|
Socrates16 posted:For essentially no other reason than forgetfulness/laziness, my wife has missed several fedloan payments and been dinged half a dozen times on her credit report for it. Does anyone here have any success negotiating with fedloan to remove them in exchange for automatic payments or anything else? We can pay them, no problem, but these marks are killing her credit score. Ask servicer about "rehab-ing" the loan. You make 9 out of 10 payments and they'll remove from your credit report.
|
#
?
May 21, 2014 00:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 14:46 |
|
|
So I have 4 public loans (totaling around $20K with 15K at 6.5% and 5K at 4%) and 2 private loans (about $14K). I am finally starting to pay off all of the loans. My private loans are through Sallie Mae, and I was on a program to help me make payments called rate reduction program. My participation is ending on the 31st and my interest rate will go from 1% back to 10%. I desperately want to avoid the higher monthly payments consider I can barely afford to pay the $500 a month I am putting in my loans now. In addition, I want to be debt free in 7 years which requires a consistent strategy and interest rates. Any advice on how to stay in the program? I've also heard on NPR of non-profit companies who help pay off both CC and student loan debt by providing low interest loans. Should I look to consolidate all of my loans through such a program?
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2014 07:40
|
|
|
NNick posted:So I have 4 public loans (totaling around $20K with 15K at 6.5% and 5K at 4%) and 2 private loans (about $14K). Sign up your public loans for IBR or Pay As You Earn With private loans, you're unfortunately at the mercy of the lender
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2014 14:27
|
|
|
Are student loans forgiven after someone passes away even if they are married?
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2014 14:56
|
|
|
dalstrs posted:Are student loans forgiven after someone passes away even if they are married? Typically student loans are not transferable to a spouse unless you refinance them together. A cosigner would still be liable though. Here is a good article on it. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/student-loans-die/story?id=19460467 spwrozek fucked around with this message at 15:01 on May 23, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 23, 2014 14:59
|
|
|
dalstrs posted:Are student loans forgiven after some passes away even if they are married? If you have a co-signer on a private loan, the co-signer would be responsible for the debt if you die. Also be aware that if your co-signer dies, you might be responsible for paying the entire loan off immediately. Federal loans are discharged upon death when proof (death certificate) is submitted.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2014 15:01
|
|
|
All of her loans are federal and I did not cosign on any, does that mean they will be forgiven even though I live in Texas. I'm a bit overwelmed right now so sorry for asking easy questions. Also our marriage certificate is informal if that make a difference. We were waiting to have a ceremony to get the formal one.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2014 23:56
|
|
|
Sorry for your loss man. If they are all federal you should have no liability. I believe you just have to provide them with the death certificate. Again sorry to hear about your loss.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2014 00:03
|
|
|
dalstrs posted:All of her loans are federal and I did not cosign on any, does that mean they will be forgiven even though I live in Texas. I'm a bit overwelmed right now so sorry for asking easy questions. For federal loans, all that you need to do is send a copy of the death certificate to the servicers. Double check because some of them want a notarized copy and some of them will just take a faxed copy. Once they have it, you don't need to do anything else. The loans will be discharged. I'm sorry for your loss  Roger_Mudd posted:Ask servicer about "rehab-ing" the loan. You make 9 out of 10 payments and they'll remove from your credit report. Not quite. Rehab is done through guarantors and Direct, but it doesn't remove any negative credit reporting. Or at least, it didn't up until the time I left. What it does do is remove "default" status from your credit.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2014 00:04
|
|
|
Roger_Mudd posted:Ask servicer about "rehab-ing" the loan. You make 9 out of 10 payments and they'll remove from your credit report.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2014 00:06
|
|
|
dalstrs posted:All of her loans are federal and I did not cosign on any, does that mean they will be forgiven even though I live in Texas. I'm a bit overwelmed right now so sorry for asking easy questions. Holy poo poo, condolences If you're dealing with Sallie Mae, use their Office of the Customer Advocate contact instead of their main phone line, as you'll save a lot of time and trouble: https://www.salliemae.com/about/who-we-are/leadership/advocate/ EugeneJ fucked around with this message at 02:25 on May 24, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 24, 2014 02:22
|
|
|
Wiggy Marie posted:For federal loans, all that you need to do is send a copy of the death certificate to the servicers. Double check because some of them want a notarized copy and some of them will just take a faxed copy. Once they have it, you don't need to do anything else. The loans will be discharged. Thank you, it's at east one less thing I have to worry about
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2014 02:48
|
|
|
Long time no post! But I have something important to put out there. There are companies, specifically Direct Student Aid, that are charging people to consolidate their federally subsidized student loans in a federally subsidized consolidation. What these companies are doing is literally charging you hundreds of dollars to do an application on studentloans.gov that will take you 20 minutes tops to do. They say that they'll pay your servicers in the meantime with your money. THEY DO NOT. They wait until your servicer is required to put an administrative forbearance while your consolidation goes through and pocket your money. THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO THAT YOUR SERVICER CAN'T DO FOR FREE. These companies will have you sign a power of attorney and attempt to make financial decisions on your loans that should be yours and yours alone. I've talked to people that have paid $200 every two weeks for three months so that they could get a repayment plan that I could put onto the account personally for free. And dalstrs, serious condolences. What your servicer should do, once you send in the death certificate, is send that off to the guarantor. The guarantor should look at the loan and figure out what portion of the loans 'belonged' to your spouse, and discharge that portion. It will take a very long time, but as per the Common Manual that FFELP loans are covered under, those are the rules. Also, you might want to email your loan servicer and tell them where your spouse died, aka the city, state and county and the date of death and ask where to mail the death certificate, as you will have to mail it as per federal regulations. If you need someone else to write that up, it's totally fine. Just give them your account number and that way they can have their Claims department start to talk to the coroner's office and get things started on their end.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2014 03:22
|
|
|
Okay, so I have something of an issue. First, story time. Circa 2009, I lost my position working full-time and was unable to secure any employment until ~2011. Due to my failure to apply for any sort of forbearance, all of my loans (for a bachelor's I never completed) fell into default. Around 2011-2012, I begin to look at going back to school, and quickly got in touch with the servicer for nearly all of my loans and set up an IBR rehab. You can see where this is going. Come summer 2013, when I am trying to secure financial aid for fall '13, I find out I still have one loan in default. So I deferred going back full-time to work some more and manage to save up the funds to pay the balance of the defaulted loan. I contact the department of education's collection group, and they politely sent me to a third-party collector who I'd contacted previously in regards to setting up a rehab (I decided to save up and pay off the loan because it'd be faster). They informed me that they were no longer collecting on the loan and had forwarded it back to the DoE. So, I call up the DoE again, and talk to another collector, who tells me that while they don't have a record of them getting the loan back from the third-party collector, if that's the case, I could set up a payment and get the defaulted loan paid off in full, and I arrange to do so. The DoE faxes my school notification and has provided me with financial aid for the 2013-14 aid year. Now that I got around to doing my 14-15 FAFSA, though, my school and the DoE are reporting that I still have the defaulted loan on my record. I am somewhat frustrated, because if the DoE allowed the 13-14 aid, it seems like it should follow that I should be eligible for aid for the following year. At this point, I have not had a chance to contact the DoE and probably won't have time to sit down and do it properly for another day or so. Am I correct in that my best bet is to talk to someone at the DoE, explain what happened, and see if I can't get things straightened out?
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2014 06:51
|
|
|
I've received a waiver of tuition due to profound hearing loss, which means that I don't have to pay tuition or fees at any state-funded school in Texas for the rest of my life. Even got my payment for the summer term returned, which is pretty awesome. I've got a question, though; if I stick to my current budget, at the end of my time in school, I'll have around 2,500 dollars saved up, not counting whatever I make at my part-time job. I can still take a loan up to the maximum of 8,700 dollars a semester, and my parents are arguing that I should take that maximum loan for the fall semester. When I ask why, they say so I can live better, but I'm already living fine, and I thought that if one can get out of grad school with no debt, they should. Are my parents just being crazy about this? I have until the beginning of August to decide if I want to take a loan or not.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2014 04:03
|
|
|
I'm working on my exit counseling for my federal loans and need to decide on the best repayment plan for my situation. I have always worked at 501(c)(3) organizations and intend to do so in the future and am therefore looking to benefit from public service loan forgiveness after 120 payments. http://www.finaid.org/loans/publicservice.phtml I have 20,800 in direct unsubsidized @ 5.4% with Sallie Mae and 17,800 in Direct PLUS @ 6.4%, also Sallie Mae. According to the above link, the Direct PLUS qualifies for forgiveness. Do you know whether the direct unsubsidized does? -- it doesn't say whether it's Stafford. The internet tells me I can't get forgiveness with a 25 year repayment plan, so how do I decide between pay as you earn and income-based repayment? Doctor Bovine fucked around with this message at 04:27 on Jun 4, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2014 04:12
|
|
|
Pinball posted:I've received a waiver of tuition due to profound hearing loss, which means that I don't have to pay tuition or fees at any state-funded school in Texas for the rest of my life. Even got my payment for the summer term returned, which is pretty awesome. I've got a question, though; if I stick to my current budget, at the end of my time in school, I'll have around 2,500 dollars saved up, not counting whatever I make at my part-time job. I can still take a loan up to the maximum of 8,700 dollars a semester, and my parents are arguing that I should take that maximum loan for the fall semester. When I ask why, they say so I can live better, but I'm already living fine, and I thought that if one can get out of grad school with no debt, they should. Are my parents just being crazy about this? I have until the beginning of August to decide if I want to take a loan or not. Is $2500 going to be able to cover whatever possible emergency expenses you may incur in school? If so, I don't see any reason to take out loans if you're not having to pay tuition and fees and you'll have enough money to cover books, insurance (if you're not on your parents'), and cost of living wherever you live.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2014 05:19
|
|
|
Pinball posted:I've received a waiver of tuition due to profound hearing loss, which means that I don't have to pay tuition or fees at any state-funded school in Texas for the rest of my life. Even got my payment for the summer term returned, which is pretty awesome. I've got a question, though; if I stick to my current budget, at the end of my time in school, I'll have around 2,500 dollars saved up, not counting whatever I make at my part-time job. I can still take a loan up to the maximum of 8,700 dollars a semester, and my parents are arguing that I should take that maximum loan for the fall semester. When I ask why, they say so I can live better, but I'm already living fine, and I thought that if one can get out of grad school with no debt, they should. Are my parents just being crazy about this? I have until the beginning of August to decide if I want to take a loan or not. I can semi relate, I have significantly reduced hearing due to a car accident, but not that badly reduced) money and educational opportunity wise, so stay there.You can always back-date the loans in the spring to cover fall if poo poo hits the fan. Keep up the good planing. Live poor to live debt free and comfortable (and rich eventually!) later. Doctor Bovine posted:I'm working on my exit counseling for my federal loans and need to decide on the best repayment plan for my situation. I have always worked at 501(c)(3) organizations and intend to do so in the future and am therefore looking to benefit from public service loan forgiveness after 120 payments. http://www.finaid.org/loans/publicservice.phtml
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2014 05:43
|
|
|
My wife no longer owes Sallie Mae any money!  Still got more loans to go but nice to get rid of the highest interest rate ones with variable rates.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2014 16:13
|
|
|
viewtyjoe posted:Okay, so I have something of an issue. First, story time. The system they pull this data from (NSLDS, which you can log into as well) probably still has a default notice. Log in and check your account. If there's no default notice, call the school and tell them the NSLDS is clear. If there is, you can just get a letter from the servicer to show the loans are no longer in default. That issue will happen every FAFSA until the NSLDS is updated. Pinball posted:I've received a waiver of tuition due to profound hearing loss, which means that I don't have to pay tuition or fees at any state-funded school in Texas for the rest of my life. Even got my payment for the summer term returned, which is pretty awesome. I've got a question, though; if I stick to my current budget, at the end of my time in school, I'll have around 2,500 dollars saved up, not counting whatever I make at my part-time job. I can still take a loan up to the maximum of 8,700 dollars a semester, and my parents are arguing that I should take that maximum loan for the fall semester. When I ask why, they say so I can live better, but I'm already living fine, and I thought that if one can get out of grad school with no debt, they should. Are my parents just being crazy about this? I have until the beginning of August to decide if I want to take a loan or not. Wtf is wrong with your parents?! Silly people. Keep on what you're doing, only take out loans when needed. Doctor Bovine posted:I'm working on my exit counseling for my federal loans and need to decide on the best repayment plan for my situation. I have always worked at 501(c)(3) organizations and intend to do so in the future and am therefore looking to benefit from public service loan forgiveness after 120 payments. http://www.finaid.org/loans/publicservice.phtml As another poster said, Direct is basically Stafford loans. You should qualify for forgiveness program, but check with the servicer to be sure. spwrozek posted:My wife no longer owes Sallie Mae any money! Congratulations to both of you!
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2014 17:30
|
|
|
Wiggy Marie posted:Wtf is wrong with your parents?! Silly people. Keep on what you're doing, only take out loans when needed. I honestly have no idea, they're normally very wise about money. I suppose they're concerned that 2,500 won't be enough to hold me over when it comes to moving, food, utilities, etc. until I start my job, which'll probably be next August, or a month after graduation.
|
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2014 21:28
|
|
|
Pinball posted:I honestly have no idea, they're normally very wise about money. I suppose they're concerned that 2,500 won't be enough to hold me over when it comes to moving, food, utilities, etc. until I start my job, which'll probably be next August, or a month after graduation.
|
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2014 23:34
|
|
|
I have two student loans being serviced by Great Lakes, and another by College Foundation. I am interested in consolidating these loans simply to centralize everything. However, I notice that consolidating will increase my interest rate from 6.8% on each of the individual loans to 6.875% on the consolidated loan. This seems like a minor increase, but it's dissuading me from consolidating. Should I bother?
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2014 20:09
|
|
|
Donald Kimball posted:I have two student loans being serviced by Great Lakes, and another by College Foundation. I am interested in consolidating these loans simply to centralize everything. However, I notice that consolidating will increase my interest rate from 6.8% on each of the individual loans to 6.875% on the consolidated loan. Aren't you going to medical school? If you consolidate you will not be able to defer the payments while in med school, iirc.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2014 01:38
|
|
|
Donald Kimball posted:I have two student loans being serviced by Great Lakes, and another by College Foundation. I am interested in consolidating these loans simply to centralize everything. However, I notice that consolidating will increase my interest rate from 6.8% on each of the individual loans to 6.875% on the consolidated loan. From those interest rates, it sounds like they're both Stafford loans, right? What would consolidating get you when you could just set up auto-pay at each loan servicer?
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2014 01:51
|
|
|
Wickerman posted:Aren't you going to medical school? If you consolidate you will not be able to defer the payments while in med school, iirc. I am, and I hadn't considered that I wouldn't be able to defer payments. more friedman units posted:From those interest rates, it sounds like they're both Stafford loans, right? What would consolidating get you when you could just set up auto-pay at each loan servicer? Right. It's looking like there's really no reason to consolidate at this point. Thanks guys.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2014 03:18
|
|
|
As I posted a bit ago that my wife and I have paid off her loans from Sallie Mae. We tackled these first since they were the highest rates (7.75%), they were private, and the rate was variable. So now I have the following left: With Great Lakes: Private - $7500 - 3.53% Stafford - $3000 - 6.8% Stafford - $5000 - 6.8% Stafford: -$19000 - 6.8% -$1800 - 6.0% -$2100 - 2.35% With Aspire: Stafford - $2000 - 5.75% Stafford - $2700 - 6.55% With ECSI: MTU Loan - $4000 - 5.0% All the rates are fixed. So I basically am wondering if you would tackle the private loan despite it being the lowest interest rate? My plan was to hit the 3 Stafford loans in order with GL, then the loans with Aspire, then the ECSI loan (It appears this was through the school we went through), and lastly the private loan. I know the private loan doesn't have the same protections as the Stafford loans but baring a catastrophe I don't think it will matter. My plan is to have everything paid off by November 28th 2016 (a Happy Birthday (30) for my wife) so I think the limit the interest approach is best. If you think I should take a different approach just let me know. PS Our crush the student loan debt plan has been going pretty great. 2.5 years ago we had about $92k and my wife was unemployed for the first 6 months of it. We had it down to about $72k at the first of the year. We have been able to pay off $24700 in principle so far this year. Even though we have a ways to go I feel like the light at the end of the tunnel is getting close.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2014 03:26
|
|
|
Wickerman posted:Aren't you going to medical school? If you consolidate you will not be able to defer the payments while in med school, iirc. Consolidated loans are treated the same as unconsolidated, in federal student loan landia. Consolidation doesn't remove in-school deferment eligibility, so don't worry about this taking that feature away. Any time you're at least half-time, your loans will still be deferred.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2014 03:51
|
|
|
spwrozek posted:As I posted a bit ago that my wife and I have paid off her loans from Sallie Mae. We tackled these first since they were the highest rates (7.75%), they were private, and the rate was variable. So now I have the following left: This is pretty awesome progress, congrats! Pay off the private loan ASAP, they're the devil and the sooner you can get rid of them the better.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2014 03:52
|
|
|
Wiggy Marie posted:Consolidated loans are treated the same as unconsolidated, in federal student loan landia. Consolidation doesn't remove in-school deferment eligibility, so don't worry about this taking that feature away. Any time you're at least half-time, your loans will still be deferred. Huh, maybe I've confused private and fed loans, ugh.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2014 04:13
|
|
|
Hi loan thread, long time no see. Read the news this morning, am somewhat stoked:quote:Student loan repayment help coming for almost 5 million borrowers I've been on IBR for a couple years while also working towards PSLF (in another 6, if I'm lucky), but being able to cap my repayments at 10% take home vs 15% will be kinda nice. I wonder how they will handle people transferring from IBR to PAYE, would my 48mo of payments be applied towards it or would I have to start from scratch?
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2014 15:23
|
|
|
Sirotan posted:Hi loan thread, long time no see. Read the news this morning, am somewhat stoked: It would carry over towards your forgiveness. If you pay in any of the income driven plans, it counts.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2014 16:21
|
|
|
Oh my god, today is a good day Edit: what if I already was re-approved for IBR with a new payment starting in July? Will they just recalculate it, or do I have to stay on IBR for a year? EugeneJ fucked around with this message at 16:45 on Jun 9, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2014 16:40
|
|
|
EugeneJ posted:Oh my god, today is a good day The PAYE change doesn't take effect until next year, so don't worry about it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2014 16:53
|
|
|
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/06/09/obama-student-loans-mcconnell-boehner/10236209/quote:During Monday's event at the White House, Obama also endorsed a student loan proposal by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. It would basically allow people to repay private loans through government loans offered at lower interest rates, and Obama again contrasted the plan with what he called Republican economic policy. This sounds promising.
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2014 00:23
|
|
|
EugeneJ posted:http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/06/09/obama-student-loans-mcconnell-boehner/10236209/ EugeneJ posted:http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/06/09/obama-student-loans-mcconnell-boehner/10236209/ Would be amazing for my family. Sadly has less than a 10% shot at passing by folks that handicap such things.
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2014 01:05
|
|
|
I'm also IBR/PSLF looking to transfer to PAYE/PSLF once my annual form submission comes around. My income is variable year to year. The only thing I haven't looked into yet, in IBR let's say I have a really good year and make a lot of money, I stay "in IBR" and eligible for PSLF, but the next 12 payments turn into what they would have been under a normal 10-year repayment program. The following year, I don't make as much, and it drops back to the standard IBR calculation. Or, my understanding is that if I marry someone who makes a good salary and the joint AGI maxes the payment back out, those payments also still count towards PSLF. It appears PAYE operates in the same way?
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2014 22:20
|
|
|
What do y'all think of: Universal PAYE? (Slate link). Some republican in WI is suggesting making all federal loans PAYE and just taking them out of payroll deduction/income tax refunds.
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2014 00:43
|
|
|
Dik Hz posted:What do y'all think of: Universal PAYE? (Slate link). Some republican in WI is suggesting making all federal loans PAYE and just taking them out of payroll deduction/income tax refunds. Would the debt eventually be forgiven like IBR/PAYE, or are you strapped with the debt forever if your income stays low your whole life?
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2014 00:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 14:46 |
|
|
EugeneJ posted:Would the debt eventually be forgiven like IBR/PAYE, or are you strapped with the debt forever if your income stays low your whole life? Honestly, if you gave the choice between capping interest at half principal and forgiven after 20 years, I'd take the former.
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2014 01:25
|
|