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ch3cooh posted:If you are signed up for the graduated-extended repayment plan and you make a 2nd payment in the month is any of that put toward interest or does it entirely go to principle? It probably depends on your loan terms but yes it should pay the accrued interest and then the principle.
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Dec 4, 2015 00:53
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so, tell me about consolidation my wife has 7 loans outstanding GATE w/ AES $3700 @ 3.79% Stafford w/ Navient $850 @ 6.55% Stafford w/ Navient $6500 @ 6.55% Stafford w/ Navient $12000 @ 6.55% Stafford w/ Navient $700 @ 6.55% Direct Loan w/ Navient $900 @ 2.07% Direct Loan w/ Navient $2100 @ 6.55% making payments on time has never been an issue, but gently caress it, rates are low these days. what are my options?
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Dec 9, 2015 14:15
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I wouldn't do anything. Federal protections are great and you will have to go private to get any better rate. The rate probably isn't worth the risk.
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Dec 9, 2015 14:27
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Just throw extra money at one of the smaller 6.55% loans until you knock that one out. Then move on to the next one, and the next, until all you have left are the two large 6.55% ones and your lower interest rate ones. Tackle the large 6.55% ones next, then finally home stretch on the small ones. Or hell, you could even do the small ones regardless of the interest rate if you need motivation to keep slaying them, loan by loan.
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Dec 9, 2015 16:57
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I mean I have cash to just pay them all off but it'd totally wipe out my savings.
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Dec 11, 2015 22:07
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WhiskeyJuvenile posted:I mean I have cash to just pay them all off but it'd totally wipe out my savings. Of course if the issue is that it's your cash and your wife's loans, then that's E/N not BFC.
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Dec 12, 2015 14:38
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6.5% loans or roth 401k (no match, even pre-tax)/Roth IRA?
Moneyball fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Dec 12, 2015 |
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Dec 12, 2015 22:46
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Moneyball posted:6.5% loans or roth 401k (no match, even pre-tax)/Roth IRA?
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Dec 13, 2015 00:02
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I'm trying to understand how interest rates are set better, but from my understanding, right now is a good time to get a fixed rate loan because it's likely rates will go up soon, right? I'm shopping around for refinancing and my bank (Navy Federal) is only offering a variable rate at 3.55%, while some other lenders are offering me around 6% fixed. Is that significant enough that it's worth the risk of rising rates?
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Dec 16, 2015 02:38
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Deeters posted:I'm trying to understand how interest rates are set better, but from my understanding, right now is a good time to get a fixed rate loan because it's likely rates will go up soon, right? I'm shopping around for refinancing and my bank (Navy Federal) is only offering a variable rate at 3.55%, while some other lenders are offering me around 6% fixed. Is that significant enough that it's worth the risk of rising rates?
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Dec 17, 2015 01:38
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So I'm one of the few with pre-07 student loans that are actually variable, and now that interest rates are going up for the first time since the loans originated, time to lock those rates, right? I have 5 individual loans, one of them is fixed at 6.55% , and I don't want to consolidate that one. Is it possible to just consolidate the others to lock the rate?
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Dec 18, 2015 16:06
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mastershakeman posted:So I'm one of the few with pre-07 student loans that are actually variable, and now that interest rates are going up for the first time since the loans originated, time to lock those rates, right? I have 5 individual loans, one of them is fixed at 6.55% , and I don't want to consolidate that one. Is it possible to just consolidate the others to lock the rate?
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Dec 18, 2015 22:48
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So I would bet my life savings at this point in Bernie Sanders being the next president, which bums me out. Personal politics aside, if he were to be elected, is there any possibility he would do anything for outstanding loans? Or just "free" college going forward and everyone currently repaying them is SOL? I'll be in the position to pay a large portion of my balance down starting next year, but that all depends on any changes being made.
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Dec 24, 2015 02:19
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Moneyball posted:So I would bet my life savings at this point in Bernie Sanders being the next president, which bums me out. Personal politics aside, if he were to be elected, is there any possibility he would do anything for outstanding loans? Or just "free" college going forward and everyone currently repaying them is SOL? *Even with a democrat supermajority in the senate and majority in the house, I still wouldn't expect to see any kind of loan forgiveness.
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Dec 24, 2015 02:47
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Moneyball posted:So I would bet my life savings at this point in Bernie Sanders being the next president, which bums me out. Personal politics aside, if he were to be elected, is there any possibility he would do anything for outstanding loans? Or just "free" college going forward and everyone currently repaying them is SOL? Bernie supported Elizabeth Warren's bill to refinance private loans as public loans that would qualify for forgiveness, but the GOP killed that last year: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/217908-gop-blocks-warrens-student-loan-bill
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Dec 24, 2015 04:15
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Moneyball posted:
Remember this post the next time someone tells you they aren't in favor of student loan reform. You owe the money and you're capable of paying, you'd just rather that someone else pay instead. Also no way on earth that either of those things you mentioned actually happen even if he is elected. Zero. People are suckers during elections.
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Dec 24, 2015 05:18
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So I need help figuring out student loans. My wife currently has $83,400 in grad loans at rates of 7-8% for most of them. 1. She has worked the last 1-2 years 30 hours in one job (public librarian), 8 hours at another job (also public librarian) 2. She now got a full time job (hooray) that starts in January as a full time librarian at the county level (so public) 3. Income at said job is $45K a year with 7% 401k match (and other benefits). For context I make about $60K a year depending on OT and Commission (and 6% match) 4. One major question will be whether the 10 year mark starts from when we started paying, or from January when she goes full time. 5. Loans are consolidated through Fedloan. 6. We have been paying about $550 towards her loans monthly, which is the minimum they gave us when factoring her income and my income. Edit: other context: we have about $3K left on my car, $15K on my loans, $7K on her undergrad loans, in terms of other things that would be nice to pay off. On researching online, this is a nice rosy article on supporting pay minimums for 10 years: http://www.edcentral.org/beware-savvy-borrowers-using-income-based-repayment/ So if you look at this advice, the advice is basically get monthly payments as low as possible (on just her income it could go down to $200) and just get the debt forgiven. And this is a nice not rosy article on having to pay a poo poo Ton of taxes when forgiven: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/27/the-hidden-trap-of-income-based-repayment.html And this advice saying I might gently caress yourself by having $80,000 in extra income to pay taxes on one year. Which if you take a basic tax of 40%, is $32,000 owed. So yeah, when does my 10 year countdown start by, what do I need to file to get The 10 years started, and how should I approach paying this? I'm researching it more, but advice on the best option would be welcome. Duckman2008 fucked around with this message at 11:51 on Dec 24, 2015 |
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Dec 24, 2015 11:42
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Duckman2008 posted:So I need help figuring out student loans. My wife currently has $83,400 in grad loans at rates of 7-8% for most of them. First off, your marginal income tax rate is not 40%, it's probably 28%, maybe even less. Although it might be a bit higher in 8 years. Also, unless the law changes, PSLF forgiveness is NOT taxable like regular IBR forgiveness. The 10 years is 120 qualified payments while employed in a nonprofit or government job. I'm not sure about the part time employment being qualifying. Department of Education considers 30+ hours a week to be full time for calculating eligibility, but if I was in that situation and wasn't sure, I'd start the paperwork NOW to figure it out. Note that submitting that paperwork will change your student loan servicer. Details here at the Dept of Education
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Dec 24, 2015 12:42
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antiga posted:Remember this post the next time someone tells you they aren't in favor of student loan reform. You owe the money and you're capable of paying, you'd just rather that someone else pay instead. I was just curious. I'll happily pay it off, as I am obligated to. If I wanted to have someone else pay for it, I'd go in to public service. But if others are just getting loans forgiven because someone decrees it, then yes, I would like to be a part of it.
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Dec 24, 2015 12:50
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Tyro posted:Note that submitting that paperwork will change your student loan servicer. You said they were consolidated through fedloan (penfed) so they shouldn't change servicer since penfed is the pslf servicer
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Dec 24, 2015 13:30
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Massasoit posted:You said they were consolidated through fedloan (penfed) so they shouldn't change servicer since penfed is the pslf servicer Good catch, I didn't realize penfed and fedloan were the same.
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Dec 24, 2015 13:53
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Yea I had some trouble with that. It's PenFed but the website is myfedloan.com because reasons
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Dec 24, 2015 15:58
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Well in that case a question for anyone with fedloan/penfed - how do you like your servicer? I will need to file that paperwork eventually but have held off for now because I am really happy with my student loan servicer and don't want to change. Has anyone in this thread actually sent in the intent to file PSLF paperwork? How did the process actually work? My concerns are that they wouldn't maintain my PAYE existing payment and would make me re-calculate it, and that they would put in a 60 day deferral for the transfer, but those are just suspicions not based on any real knowledge.
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Dec 24, 2015 16:26
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We consolidated federal loans. When consolidating the doe website asked if we wanted to go for pslf. When selecting pslf it automatically set penfed as the servicer. Consolidation took about three-four weeks. They automatically put the loans in forbearance for three months which is not ideal, since when they come out interest will be capitalized. Called to have them removed from forbearance, and they will be coming out early January (the consolidation only went through first week in Dec). My understanding is if you consolidate and had pslf eligible payments the counter 'resets'. The IBR is making the payments manageable, which will allow us to focus on paying down private student loans. Budgeted 1k for loans monthly, and without consolidation/IBR payment would have been up at the 1800 mark. Haven't made any payments, but looking forward to January, 2026 when these loans are gone. We're going to do paperwork with penfed to confirm current employment - 501(c)3 - payments will count, to get the ticker going
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Dec 24, 2015 18:16
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Massasoit posted:We consolidated federal loans. When consolidating the doe website asked if we wanted to go for pslf. When selecting pslf it automatically set penfed as the servicer. Thanks. So basically exactly what I thought would happen. I'll have to just time it so the forbearance doesn't screw me up too badly. The interest capitalizing will suck a lot. Maybe I'll just wait until year 9.
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Dec 24, 2015 18:50
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It might not hurt giving penfed a call - their csrs have been friendly and helpful.
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Dec 24, 2015 19:34
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Tyro posted:Thanks. So basically exactly what I thought would happen. I'll have to just time it so the forbearance doesn't screw me up too badly. The interest capitalizing will suck a lot. Maybe I'll just wait until year 9.
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Dec 24, 2015 21:28
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Doesn't it affect the 10 year standard repayment amount and thus increase the "ceiling" of payments you would potentially have to make under IBR/PAYE?
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Dec 24, 2015 21:39
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So I've got the ability to pay off all of my loans right now. Is there a tax consideration I should take advantage of though by paying it off in two payments (one in 2015 and one in 2016)?
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Dec 25, 2015 00:22
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CHARLES posted:So I've got the ability to pay off all of my loans right now. Is there a tax consideration I should take advantage of though by paying it off in two payments (one in 2015 and one in 2016)? You can deduct up to $2500 on interest paid during the year if you are under the threshold but it makes no sense to wait off next year. Just pay then off.
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Dec 25, 2015 01:09
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Tyro posted:Doesn't it affect the 10 year standard repayment amount and thus increase the "ceiling" of payments you would potentially have to make under IBR/PAYE? How would it? 100k vs 100million in loans doesn't matter. Also nonconsolidated loans don't count to pslf, so consolidating doesn't reset the counter, it starts it.
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Dec 26, 2015 17:21
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mastershakeman posted:How would it? 100k vs 100million in loans doesn't matter. Also nonconsolidated loans don't count to pslf, so consolidating doesn't reset the counter, it starts it. The amount of loans actually does matter because of the way they calculate the repayment. Let's say I'm a few years into repayment and I have to go into forbearance when I transfer servicers. That causes a bunch of interest to be added to the principal because I've been negatively amortizing due to my low payments. Unless I misunderstand the process, this in turn causes the 10 year standard repayment amount to be recalculated (and be higher). I'm anticipating having to pay the 10 year standard payment for at least 5 years of my 10, so that would impact me. Phone posting so I can't really look up details but I was under the impression all federal direct student loans were eligible without consolidation?
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Dec 26, 2015 18:41
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Tyro posted:The amount of loans actually does matter because of the way they calculate the repayment. Let's say I'm a few years into repayment and I have to go into forbearance when I transfer servicers. That causes a bunch of interest to be added to the principal because I've been negatively amortizing due to my low payments. Unless I misunderstand the process, this in turn causes the 10 year standard repayment amount to be recalculated (and be higher). I'm talking about 10 year under IBR/PAYE.
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Dec 28, 2015 15:36
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So am I. Although I guess I'm lucky in that I don't anticipate qualifying for the full 10 years. So that's probably where the disconnect in the discussion is coming in. But there definitely scenarios where you can make enough to qualify but your payment still increases due to the difference in the amount of loans. Basically under these programs every marginal dollar you earn, in my case due to over time, $0.10 or $0.15 (depending on your repayment plan) goes to next year's student loan repayments. The cap on that is calculated based on your overall loan principal. So that principal amount could affect some people who are still eligible for income based repayment.
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Dec 28, 2015 16:29
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Hmm--I can't figure out how much I should borrow from Federal Direct Loans. 1. Independent 2. Monthly budget ($1,600) 3. Already have $5,000+ in loans prior to this Since I'm in my 2nd year I can borrow up to $4,500 a year right? Would that be enough for a full-time student?
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Dec 29, 2015 01:45
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Refinanced some loans that were housed at Navient. It looks like the organization I refinanced with overpaid by $500. Should I be able to get that from Navient as a rebate check?
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Dec 30, 2015 14:05
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Does anyone have experience on Navient/Sallie Mae allowing a lump sum on private loans? I basically told them give me a lump sum figure or let it default. I fully expected them to tell me it will default but they actually gave me a number of 40k (on a bit over 80k). While it's not a small figure I think I may be able to scrape it together. I feel like it would be too good to be true to get out from under them. How can they screw me on this? I plan to have the next call recorded on my end too and ask for it in writing. Just wondering if i should look out for anything or if this is serious.
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Dec 30, 2015 19:04
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Hello thread. My wife has a student loan through Nelnet, and had been making payments under an IBR plan. She was late in re-applying for IBR this year, but we called before the 12/24 due date and seemed to have everything squared away. Today she got an email calmly informing her that ~$20,000 of interest was capitalized, which "may result in a change" in her monthly payment. Well yeah, the monthly payment apparently has jumped from $700 to $2,000! That's... enough to affect our daily lives in a bad way.  We spoke on the phone to representatives and got vastly different stories. One said that we could fax a couple of pay stubs over by January 4th to get the interest capitalization "reversed," and also recommended switching to the new RePAYE plan. It sounded really good! The next guy we spoke to made it sound like there was no hope in getting rid of that capitalized interest, claiming there was no way our faxed info could be processed in time. Another said we would have to pay increased rates for one or two months, and the rate would drop back to normal when things were fully updated. So like, I'm not sure how pissed we should be, or what course of action we should take. Is that capitalized interest something we would have had to deal with regardless, or did we royally gently caress ourselves with that delayed income documentation? Could she at least get back on IBR later, after taking an "accidental break" for a year? I'm assuming that restoring IBR, even with $20K added to the principle balance, would bring that monthly payment back in the neighborhood of where it used to be. Sorry if my questions aren't well-defined enough, this whole world of loans is big and obscure and scary to me. One more thing - I'm trying to manage most of my wife's stuff online now, and the historical payment breakdown is alarming. From the old monthly payment schedule, I'm seeing $690 applied to interest and $20 applied to principle. Is that normal??
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Dec 31, 2015 06:39
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Minidust posted:Hello thread. My wife has a student loan through Nelnet, and had been making payments under an IBR plan. She was late in re-applying for IBR this year, but we called before the 12/24 due date and seemed to have everything squared away. Today she got an email calmly informing her that ~$20,000 of interest was capitalized, which "may result in a change" in her monthly payment. If she's on IBR, interest only capitalizes when she leaves IBR (by voluntarily picking a different repayment plan or failing to re-certify) or if she stops having a partial financial hardship (her income is high enough when she re-certifies that the 15% payment would be greater than the 10-year standard payment). It's possible the interest could've capitalized at some other point in the future if her income rose enough and she hadn't already paid off the interest accrued, but the delayed re-certification is why it's happening now. By not re-certifying in time, your wife basically left the IBR plan and moved to a standard 10-year plan, which is also why the payment jumped up to $2000. I'm not sure if there are regulations on documents submitted, but not processed by the due date, but you may be relying on the generosity of NelNet to backdate the re-certification and undo the capitalization of interest. Whether or not they can undo the interest capitalization, the delayed income documentation and whatever related forms should get your wife back onto IBR in a month or two and bring the payment back down to $700 (unless she made more money this year as opposed to last, then it could be higher but still based on her income). You could probably ask to be put on an administrative forbearance while they process your paperwork so you don't have to make that $2000 payment in the meantime. I'm not sure if that would lead to interest capitalization since "exiting forbearance" is usually another condition for it. The bulk of her payment applying to interest is entirely normal on IBR if her payment is much lower than the 10-year standard payment. IBR payments are pretty much based only on a borrower's income with no real regard to whether or not it would result in any progress in paying down a loan. A $2000 payment probably means your wife has around $200k in loans and $690 worth of interest accruing each month doesn't seem unreasonable (maybe even a little low) for a balance that large. Remember, all payments apply towards outstanding interest first before it can be applied to principle. You'll have to pay above and beyond the IBR payment to make any headway on her loans.
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Dec 31, 2015 07:14
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Ancillary Character posted:The bulk of her payment applying to interest is entirely normal on IBR if her payment is much lower than the 10-year standard payment. IBR payments are pretty much based only on a borrower's income with no real regard to whether or not it would result in any progress in paying down a loan. A $2000 payment probably means your wife has around $200k in loans and $690 worth of interest accruing each month doesn't seem unreasonable (maybe even a little low) for a balance that large. Remember, all payments apply towards outstanding interest first before it can be applied to principle. You'll have to pay above and beyond the IBR payment to make any headway on her loans. 
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Dec 31, 2015 07:46
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