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I'm a new hire at a Navient call center. I think I'm going to have to quit. There is so much disdain for our customers, so much pressure to give everyone the same forbearance & IBR cure-all, and far too little time to give anyone even a brief run down of the drawbacks of different repayment plans. Every song, book, or movie that has spoken to me as a person has told me not to work at a company like Navient, yet here I am. Some people there legitimately need the money or believe they are helping customers out (to be fair, default is no loving joke; it's better from an individual standpoint to take a forbearance or whatever than default). Some people are nice enough, but still pull out the old "they signed the loan, they're responsible for payment" attitude, when they themselves would be in the same situation if they hadn't gotten a job at a student loan servicer. But there are some people there who just plain don't give a poo poo about the borrower and just want their credits and bonuses and make-your-own-schedule bullshit; in training, I was speaking to a woman dying from a brain tumor who was clearly not entirely lucid, all while my "mentor" was whispering "man, she just won't shut up." If you call Navient and speak to a collections guy (which will happen whenever your account is delinquent or whenever customer service gets backed up since we take a lot of their calls), they'll most likely be running through a little computer script to try to get you signed up with an IBR/ICR/ISR/PAYE plan first, then maybe graduated repayment if you don't qualify or refuse those plans, and then an economic hardship (foodstamps or 30hrs/week but not exceeding the poverty line) or unemployment (receiving unemployment benefits or working less than 30hrs/week but seeking full time work) deferment last. 98% of collections agents don't really understand the differences between these options and will just give you whatever is easiest to process through the computer script. If we really cared about giving people the best option, we'd be paid a lot more to know a lot more, and the whole credit game would be abolished. But that means longer calls, less efficiency, and less profit at the top, so we just plow through the script, hand out the forbearance and the IBR paperwork, and send the borrower on their way so we can get to the next call. This isn't to say that a two month forbearance and an IBR plan isn't always a good option. But the system is certainly not geared towards providing the best option for each caller, only the most expedient one. I apologize if this is the wrong place for me to vent, but hopefully it provides a little insight into how we work. And don't take everything I've written as accurate, since there isn't much emphasis on details on these programs in training. For the record, we get 1 credit for bringing an account current in any way, 1 credit for taking any payment that at least covers a monthly payment, 1 credit for processing a graduated or extended repayment plan or if the borrower files for and qualifies for an IBR plan or deferment we pre-qualified them for, and 1 credit for signing someone up for auto debit. In one month, an individual agent has to meet a goal of a bit over 1000 credits to qualify for around a $300 monthly bonus; each 5% above nets about an additional fifty bucks, and anything below means progressive write-ups leading to termination. Screwing something up on a call (like releasing information without verifying it's the borrower we're speaking to or not reading a dumb script asking if we can send texts to a borrower's cell phone) might mean losing half or most of that monthly bonus, which is the only way to make more money than just working at a decent factory or warehouse. If I could get paid thirteen dollars an hour to thoroughly explain to sometimes angry customers how to best manage their debt, I would be fine. I'm patient; I understand why people would be upset about us calling them. But the job is just treating people like pigs, with your voice as the knife and the computer as your meat grinder. I'm curious as to how the other Title IV loan servicers compare to us. Orb Crabmelt fucked around with this message at 16:39 on Oct 25, 2015 |
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Oct 25, 2015 06:36
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cheese eats mouse posted:Anyone refinanced with DRB? I have about 30k in outstanding unsub at 6.8% and have only paid less than a year out of 10 years. I'm looking at a 5 year 3.5-5% rate and I can easily handle the extra $150 a month. I'm pretty sure this option only applies to private student loans, not federal ones like sub and unsub, but call them to double check. Otherwise I've never heard of them, and federal regs say you can't consolidate federal loans with anyone other than Direct anymore, so I'm a bit suspicious if they say they can consolidate federal loans. Boosted_C5 posted:Anyone ever have to deal with a false late payment report to the credit bureaus on Dept. Ed. loans that were sold off to Nelnet? Did you contact Nelnet directly? If they made the error, they should be able to report a correction to the bureau. If not, you need to dispute with all three bureaus (Experian, Equifax, Transunion), and would need an account statement with monthly "payments" indicated from the servicer. At least, that's what they make servicers send, so I imagine that's what they want from you too. You can try calling Experian too, because sometimes a human talking with you and looking at the document makes a lot of difference in whether they'll take it. But check the other two bureaus to be safe. GANDHITRON posted:Yikes That's depressing but not surprising. I'm with Great Lakes and they've been fine so far. I can't really speak for any of the others except the one I worked for, and without giving identity details I can assure you that they were never like that. No credit system etc. There was an emphasis on lowering call times but if you were a good rep who made your customers happy they generally left you alone. Having done conference calls with Sallie Mae, AES and Direct's own servicer Fedloans, I can say that the people who work at those places are miserable and take that misery out on their callers. Ugh. The only ray of sunshine I can offer is that PAYE/IBR/etc. are actually really good options, especially because deferment/forbearance time is limited and borrowers will blow through all of it a lot faster than you think they would, which sucks for them. It's what I'm on myself, and my payment is $0/month, plus subsidized loans accrue no interest (just like a deferment). I know it's not universally great, but it's not awful and it gets borrowers into the habit of making some kind of payment if they're not already. That being said, if you speak with someone who clearly has a physical/mental issue going on, did they tell you about the total and permanent disability forgiveness? It's known to be quite the challenge to get, but it does exist for those situations, so read up on it so you can help those people. I had a caller who had honest to goodness short-term memory loss due to a brain injury that I worked on walking through the program. It took forever due to repeating myself, but I think she managed to get it a few months later. One less worry for her, at least.
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Oct 25, 2015 13:35
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Wiggy Marie posted:That being said, if you speak with someone who clearly has a physical/mental issue going on, did they tell you about the total and permanent disability forgiveness? It's known to be quite the challenge to get, but it does exist for those situations, so read up on it so you can help those people. I had a caller who had honest to goodness short-term memory loss due to a brain injury that I worked on walking through the program. It took forever due to repeating myself, but I think she managed to get it a few months later. One less worry for her, at least. drat it, I did forget about that. When I looked at my mentor, he just told me to relax and go with the computer script, which prioritizes IBR above all else and I don't even think it has anything about total disability since that's not actually something we offer (we're advised to just give out the phone number for NelNet, who we're told handles all permanent disability cases). One of the big reasons I hate working there is that it is so easy to make dumb mistakes like this. Hopefully, my borrower and her family will get it figured out. Wiggy Marie posted:The only ray of sunshine I can offer is that PAYE/IBR/etc. are actually really good options, especially because deferment/forbearance time is limited and borrowers will blow through all of it a lot faster than you think they would, which sucks for them. It's what I'm on myself, and my payment is $0/month, plus subsidized loans accrue no interest (just like a deferment). I know it's not universally great, but it's not awful and it gets borrowers into the habit of making some kind of payment if they're not already. Got a question about IBR. I know that part about subsidized loans accruing no interest is true for the first three years. Let's say someone is on IBR for four years and doesn't pay anything on their loans. If they entered a level payment plan in year five, would the unpaid interest from year four be capitalized? I could never get an answer from anyone at work (it's a fluke I even know about the subsidized interest part), but I think I read somewhere that the unpaid interest still needs to be paid down, but it won't ever actually capitalize. Thanks in advance.
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Oct 25, 2015 16:35
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GANDHITRON posted:Got a question about IBR. I know that part about subsidized loans accruing no interest is true for the first three years. Let's say someone is on IBR for four years and doesn't pay anything on their loans. If they entered a level payment plan in year five, would the unpaid interest from year four be capitalized? I could never get an answer from anyone at work (it's a fluke I even know about the subsidized interest part), but I think I read somewhere that the unpaid interest still needs to be paid down, but it won't ever actually capitalize. Thanks in advance. I honestly don't know, and I haven't been in the business for a few years now so my knowledge is very rusty at this point. If you have a compliance department at Navient, try to contact them and see what they say. because I too am curious about this. Also, check out finaid.org if you need a quick resource guide to help you with guiding borrowers correctly. It's a great site and very informative. It may not feel like it all the time, but you are providing a service with what you're doing, and a well-informed rep will ease a borrower's nerves even if the news is bad. Think of yourself as their best resource and maybe you'll be able to approach the job differently. Wiggy Marie fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Oct 26, 2015 |
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Oct 26, 2015 02:55
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Does the 10 year loan forgiveness for working at a 501(c)3 apply to Department of Education Loans or only 'Federal' loans? Having some difficulty determining.
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Oct 26, 2015 23:49
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Okay, so it's been five years since I last checked out this thread and my student loan situation hasn't really changed. If anything, it's gotten worse. Quick recap - about $100k in private student loan debt plus $4k in federal loans, graduated in 2007, made monthly minimum payments on-time to the tune of about $900 until about 2012 when I started with forbearances and then stopped payments completely. So, since I last posted in 2010, I: - Got married and moved out of my mother's home. - Went wild with spending, mostly on extravagant gestures and gifts for my wife. - Racked up over $20,000 in various debts, mostly medical costs for my wife and several credit cards. I was so bad with funds that I didn't pay bills and I let the cell phones, cable, internet, and even the power get cut off a few times on separate occasions. It got to a point where I had to sell nearly my entire gaming collection I'd amassed over two decades just to pay the bills one month, and went broke again a month later anyway. - Started doing monthly forbearances with Sallie Mae to the tune of $50. For some reason, I stopped doing this, too. Either I was frustrated and didn't want to give them any more money, or they stopped allowing me to take forbearances. Haven't given Sallie Mae a dime since then (around mid-2012) so the loans are all very much in default, and now they appear to be in the hands of a third party. - Filed for bankruptcy in 2013 and ended up getting everything but the loans discharged. Since then I've been occasionally getting threatening letters in the mail reminding me that I still have this debt floating over my head and I'm just waiting for the day when the garnishments start and my accounts get zeroed out. Before that happens, I really want to know if I have any recourse here, if I can somehow make monthly payments on these things so I can avoid garnishments and get my credit back to a good level. I just never seem to have money left over at the end of the month, our savings account is meager (like $750 right now). Actually, I'm not even in the mood to keep typing about this right now. Just thinking about it is really depressing me. But feel free to ask me questions about my financial situation because I really need guidance. DizzyBum fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Oct 27, 2015 |
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Oct 27, 2015 00:07
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DizzyBum posted:Okay, so it's been five years since I last checked out this thread and my student loan situation hasn't really changed. If anything, it's gotten worse. This is a pretty involved situation that goes far beyond a student loan question. I would create your own thread. You'll be able to get all sorts of great advice.
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Oct 27, 2015 13:40
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DizzyBum posted:Okay, so it's been five years since I last checked out this thread and my student loan situation hasn't really changed. If anything, it's gotten worse. If you filed bk , your credit is already shot. If your wife's credit is ok it could make a lot of sense to separate your accounts and just eat the potential garnishment on whatever income you have. Heck, what's the total balance of the loans now, 125k? You definitely need to consult with an expert but you're so deep in the hole of student debt that there might be no reason to try to get out. Out of curiosity, did you try to discharge the loan debt and if so what happened?
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Oct 27, 2015 14:06
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GANDHITRON posted:A whole load of awful garbage Add wow that credit thing is garbage. Navient is garbage. The highlight of my year (financially) in 2014 was finally consolidating my loans away from Sallie Mae despite their best efforts to make the process as difficult as possible. I did my absolute best while talking to their reps to not get cross with them while trying to extract the information my new loan needed because I know what it's like to work in a call center like that but cripes.
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Oct 27, 2015 18:38
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Dale Sveum posted:This is a pretty involved situation that goes far beyond a student loan question. I would create your own thread. You'll be able to get all sorts of great advice. Thanks, I will probably do this soon. mastershakeman posted:If you filed bk , your credit is already shot. If your wife's credit is ok it could make a lot of sense to separate your accounts and just eat the potential garnishment on whatever income you have. Heck, what's the total balance of the loans now, 125k? You definitely need to consult with an expert but you're so deep in the hole of student debt that there might be no reason to try to get out. We didn't try to discharge the loans since we couldn't afford our bankruptcy lawyer's hardship filing fee.
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Oct 27, 2015 19:07
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DizzyBum posted:We didn't try to discharge the loans since we couldn't afford our bankruptcy lawyer's hardship filing fee. 
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Oct 27, 2015 19:11
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Navient lists three types is loan categories: private, department of education, and federal. Do the 'federal' and 'doe' loans both qualify for ibr and the 10 year public service forgiveness? edit for clarification of the question: are department of education loans considered "federal" for eligible benefits? Obligatory Navient is poo poo.
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Oct 27, 2015 19:50
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Looks like a new thread is needed. This might take a bit to unravel.
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Oct 28, 2015 08:54
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Wiggy Marie posted:I'm pretty sure this option only applies to private student loans, not federal ones like sub and unsub, but call them to double check. Otherwise I've never heard of them, and federal regs say you can't consolidate federal loans with anyone other than Direct anymore, so I'm a bit suspicious if they say they can consolidate federal loans. Then what are all these lenders promising federal student loan refinancing? SoFi, DRB, LendKey, Common Bond? I'm sick of being stuck in a lovely rate and desperate to not be paying on this bullshit for another 10 years. I'll be 38 by the time they're paid off. http://studentloanhero.com/featured/5-banks-to-refinance-your-student-loans/
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Oct 28, 2015 14:18
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I think you CAN consolidate federal loans with outside parties but you can only retain federal loan benefits if you so a direct consolidation.
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Oct 28, 2015 14:39
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It's not impossible that the regs have changed since I left over 3 years ago. Definitely call them and be very specific about the types of loans you have. As for time to pay them off, I've found that the one thing I gained from working in the business is the ability to not worry about these loans so much. I won't pay mine off for a long, long time, but the amount and the timeframe don't stress me out. I just add the totals in my head to my mortgage and treat them as the same kind of debt, mentally speaking. DizzyBum posted:Ugh This is definitely a bigger scope than I can help with. I wish you all the luck.
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Oct 28, 2015 19:29
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cheese eats mouse posted:Then what are all these lenders promising federal student loan refinancing? SoFi, DRB, LendKey, Common Bond? My understanding is that every one of those companies tempts people with lower interest rates and strips the loans of any and all protections they might have had.
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Oct 28, 2015 22:49
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My loan service company is Great Lakes, and I have a question about how payments are applied. From what the website says, it goes Late Fees (whatever other fees), then interest, then the loan with the highest interest rate. Simple, right? Well my lowest rate is 3.15%, with an original amount of $1,000. All others are 5%+. If the above was correct, the loan with a 3.15% rate should still be $1,000 plus any accrued interest (and go back down to $1,000 when I make my payment). Right? Balance now, including interest, is $992.85- that doesn't seem correct. Should I contact them when I make the next payment and make sure it actually goes to the one with the higher rate? Moneyball fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Oct 29, 2015 |
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Oct 28, 2015 23:39
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So I also have Great Lakes, and I think what you're experiencing may have something to do with daily calculation of interest and when your payments are being posted to the loans... But I don't know that for certain.
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Oct 29, 2015 00:09
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Moneyball posted:My loan service company is Great Lakes, and I have a question about how payments are applied. Don't you still need to be making enough payments to have the loan pay off at some point? You can't have nothing going towards a loan.
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Oct 29, 2015 04:16
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Okay, so big question. This seems very insane to me when I think about it, but the numbers work, as far as I can tell. What am I missing? Basically I'm thinking about going back to school to postpone loan payments. I've got about 50k in private loans that I have to pay $1000 per month on, which is obviously, terrible. I also have about 100k in federal loans that they want me to pay about $500 per month on. Combining these two comes up with an amount that is nearly impossible for me to pay. Even just the $1000/month is no good and I can't keep federal loans in forbearance forever. IBR doesn't help much, $500/month IS the IBR payment, down from like $650 without it. They don't take private loans into account. The private loans will be paid off in about 5 years, which is great, but those 5 years are going to suck. I'd love to refinance them to a longer term but I don't think it's possible with my credit, and it's definitely not possible to do it at the low interest rate I currently have. So what if I went back to school? Everything goes into deferment. I can keep making payments to cut down on the private loans, but at a more reasonable pace. I could even take out loans for living expenses, continue working, and use that money to pay down the private loans even further. I could actually get them nearly paid off with a couple years of partial payments + paying with loan disbursements. Of course, I would be adding quite a bit of money to my federal loan totals. But, my job qualifies me for PSLF, so what does it matter? My federal loan payment would be the same as it is now. So why doesn't this work? And why does anyone think the government taking over student loans was going to save the government money? What would I go back to school for? Well option 1 is find something career related so it might actually be helpful. Not really sure what this would be as I'm already over educated for my job. Option 2 is just find the absolute cheapest school and get something easy that will require minimal effort to get passing grades in.
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Oct 29, 2015 04:40
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Moneyball posted:My loan service company is Great Lakes, and I have a question about how payments are applied. You still have principle being paid on that loan. What they are saying is if you don't specify a loan to put extra payment towards it will go to the loan with the highest interest. Great lakes is a wonderful servicer though and it is super easy to see where your money is going and decide where to put any extra payments. Great lakes is probably the best servicer I dealt with.
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Oct 29, 2015 13:53
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Okay, makes sense to me. I was just curious. They do seem to be a good servicer. Haven't experienced and of the horror stories other people in this thread have.
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Oct 29, 2015 14:30
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Re: refinancing with the likes of DRB and SoFi, from what I've read on bogleheads if you're not making MD-level income with a 750+ credit score, you won't even be close to the advertised rates. If you have high income and can pay off the loan quickly the lower variable rate will still save you money with a pretty low interest rate risk but probably not as much savings as the ads would have you believe. For a lot of people the federal loan protections are probably with 1% or so per year in interest.
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Oct 29, 2015 14:44
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antiga posted:Re: refinancing with the likes of DRB and SoFi, from what I've read on bogleheads if you're not making MD-level income with a 750+ credit score, you won't even be close to the advertised rates. If you have high income and can pay off the loan quickly the lower variable rate will still save you money with a pretty low interest rate risk but probably not as much savings as the ads would have you believe. For a lot of people the federal loan protections are probably with 1% or so per year in interest. My girlfriend tested the waters with sofi and I can ask her about it and report back if anyone is curious. She just did two small loans I believe to see how it would go. She is a dentist so I would guess she is on the good rate side of things.
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Oct 29, 2015 14:58
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No MD but I make way above market here and my credit score is flirting with 800. I was going to apply after I paid down some credit cards and closed some newer cards to make it the 10 year old credit history it should be.
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Oct 29, 2015 15:32
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I'm very interested to hear what rate you're offered. The image from from bogleheads where they offer you some nominal discount from your federal rates and nothing more was disappointing.
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Oct 30, 2015 13:10
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antiga posted:I'm very interested to hear what rate you're offered. The image from from bogleheads where they offer you some nominal discount from your federal rates and nothing more was disappointing. I talked to my girlfriend last night and she seemed to have decent things to say about sofi. She is pretty guarded about her finances though (I think dental school was very expensive). So she said that her loans she did consolidate, it sounds like she did around $10k worth, to test the waters were at a 6.8% fixed rate. So I am guessing these were federal loans. She is employed as a dentist with a decent income and lives frugal as heck (doesn't have any other loans, super cheap housing, etc). She said she had a credit score of 760 when she did the refinance in January. She was offered two options. 5.5% fixed and 4.1% variable. She took the variable option. The rate is currently at 4.2%. If rates stay low, maybe OK. Personally (not that I am dumb enough to tell her this) I am not sure it is worth it. 2.5% interest is nothing to sneeze at with the variable option but there is a lot of uncertainty coming up with rates I feel like. The fixed rate doesn't seem worth losing the federal protections to me. She said the company has been pretty good to work with though, so there is that at least. If you are with navient it could be a decent option. If there are any more specific questions let me know and I will see if she has any answers.
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Oct 30, 2015 13:46
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After hearing stories from various people over the years I worked in the industry, I cannot in good conscious ever recommend consolidating federal loans into a private account. There are a ton of built-in protections for federal loans that don't apply to private, and although you may never use these protections, I have seen enough horror stories to not risk it or encourage someone else to risk it.
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Oct 30, 2015 18:18
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I have the same thought but not sure how to tell your girlfriend that when she is guarded about finances. I think sofi could work out if you have private loans with navient though. What an awful company.
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Oct 30, 2015 18:26
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Variable loans are great if your income is high enough / balance is low enough that a rate increase isn't catastrophic for you. What bothers me about DRB / SoFi (and to be clear, it's hearsay) is that they advertise ridiculous sub-2% rates that no normal person can qualify for. If 95% of applicants can't get that rate I don't think they should be able to advertise it.
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Oct 30, 2015 22:53
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So 3 years after finishing college I'm finally starting to repay my student loans and I'm interested in finding out the best way to go about it. I have about $20,000 in total student loans currently. I paid a few thousand off right when I graduated, I then joined the Peace Corps and so I had Economic Hardship Deferment until about May of 2015. I am currently working Japan and making enough money that I want to try and start paying off my loans. Here is the basic rundown. Sorry for the horrible quality, my mom sent this from some lovely camera phone and I'm trying to get access to my online account which isn't working for some reason. I just want to make sure I'm understanding it all correctly. About $12,000.00 of my loans are "DLSTFD", which should be Stafford Direct Subsidized Loans, and $8,000.00 are "DLUNSTD" which are Stafford Direct Unsubsidized Loans. I'm planning on returning to grad school in 2017, so it seems like it would make more sense to attempt to pay off the Unsubsidized loans because they not only have the highest interest rate (6.8% compared to the 3.4-5.6% on my Subsidized) but also my Subsidized loans will not accrue interested if I go back to grad school. So is there a way for me focus on paying off the DLUNSTD loans first? The only issue is that I don't make a whole lot of money, and sending home money from my account in Japan to America eats up a pretty hefty amount between bank fees and exchange rates, so I don't think I have enough to pay interest+principal every month. And furthermore, I'm not sure exactly how to just make targeted payments to specific loans because I just kind of get a bill and have been paying that. Right now my minimum monthly payment is $240.00. Sorry if some of these questions can be answered by looking at my account info online, but they're taking forever to get back to me with my account information so I'm just trying to figure things out on my own.
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Nov 2, 2015 02:32
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spwrozek posted:Personally (not that I am dumb enough to tell her this) I am not sure it is worth it. 2.5% interest is nothing to sneeze at with the variable option but there is a lot of uncertainty coming up with rates I feel like. The fixed rate doesn't seem worth losing the federal protections to me. Wiggy Marie posted:After hearing stories from various people over the years I worked in the industry, I cannot in good conscious ever recommend consolidating federal loans into a private account. There are a ton of built-in protections for federal loans that don't apply to private, and although you may never use these protections, I have seen enough horror stories to not risk it or encourage someone else to risk it. These are right, in my opinion. I applied with SoFi. From my understanding, some of the factors they use to determine your loan are the prestige of the school you attended, your major, length of employment and your current income and debt. I was trying to get a lower rate on a private loan, but they require a minimum amount of $10,000, so I had to combine it with some federal loans. My income is decent, but not wildly out of the ordinary. My credit score is impeccable. My school was nothing special, but my major was pretty solid. The fixed rate they offered was higher than the fixed rate of ~60% of the constituent loans. The variable rate was slightly better than my existing rates, but not nearly enough for the extra risk and I didn't want a variable rate. Plus I would be converting some loans from federal to private, which is even more risk. When I asked about their methodology, they cited my income and lack of work history (~2 years out of school, even though I worked all through school). They seemed nice enough, but like was already said, their model is not worth it unless you are in the top 10% of both school attended and post-graduate income.
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Nov 2, 2015 03:17
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If you've been in the Peace Corps you may be eligible for student loan relief of some type. I would recommend investigating that first to see if you can get something. http://www.peacecorps.gov/volunteer/learn/whyvol/during/loans/
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Nov 2, 2015 03:34
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Devian666 posted:If you've been in the Peace Corps you may be eligible for student loan relief of some type. I would recommend investigating that first to see if you can get something. Haha, so not to derail this thread, but in case anyone here was wondering about this, it's complete horseshit. Peace Corps Recruiters will try and sell you this crap about their 'Loan Forgiveness' or 'Loan Reimbursement' as one of the great perks of Peace Corps. It's a lie. By 'Forgiveness' what they mean is that while in Peace Corps and for shortly after you automatically qualify for 'Economic Hardship' which just means you get to defer loans. And when they say 'Peace Corps will help pay you're student loans!' what they really mean is that while you are a volunteer they will take the $250 a month you get 'paid' and put it towards your loans. But that money is really just your Readjustment Allowance (Money you get for successful completion of service) and is necessary for about 85% of Returned Volunteers to get back on their feet after being gone for 2 years. There's also the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, but that requires that you work in a specific Public Sector job and have made 120 consecutive payments towards your student loans already.
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Nov 2, 2015 04:57
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Tequila Sunrise posted:Haha, so not to derail this thread, but in case anyone here was wondering about this, it's complete horseshit. Peace Corps Recruiters will try and sell you this crap about their 'Loan Forgiveness' or 'Loan Reimbursement' as one of the great perks of Peace Corps. It's a lie. By 'Forgiveness' what they mean is that while in Peace Corps and for shortly after you automatically qualify for 'Economic Hardship' which just means you get to defer loans. And when they say 'Peace Corps will help pay you're student loans!' what they really mean is that while you are a volunteer they will take the $250 a month you get 'paid' and put it towards your loans. But that money is really just your Readjustment Allowance (Money you get for successful completion of service) and is necessary for about 85% of Returned Volunteers to get back on their feet after being gone for 2 years. So they just poo poo on you.  I remember one goon planned to go into the Peace Corps for the student loan write off. His situation was a disaster without factoring in what you've said.
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Nov 2, 2015 05:14
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In my particular case I didn't care at all about the loan forgiveness, I was doing Peace Corps purely for the experience. But yeah, they really try to sell it like you'll actually get benefits from it. But you don't. In case anyone out there is wondering, there is no tangible benefit to Peace Corps besides being eligible for certain Fellowships if you want to study at Graduate School.
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Nov 2, 2015 05:31
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Just signed up for my last 8 months of Dept of Ed forbearance. My mom keeps talking about Warren is somehow going to magically fix interest rates on these nearly no-risk loans, and every time she talks to me about it I just want to shoot myself because I know it's never going to happen. 8 months left, and then wage slavery until ???? FYI, IBR payments are less than the interest on my loans. It's kind of comedic how hosed up this whole system is. mitztronic fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Nov 3, 2015 |
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Nov 3, 2015 00:41
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Tequila Sunrise posted:Haha, so not to derail this thread, but in case anyone here was wondering about this, it's complete horseshit. Peace Corps Recruiters will try and sell you this crap about their 'Loan Forgiveness' or 'Loan Reimbursement' as one of the great perks of Peace Corps. It's a lie. By 'Forgiveness' what they mean is that while in Peace Corps and for shortly after you automatically qualify for 'Economic Hardship' which just means you get to defer loans. And when they say 'Peace Corps will help pay you're student loans!' what they really mean is that while you are a volunteer they will take the $250 a month you get 'paid' and put it towards your loans. But that money is really just your Readjustment Allowance (Money you get for successful completion of service) and is necessary for about 85% of Returned Volunteers to get back on their feet after being gone for 2 years. I agree that they oversell it, but I had my grad school re-package as many of my loans as as possible into perkins loans (RIP) before leaving, which meant that I got a $8000 forgiveness after I finished. Also yeah, there's always PSLFP should I continue on at an NGO or government job.
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Nov 3, 2015 17:39
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I feel like you can get a lot more benefits if you do Peace Corps in conjunction with Graduate studies. The International Masters where you do a year of Peace Corps work to count as Graduate studies seems like a really good deal according to most people I know who did it. If you're just someone who graduated with a Bachelor's and a bunch of student debt there's not much benefit though. Back to my original question, is there a way to target specific loans when you are paying off your debt? I have one loan that's about $300 at 6.8% and my parents said they'd pay that particular one off as a Christmas gift, but I have no idea how to target that specific one. If I can find the specific loan date (Or maybe there's some sort of number for each specific loan?) can I just send extra money with some sort of instruction to target that specific amount?
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Nov 4, 2015 01:41
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