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I graduated in May and I am looking to consolidate my loans. I have both private and federal loans. Can anyone recommend any bank services that you have had success with? Thanks!
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Aug 6, 2014 04:40
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Could anyone recommend tips for asking for more financial aid? I ended up being offered more loans than grants/scholarships then I would have liked....I don't think they're going to budge, but I also don't think it would hurt to at least ask? They've given me one scholarship to cover a third of tuition....can I just bluntly and politely ask to be considered for another scholarship of that kind?
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Aug 6, 2014 13:38
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I currently have two consolidated student loans that I'm responsible for paying Parent Plus - $20,438 @ 7.95% Stafford - $16,517 @ 5.92% Since my job security is very high I started looking into SOFI refinancing. They offered me 3.79% on the Stafford loan so that one seems like a no brainer, but I have no idea what to do with the Plus loan. My parents don't qualify for the tax deduction on the Plus loan, so I'm considering a Personal loan through SOFI for a lower interest rate. Any suggestions? My credit score is in the high 700s if that helps.
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Aug 6, 2014 15:24
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If you refi the loans you are most likely going to lose all the protections built in if you did lose your job or had to get a reduced payment.
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Aug 6, 2014 16:11
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RaidJTC posted:I graduated in May and I am looking to consolidate my loans. I have both private and federal loans. Can anyone recommend any bank services that you have had success with? Don't go through Sallie Mae.
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Aug 6, 2014 21:00
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Wait, you can consolidate some of your private loans with credit unions? I should really do this, if only to get a better interest rate.
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Aug 7, 2014 16:20
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Yeah I consolidated all my private loans into this one, my rate went down to 4.9%, which could be lower but it's way lower than what I was paying beforehand. I didn't change how much I was paying total per month once I got the loan all closed out, even through the minimum payment is lower, but that was my choice. Plus now I never have to deal with Sallie Mae again, forever.  All my federal ones are still with the gov where they belong.
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Aug 7, 2014 20:39
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Just to reiterate do not consolidate the federal loans away from the government. The small interest rate reduction is not worth losing the protections you get currently.
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Aug 7, 2014 20:57
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Aside from the debt forgiveness you get for working for a government entity, what protections are you referring to?
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Aug 8, 2014 16:23
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Radio Talmudist posted:Aside from the debt forgiveness you get for working for a government entity, what protections are you referring to? Pay as you earn. Income based repayment. Deferment. Etc.
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Aug 8, 2014 17:58
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Roger_Mudd posted:Pay as you earn. Income based repayment. Deferment. Etc. And most importantly, forgiveness after 20-25 years.
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Aug 8, 2014 18:17
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I'm returning to finish my undergrad degree after a leave of absence. I have about $4000 to cover for tuition for this fall. I can cover about $2250 myself and i'm receiving a loan for the maximum amount of $1000 from my school. As of this afternoon, I learned that my FAFSA application was denied by my school for this semester. I need not quite $1000, and as far as I can tell, a small private loan is my absolute only option. If I really have no other option, where should I be looking for a private loan in that range? Is there any kind of lender that specializes in or has advantages for $1000 or less loans?
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Aug 14, 2014 22:41
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Kellsterik posted:I'm returning to finish my undergrad degree after a leave of absence. I have about $4000 to cover for tuition for this fall. I can cover about $2250 myself and i'm receiving a loan for the maximum amount of $1000 from my school. As of this afternoon, I learned that my FAFSA application was denied by my school for this semester. I need not quite $1000, and as far as I can tell, a small private loan is my absolute only option. If I really have no other option, where should I be looking for a private loan in that range? Is there any kind of lender that specializes in or has advantages for $1000 or less loans? Can't you just have the school put the $1000 on a 6-month payment plan or something? I used to be able to sign a promissory note and do that.
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Aug 14, 2014 23:07
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Looking at the installment plan, it will definitely help, but the best i'll be able to do is $1500 when I sign up and $1500 on October 1. That's possible if I count pennies, but i'd be cutting it dangerously close. If there's a not completely awful option for sub-$1000 loans, i'd like to hear it out.
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Aug 15, 2014 01:58
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I have a Direct PLUS Consolidation Loan that was originally a Direct PLUS Grad loan. I consolidated it a couple of years ago when I was consolidating my other student loans. I'm now trying to get into the IBR program, but was told by a customer service rep from the studentloans.gov phone line that the consolidated loan is ineligible for IBR. That seems wrong; there were no Parent loans in the consolidation. Is this loan ultimately ineligible? It's for about $50k at 7.25% so this will make a very big difference. Do I have any options to make this loan IBR eligible?
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Aug 15, 2014 22:16
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qwertyman posted:I have a Direct PLUS Consolidation Loan that was originally a Direct PLUS Grad loan. I consolidated it a couple of years ago when I was consolidating my other student loans. I'm now trying to get into the IBR program, but was told by a customer service rep from the studentloans.gov phone line that the consolidated loan is ineligible for IBR. That seems wrong; there were no Parent loans in the consolidation. Is this loan ultimately ineligible? It's for about $50k at 7.25% so this will make a very big difference. Do I have any options to make this loan IBR eligible? They're wrong. Have them pull up the Loan Verification Certficate to show that the Plus loan in the consolidation is indeed a Grad Plus loan. Grad Plus loans definitely qualify for the income driven plans, but for some reason, it can be hard to tell the difference at times.
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Aug 15, 2014 22:34
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So I am about to switch from IBR to PAYE. The loan servicer is saying I need to make one "IBR exit" payment in between, which should be close to or equal to my "standard 10 year" repayment. They say it's not a penalty or anything, that it counts as a monthly payment, but that it's required to do the switch, they can't just go from one to the other. Has anyone else run into this? Is this correct? I don't mind making the payment but of course if I can avoid it I would like to since I did not budget for it.
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Aug 18, 2014 12:58
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Kellsterik posted:Looking at the installment plan, it will definitely help, but the best i'll be able to do is $1500 when I sign up and $1500 on October 1. That's possible if I count pennies, but i'd be cutting it dangerously close. If there's a not completely awful option for sub-$1000 loans, i'd like to hear it out. What about a personal line of credit or an unsecured personal loan from your bank. I used to have a LOC from my bank that was something like $1500, I took it out when I wanted to buy a motorcycle in college. The interest wasn't great but since I paid it off within like 2-3 months I didn't care.
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Aug 18, 2014 13:00
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Tyro posted:So I am about to switch from IBR to PAYE. The loan servicer is saying I need to make one "IBR exit" payment in between, which should be close to or equal to my "standard 10 year" repayment. They say it's not a penalty or anything, that it counts as a monthly payment, but that it's required to do the switch, they can't just go from one to the other. Has anyone else run into this? Is this correct? I don't mind making the payment but of course if I can avoid it I would like to since I did not budget for it. I thought you can't switch from IBR to PAYE until next year
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Aug 18, 2014 14:09
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Tyro posted:So I am about to switch from IBR to PAYE. The loan servicer is saying I need to make one "IBR exit" payment in between, which should be close to or equal to my "standard 10 year" repayment. They say it's not a penalty or anything, that it counts as a monthly payment, but that it's required to do the switch, they can't just go from one to the other. Has anyone else run into this? Is this correct? I don't mind making the payment but of course if I can avoid it I would like to since I did not budget for it. This is correct to leave an income driven plan. You get put into a 10 year terms minus the time you spent in IBR. For your payment, you can negotiate to lower it, $5 and up is usually fine due to vague regulatory language.
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Aug 22, 2014 17:59
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Effexxor posted:good info Thanks. It is bizarre that you can negotiate it. Does that payment count towards PSLF? If so would negotiating it down have any effect on that? I also PMed you for some minor clarification.
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Aug 22, 2014 18:35
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Tyro posted:Thanks. It is bizarre that you can negotiate it. Does that payment count towards PSLF? If so would negotiating it down have any effect on that? I also PMed you for some minor clarification. I actually just saw that you're doing it to switch to PAYE. That wouldn't be issue with my servicer, you can reapply for an income driven plan and a different payment if your income changes at any time. Like if you lose your job, you can lower your payment. Reapply with the paper application and select the option to have your payments reassessed and select the option to have the servicer put you on the lowest plan possible. The exit IBR process is solely for when you leave IBR to go to a non income driven plan. And no, the exit IBR payment wouldn't count for PSLF as its not a regular monthly payment. But yeah, I was in the department that did those when it first got rolled out, we'd ask for another monthly payment and if they couldn't, we'd ask what they could make and basically accept that. Really the only time you could haggle with us. And I'll check my PMs!
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Aug 22, 2014 21:18
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Thanks, I will call back and hopefully I can just swap over to PAYE directly. I think that post answered the question that was in my PM. Extremely helpful!
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Aug 22, 2014 21:32
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Anyone else feel a little trapped in terms of paying down a loan while on PAYE? Since the interest isn't capitalized and all my payments go to the interest, I can't really pay down the loan at all until I eliminate all the interest, so making an extra payment of 200 a month is just flushing money down the toilet (since it only pays down uncapitalized interest), unless I first make a $7500 payment to pay down the interest so I can reach the principle. So assuming I stay on PAYE, the correct way to pay the loan off would be to put all extra money I would use into an investment account until I have maybe 20k to hit it all at once. Seems like the incentives for paying off my loans are all hosed up. I would love to be able to chip away at the loan but I can't with this system. Bigntasty fucked around with this message at 15:31 on Sep 7, 2014 |
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Sep 1, 2014 16:59
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So I have 3 unsubsidized loans being repaid under IBR all with the same interest rate. So far I've been paying off the accumulated interest each month on all 3 loans and then paying extra principle on the loan with the lowest balance. Since unpaid interest is not regularly capitalized on federal loans, I've been thinking that it would actually cost me less to allow the interest to accumulate on 2 loans by paying the minimum on them and putting all excess money towards one loan to attack more of the principle with my payment. Is this line of thinking correct? Or will it all wash out when I make a series of interest-only payments when I move on to the next loan after finishing off the first? Is it worth the risk where I could be kicked off IBR and the interest capitalized should my income climb high enough and my loan balance fall low enough?
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Sep 7, 2014 22:24
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Ancillary Character posted:So I have 3 unsubsidized loans being repaid under IBR all with the same interest rate. So far I've been paying off the accumulated interest each month on all 3 loans and then paying extra principle on the loan with the lowest balance. As for deferring paying interest to get tax breaks later, the deduction phases out in the 25% tax bracket So if you're in the 25% bracket, you'll lose the deduction before you move up a tax bracket to get more bang from the deduction. If you're in the 15% bracket, it might make sense to do it. I'm not sure about the IBR questions, though.
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Sep 9, 2014 00:09
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Dik Hz posted:Capitalized vs uncapitalized interest has no bearing on tax deductions, you get the same off-the-top deduction either way. Oh, I wasn't referring to the tax deduction. I'm almost certain I'll lose the ability to use the deduction in a year or two. I just meant the overall money I'll be paying back. I guess I'll throw in some numbers if it'll make it clearer. Right now I have 3 unsubsidized federal loans at $34k, $40k, and $91k. Because of a combination of IBR and excess payments, right now my minimum payment for these 3 loans will be $0. I'm planning on paying $1800 per month, maybe with biweekly payments of $900. The usual line of thinking with multiple loans with the same interest rate is that we can think of it as one big loan with the same interest rate. But I've been thinking that unlike one big loan of $165k, where I have to pay off all the interest generated by that $165k before I can touch the principle, with multiple loans, I can actually start affecting the principle by only paying off the interest on the smallest loan. That is, if I leave the interest alone to accumulate on the $40k and $91k loans, I would be able to reduce the principle of the $34k loan by about $1600 a month, instead of around $1000 a month if I also paid down the interest on the $40k and $91k loans to zero with each payment. Since I'd be reducing the principle by an extra $600, wouldn't I be generating less interest overall since interest is only calculated on principle and not "principle + interest" on federal loans? Once the $34k loan is paid off, I'd start paying down the accumulated interest on the $40k loan, which would likely be over a few months before I'd have excess to apply to principle. Rinse and repeat. Does this sound right, or is there something I haven't thought of?
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Sep 9, 2014 00:42
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Ancillary Character posted:since interest is only calculated on principle and not "principle + interest" on federal loans?
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Sep 9, 2014 10:15
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Dik Hz posted:What makes you think this? It's weird but actually true, as far as I can tell. In the exit counseling the government puts together, they very carefully tell you how interest is done. There are two pools, your principle, and your interest. We take your principle, apply your interest rate, divide by 365. Then each day that amount of money is put into your interest pool. It's crazy, there's no compounding until the loan capitalizes, which only occurs when you change loan status. I read it like 3 times when figuring out my exit counseling, and then checked my loan amounts to make sure they were actually doing it that way. No idea why they don't just continuously compound like the rest of the world.
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Sep 9, 2014 14:34
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So, I have 40ish in student loan debt, and my folks have a decent hunk of cash just sitting around. So I was wondering if they just paid off assumed my debt and I paid them at a lower rate as opposed to the government.. are there any other implications involved in that that I am not thinking of? I mean, parents are parents, so I think the general idea would be to pay them back at half my interest rates, and of course they're more flexible and such.. but then do they have to pay taxes on the payments I am making to them? And then I guess I can't deduct my student loan interest from my income tax, but is that really such a huge dent? I make 52k in NYC, fwiw. Any thoughts or other info I should provide?
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Sep 12, 2014 07:41
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Turkeybone posted:So, I have 40ish in student loan debt, and my folks have a decent hunk of cash just sitting around. So I was wondering if they just paid off assumed my debt and I paid them at a lower rate as opposed to the government.. are there any other implications involved in that that I am not thinking of? I mean, parents are parents, so I think the general idea would be to pay them back at half my interest rates, and of course they're more flexible and such.. but then do they have to pay taxes on the payments I am making to them? And then I guess I can't deduct my student loan interest from my income tax, but is that really such a huge dent? I make 52k in NYC, fwiw. Technically your parents would have to report any interest income they receive from you. You would not be able to deduct any payments to them on your tax return. The principal repaid to them is not taxable. While you won’t be able to deduct your student loan interest payments, the maximum amount of student loan interest you can deduct is $2,500 per year. Since you’re in the 25% tax bracket, this would be a tax savings of $625 for you on your federal return. If paying your parents back saves your more than $625 per year in interest, I’d say go for it!
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Sep 12, 2014 18:56
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So through all kinds of stupidity, I defaulted on my student loans a few years ago. Between the wage garnishments and tax refunds, my loan is now down to $1245. I have the money to finish that off outright but USA Funds also wants to charge me $298 in "Collection Costs":code:
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Sep 13, 2014 22:53
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Admiral Joeslop posted:Are they going to be willing to budge on this? I assume not, I'm sure that's how they make their money. I also wish there was a way just to pay it online, I hate talking on the phone. Did they buy the loan in collections, or did it originate with them? It sounds like they may not budge because they don't need to. If you refuse to pay it, they just garnish more of your wages. That said, it never hurts to try. They may accept a $1260 lump payment just to get most of their money and be rid of you. Since this is over the phone, get anything you agree to IN WRITING before you give them payment information. This may require more than one call, but otherwise they may "forget" the deal after they have your $1260 and continue to charge you the other $300.
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Sep 15, 2014 02:05
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RogueLemming posted:Did they buy the loan in collections, or did it originate with them? It sounds like they may not budge because they don't need to. If you refuse to pay it, they just garnish more of your wages. That said, it never hurts to try. They may accept a $1260 lump payment just to get most of their money and be rid of you. They purchased it in collections, I think. The original loan came directly from Sallie Mae. Thanks for the advice!
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Sep 15, 2014 18:07
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I have about 220000 in federal student loans at 6.8% interest after consolidating. Currently I am on an IBR program. My income has gone up and I will need to transition off of it to a standard repayment plan soon. My loan servicer (great lakes) will not let me direct payments in excess of the monthly premium to principal until accrued interest has been satisfied and about 20k of the loan amount is uncapitalized interest. Should I save up for the next few months until they ask for my next year's taxes and drop a 20k check to pay the accumulated interest before switching off IBR or just suck it up and switch to standard repayments now and pay down the accrued interest incrementally, or does it really make any difference?
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Sep 17, 2014 17:01
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Nodelphi posted:I have about 220000 in federal student loans at 6.8% interest after consolidating. Currently I am on an IBR program. My income has gone up and I will need to transition off of it to a standard repayment plan soon. My loan servicer (great lakes) will not let me direct payments in excess of the monthly premium to principal until accrued interest has been satisfied and about 20k of the loan amount is uncapitalized interest. Should I save up for the next few months until they ask for my next year's taxes and drop a 20k check to pay the accumulated interest before switching off IBR or just suck it up and switch to standard repayments now and pay down the accrued interest incrementally, or does it really make any difference? I think the interest capitalizes when you leave IBR, so if you switch to standard repayment now, that interest will get added to your principal and accrue interest itself. The move that would save you the most money would be to pay off that accumulated interest before you leave IBR.
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Sep 17, 2014 23:40
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I have been told that certain schools will bend the rules as to in-state and out-of-state residency. I'm not really expecting anything of the sort but is that something worth trying for? I attended undergrad out of state, took a full time job and lived in that state after graduation for nine months, but had to head back home mid-summer. I still hold a driver's license for that state, and honestly do intend to move back, but by the letter of the law I'm not qualified obviously.
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Sep 23, 2014 10:57
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I have 33k~ in student loans (all Sub & Unsub federal loans). I have 9 loans total, varying between 2k and 5k. Should I consolidate the loans? At first I was assuming I should since it seems pretty daunting to be paying towards 9 loans at once. But with the consolidation I would be gaining .06% interest and... The ability to make one payment? I'm assuming that there is an easy way to set up automatic payments with FedLoan Servicing. If so, should I not bother consolidating? In case this matters: I got lucky and landed a decent enough job out of college and can afford to make the standard payments towards my loans (although not much else). I read up on this stuff months ago and then never made a decision, now I just feel overwhelmed with the information. I don't want to do something I can't undo!!
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Sep 27, 2014 06:54
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Just setup auto pay on all the loans and you get the .25% interest deduction. Yeah 9 loans are annoying but not really a pain. Plus this way you can put extra money when you have it on the loan that you want.
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Sep 27, 2014 21:52
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Quick question: I'm still undecided if I'll take out a loan for grad school overseas (can kinda just barely swing it with savings, for personal reasons might prefer to have that cash on hand at this point in my life though). It'd be a private loan, this particular university doesn't do anything with US federal loans. Anyhow, my university does not charge anything for paying by credit card, and I was considering applying for something like a Citi Aadvantage World Elite card, which gives me 50k miles if I spend $5k in the first year (used to be 100k miles for 10k, which I could have also managed, grrr), and also has no foreign transaction fees. I know there are some restrictions on student loan money, basically that spending it on something other than tuition is illegal. However, is there any problem with getting a private loan, paying my tuition bill through a credit card, and then paying the credit card off instantly with the loan money in my bank account? The money doesn't go directly to the institution from the loan provider, right?
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Sep 29, 2014 14:34
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