 10 year term. This seems pretty aggressive. If the consensus is that I stand to benefit from a private loan (variable or fixed rate) then does anyone have recommendations for shopping different lenders? Or have a good competitive lender they recommend? Thanks very much. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Mar 2020 09:38 AM PST Recently completed my doctorate degree. Along with that beautiful piece of paper I've accrued a nice chunk of debt (zero remorse for doing so). With that being said, I don't want to pay Uncle Sam a dime more than I have to. Looking for recommendations on the best company to refi student loans with. Tell me about your experiences. TIA! P.S. If you've got a black market way to make it disappear I'll listen 😅😉. [link] [comments]  |
| Reduction in Student Loan Rate Posted: 04 Mar 2020 09:16 AM PST Hi all, I recently paid off about 1/3 of my outstanding loan with Earnest. This, coupled with the news about the fed's interest rate reduction, makes me wonder if Earnest may reduce the interest rate on my outstanding debt. Does anyone have any insight or related past experience they could share? Thanks very much. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Mar 2020 08:38 AM PST So I decided to accept a subsidized loan 5 weeks into the semester and I completed the entrance counseling and the master promissory note. Its been a week and a half since I accepted it and it's still pending. How long does it take for the money to be disbursed? I called my financial aid office last week and they told me that the money would be disbursed thursday morning, but still havent recieved any email confirmation regarding it. [link] [comments]  |
| Any studies on student loans and quality of life? Posted: 04 Mar 2020 04:41 AM PST I'd like to see if anyone knows of any studies on the impact on quality of life from so much student loan debt. We all live it and it's commonly known that we are not able to buy a house, start a family, or live normally because of our student loans, but I'm wondering if there have been any formal qualitative studies on this with data that I can cite. TIA! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Mar 2020 12:24 AM PST For about 7 years now. This is for student loan default. I'm wondering what they do with it? My debt is at around 4k and it has never decreased, even with the IRS taking my taxes. It has not even went down by a dollar. so What can I do? Or do they just take it forever? What the hell are they doing with it? [link] [comments]  |
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