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It's been about six years since I came here looking for answers, and you guys were helpful back then. Last time I checked in, I had just gotten my first statements from my loan companies. The first couple months were harrowing. 80% of my income went to my loans. It took all year to get that under control. I followed some of your advice and even managed to get one of the loans paid off entirely (It was a tiny one, something like $1,000 principle). Then I found out that there was a limit to how much loan interest payments you could write off on taxes. Suddenly I went from owing nothing to owing $5,000. My loans wanted 60% of my income, taxes wanted 25%, and another 25% for back taxes. Basically racing the taxes with raises from my work, I chipped away at this. Other poor decisions slowed me down but last year I finally paid my taxes on time. May came around and I had money I could put aside for taxes the next year. I had money to spend. It was like $100, but it was mine. It felt really, really good. I was laid off the next month. I spent June and July searching for work with no success. Lots of single responses and dead air, impersonal form emails, etc. etc. etc. I ended up bouncing from entry-level job to entry-level job just trying to keep myself afloat. I went from $19/hour to $11/hour and worked my way back up to $12.5/hour. Taxes are coming up and I'm absolutely terrified. To the point that I haven't even been able to start doing them. I have some money set aside but I hardly believe that it'll be enough. I'm going to be right back where I started. My loan payments are currently a total of around $1100 a month - $840 to Sallie Mae, ~$150 to Chase, ~$150 to federal loans. I'm increasingly frustrated and livid about the situation I'm trapped in. I get at least four "refinance your loans!" offers in the mail every month (It's literally the only mail I get) from the same companies who all denied me already. My sister works in a law firm and pointed me to a "debt relief agency" lawyer in the area. I hear things back and forth about these when I look online, which has me wary about going back to her. She looked at what I had and said that things "looked good" for me. I went to an Art Institute and a lot of them have been under scrutiny, but from what I can tell I'm beyond the statute of limitations for getting any kind of relief in that respect. She basically offered me three options: Continuing paying as I am until it completely destroys me. This is what I've done in the last six months, and that time is nearly here. File for bankruptcy and hope that the private loans can be reduced or resolved in some way. Default on some or all of the loans. I don't want to say she particularly pushed this option, but she described it as "easy as changing your phone number and not making payments any more." The second two options were both ones that she suggested under the advice that, as mentioned above, "things were in motion" with the Art Institutes and that in a year or two my loans could go away completely. My reason for posting here again is kind of two fold - First, trying to get a sort of second opinion on the advice I was given by this lawyer, since it feels really like it falls heavily into the "too good to be true" category. The second is just seeing if you have any other suggestions for things I could try. I am absolutely at the end of my rope here.
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Apr 5, 2017 10:56
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Discover got rid of the 0.25% discount on interest if you have Direct Deposit set up Sigh
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Apr 5, 2017 13:02
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EugeneJ posted:Discover got rid of the 0.25% discount on interest if you have Direct Deposit set up Did they? Turns out it's perfect timing that those are the two we've chosen to pay off this year.
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Apr 5, 2017 13:31
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Beeps posted:It's been about six years since I came here looking for answers, and you guys were helpful back then. I am confused about your taxes. Are you claiming 10 exemptions or are you an independent contractor? If you had 0 exemptions and were a regular employee I can't see how you would owe so much in taxes. Who did your taxes? It all seems fishy to me.
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Apr 6, 2017 00:03
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spwrozek posted:I am confused about your taxes. Are you claiming 10 exemptions or are you an independent contractor? If you had 0 exemptions and were a regular employee I can't see how you would owe so much in taxes. Who did your taxes? It all seems fishy to me. Independent Contractor (1099). I've been doing my own taxes since I was in college. The first year I mentioned there, I brought everything in and had an H&R Block representative do them after I thought I might have something wrong, which ended up being me paying them $300 to tell me I did my taxes correctly. It's entirely possible I'm not doing them correctly but the only thing I've had corrected was that they came back at me wanting the $4,000 or whatever it was for being self-employed.
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Apr 6, 2017 01:48
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Ah bummer man. I was really hoping there was something wrong with them. How much do you have in loans right now? We might be able to figure something out. I know your payments were a lot with is tough on what you are making. Are you on IBR at least? The loan balances might go up but you could at least you can knock down the payment some. The private loans are the trouble though. With the whole picture though we probably can come up with something. One thing from your OP though is you are tough as poo poo man. You are fighting and making it happen the best you can. Don't get down man.
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Apr 6, 2017 04:19
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spwrozek posted:Ah bummer man. I was really hoping there was something wrong with them. Yeah, I was always making "decent-ish" wages, enough that I was making ends meet but just barely after the loans. when I say they wanted 60-80% of my income, that was before taxes. I'm not on IBR - I tried once before and Sallie Mae/Navient basically said they couldn't give me the promissory note. I don't know why and they wouldn't give me further information on it. All I know is that I keep seeing "They can garnish up to 15% of your wages!!!!" on these things of why not to default and it's like "Oh no a 40% decrease in my payments." I know there's just under $96k in private loans with Sallie Mae/Navient. There's some more with AES (Sorry, it used to be Chase and I forgot they switched) but they're apparently doing maintenance so I can't look it up. Aaand apparently the same for fedloan. That's something like $20k. Those got subsidized a couple years back. It's primarily those Sallie Mae loans that are killing me, since I'm paying them double my rent every month and they're putting something like 8% of that towards the principle.
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Apr 6, 2017 05:52
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I logged into my bank account today and was shocked to see $1500 went poof to Fedloan Servicing. I thought I was on an income-based repayment plan and should only be paying $50 a month. I probably missed out on re-certifying that due to my own stupidity. Considering that said $1500 pretty much is my rent for next month and I'm in very real danger of not even being able to cover that now, do I have any recourse here to get any of that $1500 back and get back on the IBR plan so that I'm not going to get utterly hosed over here?
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Apr 9, 2017 04:47
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paperwind posted:I logged into my bank account today and was shocked to see $1500 went poof to Fedloan Servicing. You can still recertify for future payments, but that money that was debited is gone. This happened to my wife one year because she forgot to recertify. Unfortunately they aren't going to give that money back. You can try calling and begging but I'm doubtful there's anything they can do. Sorry that's not what you want to hear right now.
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Apr 9, 2017 05:30
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E-Money posted:You can try calling and begging but I'm doubtful there's anything they can do. Sorry that's not what you want to hear right now. I figured that much. Thanks for letting me know at least that I'm not the first person this has happened to. I'm already resigned to that money being gone gone gone and I'm putting plans into action. Thank loving god this happened at the beginning of the month. I'll make a phone call on Monday just to see, but I'm not expecting much.
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Apr 9, 2017 05:40
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Beeps posted:I know there's just under $96k in private loans with Sallie Mae/Navient. There's some more with AES (Sorry, it used to be Chase and I forgot they switched) but they're apparently doing maintenance so I can't look it up. Update with more exact amounts: $96k Sallie Mae/Navient, Private $12k AES, Private $28k MyFedLoan $136k Total Monthly payments: $840 Sallie Mae $150 AES $170 MFL $1160 Total Finally did my taxes and I owe about $2.5k more than I currently have. I'm currently making just under $2k a month without any kind of withholding. If I strip myself down to basically surviving off ramen and spend literally zero money on anything else (which isn't a possibility at this point for other reasons) I can pay that off by December, just in time to have nothing saved up for this year's taxes. Exactly where I was five years ago. Except now I'm making less. One month of forbearance undoes all progress made on my loans in the last year. I'd need about four months. I don't really have a choice at this point. Will probably look into IBR but I have no idea how that would work at this point. Reducing the payments would likely mean the unpaid interest is being compounded to the principal amount, right? In reference to my original post, can anyone weigh in on the options I was given by the "debt relief" lawyer? Beeps fucked around with this message at 17:13 on Apr 17, 2017 |
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Apr 16, 2017 06:23
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You need to file for IBR (or PAYE depending on what you can do with the loans) on the Navient and Myfed loans (I am assuming these are all federal loans). The private you will have to keep paying what you are most likely. On IBR your payment should be about $75 (for all the federal loans combined) a month depending on what exact program you are under. You will get out of the tax situation and be able to get back on your feet some. Yes the interest will be turning but it is your best option to allow you to live and escape the paycheck to paycheck scramble. You will either stay on IBR for the next 25 years or work into a job that you can pay off the loans. Don't worry about the balances going up right now.
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Apr 16, 2017 14:43
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Navient loans are private as well. Lost that note while changing the formatting on the info.
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Apr 17, 2017 17:14
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Yeah man....I am trying to come up with something but I can't really figure out much. Any of the federal ones you should at least see what IBR/PAYE does to help you.
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Apr 20, 2017 13:41
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Thanks anyway. I kind of figured I didn't have any options, but thought I'd ask just in case.
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Apr 21, 2017 19:45
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You really need to make more money, either by getting a better job or by working more hours. Under $2000 a month as an independent contractor without any withholding is pretty much what a minimum wage employee makes in a lot of states. If you're working more than 40 hours a week you need a better job. If you're working less than 40 hours a week, then you need another job.
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Apr 21, 2017 20:19
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I've been working on it. Originally I had planned on working my current job and another part-time one, but the part-time job was an 1.5-2 hour commute each way and they'd keep me part time but "authorize extra hours" on a weekly basis so that they could basically work me however much they needed without giving full-time benefits. The extra hours were good, but they wouldn't go full-time and was making my schedule unreliable for this job, so I was forced to choose between the two. That one wasn't paying me enough to survive alone and wouldn't allow me the time needed to do anything else, so I ended up picking the job I have now. I'd gotten a job doing night stocking almost as soon as I knew I needed other work but couldn't handle it (For many reasons, but ultimately I wasn't able to keep up). While I didn't stick around at either job for long, both have said that they'd take me back if I re-applied. I may try to get something part-time at the store I worked the first job. Some friends are trying to get me some side work with them as well and I'm working on a couple projects of my own.
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Apr 22, 2017 10:41
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Beeps, please feel free to reach out via PMs if you ever just need to vent. You're not alone! In regards to debt relief lawyers, ehhhh. A lot of the laws don't apply to student loans, and student loan debt isn't forgiven like other debts can be when filing for something like bankruptcy. However, you mentioned an Art Institute school - has it been closed or is there a chance it's going to be? If so, there's a possibility of using school closure forgiveness for the federal stuff. If not, ehhhh. I'll be honest, I'm not sure what a debt forgiveness lawyer could actually do - but if someone else has thoughts / experience with that, please chime in! For taxes, have you looked at payment programs with the IRS, and also filing quarterly to prevent the big bill at the end of the season? This may not be viable right now but it's something to keep in mind moving forward to force everything into chunks. Basically try to break everything into smaller chunks as much as possible, and pay minimums on everything for a while no matter what. It's been mentioned, but absolutely apply for IBR/PAYE for your federal loans. Also call your private servicers and see if they have a temporary relief option. I know interest is poo poo but right now you need a break to get your numbers sorted. Related, if you need to take advantage of forbearances/deferements on the federal balances, do. Again, I know the interest is a bear but you can still pay during that time if it eats at you that much, and giving yourself a month or two to let things settle while you work on a plan and possibly a new job will help. What area do you live in? What do you do? Are you on LinkedIn? There's other sites like indeed.com you can also check out for a new job. Worth a shot!
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Apr 22, 2017 12:27
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Wiggy Marie posted:Beeps, please feel free to reach out via PMs if you ever just need to vent. You're not alone! Wiggy Marie posted:In regards to debt relief lawyers, ehhhh. A lot of the laws don't apply to student loans, and student loan debt isn't forgiven like other debts can be when filing for something like bankruptcy. However, you mentioned an Art Institute school - has it been closed or is there a chance it's going to be? If so, there's a possibility of using school closure forgiveness for the federal stuff. If not, ehhhh. I'll be honest, I'm not sure what a debt forgiveness lawyer could actually do - but if someone else has thoughts / experience with that, please chime in! I know that last year some laws were changed or updated so that private student loan debt had a better chance of being forgiven, but it was like... from 10% success rate to 30% success rate. I only looked into it specifically because the criteria I was given was my situation (payments cause extreme hardship, have been paying them without fail for six years, and recently encountered financial difficulties). Of the options she gave me, bankruptcy seemed pretty "eh." My parents offered to pay whatever legal fees I had to do it, but I kind of feel like it would be a waste of time and resources. Defaulting has always been made out to be terrible, but it's been hard to convince me of it honestly. I haven't because I don't know a lot about it, but...
Wiggy Marie posted:For taxes, have you looked at payment programs with the IRS, and also filing quarterly to prevent the big bill at the end of the season? This may not be viable right now but it's something to keep in mind moving forward to force everything into chunks. Basically try to break everything into smaller chunks as much as possible, and pay minimums on everything for a while no matter what. Wiggy Marie posted:It's been mentioned, but absolutely apply for IBR/PAYE for your federal loans. Also call your private servicers and see if they have a temporary relief option. I know interest is poo poo but right now you need a break to get your numbers sorted. Related, if you need to take advantage of forbearances/deferements on the federal balances, do. Again, I know the interest is a bear but you can still pay during that time if it eats at you that much, and giving yourself a month or two to let things settle while you work on a plan and possibly a new job will help. Wiggy Marie posted:What area do you live in? What do you do? Are you on LinkedIn? There's other sites like indeed.com you can also check out for a new job. Worth a shot! I'm in the (greater) Seattle area. This is... kind of an issue in itself. I don't own a car, can't afford to own a car. Couldn't afford to keep my driver's license so I have a state ID. I can (and have) commuted into the city by bus for a job but it makes my availability really sketchy. When I started the office job, my shifts were 1:30PM and I had leave at 9:30AM and arrive there at 11:30AM because it was the last bus that left my area. When I first got told about the layoffs I started answering LinkedIn emails from companies like Amazon and Microsoft, as well as applying to some jobs I saw listed on there myself. It's going to sound like a lot of excuses, but the work situation I was laid off from was not great for me. I was repeatedly told that I wasn't good enough for anything else, that I wouldn't make it elsewhere, that I should just be happy with the job I had. I've picked up a couple of short-term projects since then where my employers have been impressed with my work, and both of my part-time jobs my managers were (mostly) happy with my work (again, issues with the night stocking job). But I'm struggling to get over a very big "imposter syndrome" deal of not being good enough/worth the kind of pay I need to survive. Lots of silence from companies I applied to, or even sudden silence from companies that approached me after I responded, were a big reason why I went into a heavy labor job. My original plan had been to get something that helped pay the bills for the time being, and keep looking to move up from there. The night stocking position turned out to be very bad for this because the schedule shift caused all sorts of problems (Repeatedly they would also schedule corporate training that only occurred midday, which would mean I'd go 24-36 hours without sleep, and two shifts during that time). The job I got after that was better, but again, would "surprise" me with enough extra hours to make it impossible to keep it and another job going. I took the job I currently have because the general costs were lower (upkeep, commute costs, etc. were eating a huge portion of my checks) and they gave me more time to myself to try to find other solutions. A friend pointed me at some openings their company would be having in the summer that sound... "amazing" doesn't do it justice. But again, worried I wouldn't be able to hack it and the fact that it's not exactly a field I'm familiar with mean that I need to study up and learn a lot to compete, and I find myself going "well why bother, you're not good enough anyway" too many times.
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Apr 23, 2017 03:43
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paperwind posted:I logged into my bank account today and was shocked to see $1500 went poof to Fedloan Servicing. This is deserving of a follow-up. I made a phone call to Fedloan Servicing about this and was advised by their rep that I should call my bank and request to have the payment reversed. I called my bank and filed a payment dispute. After about a week I got a letter from my bank requesting some supporting documentation be mailed to them. I did that. After about another week and a half I got a letter today saying the matter had been resolved and that the charge was reversed. I logged into my account to confirm, and there it was, a $1500 credit. I'm extremely stoked that this ended in my favor. I think this came down to a letter I received from Fedloan stating that my first huge monthly payment would be debited on May 4, which I made sure to include in my dispute. Why the payment was processed a month earlier, I won't know for sure, but that was probably enough to get my bank to go to bat for me. I learned a hard lesson. Get your IBR recertification done ASAP and make phone calls if necessary to make sure your loan servicer received all the required documentation.
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Apr 30, 2017 00:28
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I am graduating this year and have been looking to paying back my loans. I was looking at Great Lakes' Gradual Plan which increases every two years. If I were to pay back a large lump sum (i.e. 10k) toward my overall loan up front, would that affect my gradual payment? (i.e first payments are smaller, high end payments not as large)?
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May 2, 2017 16:01
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I need to refinance my loans again, as I lost my job last year and had to take a new one (and I can't afford the payment I was making). Earnest won't let me lower the payment unless I try to refinance again, but the rates aren't fantastic. Plus it seems weird to refinance a loan with them that I already have. I've looked at Sofi, and their rates aren't horrible (6.2% fixed, 5.25% variable). So this leads me to two questions: 1) Is variable worth doing? I know the rates could jump up to 8%, but how often do I need to check on that? I don't want to get into the habit of refinancing every year. 2) Is there someone else I could look at that might provide better rates? ARCDad fucked around with this message at 00:02 on May 4, 2017 |
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May 3, 2017 12:05
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momtartin posted:I need to refinance my loans again, as I lost my job last year and had to take a new one (and I can't afford the payment I was making). Earnest won't let me lower the payment unless I try to refinance again, but the rates aren't fantastic. Plus it seems weird to refinance a loan with them that I already have. How's your credit? Do you have any local credit unions that will refinance student loans? My credit union offers pretty low rates to refinance student loans, almost half of what I've seen other places like SoFi offer. (starts at 4.04%fixed, 2.61% variable on a 5 year term) BAE OF PIGS fucked around with this message at 11:15 on May 4, 2017 |
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May 4, 2017 11:10
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Those are excellent rates, assuming normal people can actually qualify for them. Which credit union?
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May 4, 2017 14:16
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Fat_Cow posted:I am graduating this year and have been looking to paying back my loans. I was looking at Great Lakes' Gradual Plan which increases every two years. If I were to pay back a large lump sum (i.e. 10k) toward my overall loan up front, would that affect my gradual payment? (i.e first payments are smaller, high end payments not as large)? This is a better question for your servicer, but from what I remember they might be able to recalculate your monthly payments based on the new principal.
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May 4, 2017 15:23
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antiga posted:Those are excellent rates, assuming normal people can actually qualify for them. Which credit union? University of Wisconsin Credit Union https://www.uwcu.org/Products/Loans/Student/Refinance.aspx
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May 5, 2017 03:22
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Is it dumb of me to take out more loans than I think I will need, paying the difference of what I don't need immediately? Do other people do this? I get a significant discount on my tuition through work if I work more than 20 hrs per week. I am thinking about taking more (about 20K more) than I need incase I need to cut my hours for work or for whatever reason I can't work. This is for a three year grad program, I estimate I will be making 90-100K when I graduate with good job prospects.
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May 9, 2017 01:00
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Depends I think. Some loans start accumulating interest as soon as ink is on the paper. Some don't start accumulating until after you are done with school. Are you ok with paying extra interest in a principal that you may or may not need?
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May 9, 2017 14:56
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This is pretty interesting. I hope for everyone with student loans the great lakes/Nelnet group wins the bid. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/05/22/trump-grant-student-loan-servicing-work-just-one-company/102004374/
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May 22, 2017 18:55
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spwrozek posted:This is pretty interesting. I hope for everyone with student loans the great lakes/Nelnet group wins the bid. Holy cow! This is a huge change, and could massively overburden whichever company wins the final contract. I hope whoever it is can handle it!
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May 24, 2017 01:47
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If I pay off a student loan in full, am I going to receive written confirmation that the loan is dead forever, or do I need to specifically ask for it?
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May 27, 2017 05:39
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goose willis posted:If I pay off a student loan in full, am I going to receive written confirmation that the loan is dead forever, or do I need to specifically ask for it? Getting it framed?
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May 28, 2017 21:15
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Thoguh posted:Getting it framed? Partially that and partially because I don't want to get a nastygram in the mail 5-10 years down the line because Navient hosed something up and my repayment money disappeared or some poo poo
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May 29, 2017 00:25
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Sallie Mae, the worst of the worst, sent me a letter indicating that the account was paid in full a few weeks after my last payment. Your mileage may vary but I bet most lenders do the same.
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May 31, 2017 15:27
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I was set to paperless and NelNet sent a PDF copy to the message inbox on their site.
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May 31, 2017 18:07
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Welp I'm hosed.  So I've been in school for a pretty drat long time. And I've still got a couple more years before I finally graduate. Buuuut my deferment period and forbearance time with Navient have apparently ended, and those assholes want their money now. Even though I'm still in school. gently caress. They've been calling me at least once a week for the last month, often several times a day, asking me where their money is and if I can make a payment to bring my account current. I keep telling them I don't have money to give them (which is true), that I'm still going to school (true), that I can't make payments at this time and probably won't be able to make more than one or two a year until after I graduate (true), that I don't make much money at my part-time job (true), and that most or all of what I do make goes toward paying my rent (also true). I just got off the phone with them today and they offered to let me make lower payments at a lower interest rate starting this month until August 2018, but even that is too much for me to afford. I only agreed to this because they said something about my loans being at risk of default if they didn't start getting payments soon. I'm terrified, but I don't know if I have any options. What do I do?
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Jun 1, 2017 20:18
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You can probably qualify to some pretty low income based repayment if you really are in such dire financial straits. Otherwise, you're going to have to cut expenses, find a way to boost income and start making payments. Deferment is usually a limited time policy but surprising your loans are due while you're a full time student at an accredited educational institution. Talk with your financial aid officer.
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Jun 1, 2017 21:18
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Deferment is usually a limited time policy but surprising your loans are due while you're a full time student at an accredited educational institution. Talk with your financial aid officer. This depends on the kind of loan. Federal in-school deferments for students who are at least half-time at a Title IV school are indefinite. If these are private loans, however, I've not seen one that didn't have a limit. What kind of loans are these, Dr. Gitmo Moneyson, and what is your current in-school status?
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Jun 1, 2017 21:31
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Wiggy Marie posted:This depends on the kind of loan. Federal in-school deferments for students who are at least half-time at a Title IV school are indefinite. If these are private loans, however, I've not seen one that didn't have a limit. The Sallie Mae/Navient ones that have payments due now are all private. While I am still going to school, I did have to take this Spring semester off due to a bar that prevented me from registering for classes (hoping to clear that before this coming Fall), so technically I'm not in school RIGHT NOW, but I'm still working toward my degree. Hence the forbearance time running out just recently.
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Jun 1, 2017 21:49
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Dr. Gitmo Moneyson posted:The Sallie Mae/Navient ones that have payments due now are all private. While I am still going to school, I did have to take this Spring semester off due to a bar that prevented me from registering for classes (hoping to clear that before this coming Fall), so technically I'm not in school RIGHT NOW, but I'm still working toward my degree. Hence the forbearance time running out just recently. If you're not actually registered at least half-time and attending classes they can't put a deferment/forbearance on there for you  You need to call them and ask if there are any deferment/forbearance options available, but I know that a lot of private loans will have a payment to apply something like that, or alternately only have a few months of time available. Hopefully they can help you out, but go in with tempered expectations.
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Jun 1, 2017 21:59
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