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If my income is too high to qualify for any income driven repayment is there any real reason not to refinance into a private loan to save 2% on interest? I'll likely pay off the loan before or right around when I would get forgiveness, and with less interest I could pay it off faster and/or alternately stretch out the payments to a longer term with a more manageable payment. I'm married filing jointly. I will probably run the numbers to see what filing separately would cost us just in case. But I'm not eligible for PAYE, and MFS won't affect REPAYE, but IBR/ICR might be worthwhile if my income alone gets low enough? I've worked for the government for the last 8.5 years but unfortunately most of that time was under some combination of ineligible repayment plan, forbearance, paying late, or not paying at all, so I think I've accrued very few payments. I'll check that before I make a final decision, but I'm not sure really sure what the cutoff would be to change the decision. There aren't any rumors of anyone contemplating massive changes to the system, right? I guess something like Bernie winning could be a wildcard that might initiate something crazy but that feels unlikely. Maybe worth paying another year of higher interest to see what happens in November?
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Jan 7, 2020 23:57
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Any major changes would take years to implement, so shouldn't be a factor in your decision. One big downside to refinancing is that you can't switch to an income based plan if you experience a sudden drop in income. If you are confident that won't happen then go for it, but if your job is vulnerable to budget cuts or outsourcing then stay away, especially if there aren't many nearby employers you can switch to if something does happen.
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Jan 8, 2020 00:24
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Konstantin posted:Any major changes would take years to implement, so shouldn't be a factor in your decision. One big downside to refinancing is that you can't switch to an income based plan if you experience a sudden drop in income. If you are confident that won't happen then go for it, but if your job is vulnerable to budget cuts or outsourcing then stay away, especially if there aren't many nearby employers you can switch to if something does happen.
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Jan 8, 2020 01:49
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literally this big posted:I'm still trying to wrap my head around the SECURE Act and it's effect on 529 plans. The $10k limit doesn't really make sense (since the average student debt out of college is around $40k), but it's effect on how to pay back a loan seems pretty significant. No one really commented on this, but I'm still curious about some stuff. Is there any limit to the number of beneficiaries that can utilize the new $10k rule? If I theoretically had $1million+ in a 529, could I just keep changing beneficiaries and give everyone on Earth a free $10k towards their loans?
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Jan 18, 2020 07:36
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I have a lot of debt (125+) thats a few years from forgiveness and about 14k that's not pslf eligible and has been receiving minimum payments as part of the IBR. Can I consolidate the 14k with the just smallest of my loans (1700) on the pslf track only to make them eligible for forgiveness someday? I'm still not sure on the math of it being worth it or not, but it seems likely.
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Jan 18, 2020 20:24
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I'm coming up on 10 years working at a nonprofit and so I started using the PSLF tool to generate an ECF for my employer to sign. It's given me a confusing result on the last page I am hoping someone here can help me parse. I have about $7k left on my Direct Unsubsidized Consolidation Loan, having made 110 qualifying payments (on a graduated payment plan) according to Nelnet. The language oscillates between saying this loan "is not eligible" and saying I'd "get greater benefit" out of another plan; these things seem very different to me! 
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Jan 22, 2020 01:59
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I dug more. If I'm reading this right you have to apply and be denied because you aren't on idr first https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service/temporary-expanded-public-service-loan-forgiveness#how-qualify Harold Fjord fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Jan 22, 2020 |
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Jan 22, 2020 03:50
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hey guys! I read the OP and a few pages but I'm still totally lost and would really appreciate some guidance here. I'm American, an independent, and I've been a volunteer in the Peace Corps (Ukraine) for 3 years so I'm hoping my official poverty-level income will be enough to qualify me for some generous grants/loans. I got into the mundus mapp program (international erasmus masters program for global public policy, a year at Central European University in Vienna, a year at IBEI in Barcelona http://mundusmapp.org/). The tuition is €11,000 a year, and because I'm not an EU citizen I need to pay both years upfront. Central European University is officially accredited in New York, Vienna and Budapest, but they've recently been kicked out of Budapest and that has resulted in them losing their valid FAFSA code this year only, and thus not available for US student loans apparently, during the one year I'd be there. IBEI Barcelona wouldn't qualify for FAFSA at all. The degrees I would receive from both institutions, however, would be accredited in both the US and EU. So I'm not sure how I'm going to fund this thing really. The two years upfront + international aspect really limits the options available to me, as a lot of these options seem to be based on making funds available by semester. Could anyone offer me any insight on this? I suppose I should mention that I'm planning on working in the non-profit/international aid sector afterward, specifically advocacy and support for refugees.
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Jan 23, 2020 10:36
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I unfortunately can't help you with your funding issue, but I would very much like to know how one goes about getting themselves into such a position and program.
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Jan 23, 2020 18:52
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literally this big posted:I unfortunately can't help you with your funding issue, but I would very much like to know how one goes about getting themselves into such a position and program. Getting into which position, Peace Corps or the international non-profit sector? Peace Corps thankfully doesn't require much more than a college degree and "motivation", and through PC, I was able to get involved with a ton of initiatives in Ukraine that I would NOT have been nearly qualified enough to get involved in in the US (try having 5 years experience working with refugees to get a position working with refugees when you grew up and went to college in NE white suburbia). With the Peace Corps experience, I was able to get my foot in the door and forge a lot of contacts that will pay off later. Applying to the Peace Corps is a bit of a lengthy process (avg time between submitting app and getting deployed is about 9-12 months) but doable in one's off-hours. Feel free to PM me with any other specific questions I may not have addressed. https://www.peacecorps.gov/faqs/applying/ if you're interested in the Mundus MAPP program, the link I listed in the post above describes the program completely. The general application is open till Jan 30th, if you hurry you might still be able to get it in. God Hole fucked around with this message at 11:02 on Jan 24, 2020 |
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Jan 24, 2020 10:59
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Hey sorry I didn't reply sorry, I forgot. If you can't use the FAFSA you're relegated to private loans. It's possible for US students overseas to get private loans but it's much harder if the school isn't accredited. Is there any assistance the school can offer in the interim year? Since you wouldn't be getting US federal loans, any loans you get won't be eligible for any federal repayment or forgiveness programs. Is there any chance of taking the year and starting once the FAFSA is available again?
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Jan 28, 2020 00:56
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Nevvy Z posted:I dug more. If I'm reading this right you have to apply and be denied because you aren't on idr first Thank you! That's very helpful. I'm getting my employer to sign the form right now anyway, and then I'll keep this in mind after I submit.
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Jan 29, 2020 18:53
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Wiggy Marie posted:Hey sorry I didn't reply sorry, I forgot. If you can't use the FAFSA you're relegated to private loans. It's possible for US students overseas to get private loans but it's much harder if the school isn't accredited. Is there any assistance the school can offer in the interim year? Since you wouldn't be getting US federal loans, any loans you get won't be eligible for any federal repayment or forgiveness programs. Is there any chance of taking the year and starting once the FAFSA is available again? I already took the year, maybe it's inadvisable given the circumstances but I really don't want to take another one before getting started. unfortunately, given the move out of Hungary, their institutional grants are unavailable for this year as well.
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Jan 30, 2020 14:20
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God Hole posted:I already took the year, maybe it's inadvisable given the circumstances but I really don't want to take another one before getting started. I understand not wanting to wait, but if you're looking at loans you really want to think about what will come post-graduation. I would suggest you check and see what you can get in terms of international loans for US citizens (check with the school's financial aid office, then maybe try simpletuition.com) and play with some numbers on an amortization schedule calculator to figure out how much you'll actually be paying and for how long: https://www.amortization-calc.com/ Another thing to keep in mind is that private loans aren't eligible for things like Public Service Loan Forgiveness or any of the other federal deferment/forbearance options, so extreme caution is advised. The program sounds awesome by the way. Let us know what you find! Others might benefit from the info you find out about what's available to you.
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Feb 7, 2020 20:42
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I'm a dummy who put off refinancing way too long is it better to do it right now or wait for the stock market a bit longer?
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Mar 4, 2020 22:24
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Are you dealing with federal or private loans? If they're private, it might be worth it. Mortgage rates are the lowest they've ever been so you might be in for a good rate with other kinds of loans. Read the hell put of any terms though.
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Mar 7, 2020 02:54
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got this message from my mom earlier. any thoughts? i know absolutely nothing about student loans: -- Now that interest rates are at the bottom, can you research to see if there are any refinance/forgiveness options for the school loans that Dad is still paying? He still has like $50,000 .. and he’s paid on it since before you graduated. The interest on it is like 3 or 4 percent, through NC College Foundation. He has called before but all they want him to do is extend it and he’s trying to get it paid off. All the money from his teaching at the comm college is going to this. So far anything we have looked into on student forgiveness has been for students only, not the parents. At this point, if interest holds where it is he could possible refinance w/ just a bank loan and get a lower rate. He’s really worn out paying on this .. and it is a burden for sure, so if you/we can find a better option that will help him.
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Mar 23, 2020 16:45
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abelwingnut posted:got this message from my mom earlier. any thoughts? i know absolutely nothing about student loans: That is a pretty good rate. I doubt you will get much lower. Plus you will miss out on protections that are useful. The way to pay it off is put more money to the loan at this point. Forgiveness will only happen if they are the right loans and after they are paid for 25 years, it is not really forgiveness in the sense of "poof they are gone". So best to probably stay the course and put as much as possible to the loans as quick as possible. So whose loans are they (as in whose college did they pay for)?
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Mar 23, 2020 18:58
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I read on Forbes that thru the CARES Act, PSLF payments that are skipped will still be counted thru forbearance. Can anyone else confirm that? https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/03/29/student-loan-forgiveness-coronavirus/#74efebad7710 quote:If you pause federal student loan payments through September 30, 2020, then you will no longer need to make 120 payments because these non-payment months still will be “counted.” This means not only will you make fewer payments, but also you will pay off less of your student loan balance.
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Mar 30, 2020 22:23
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CFPB agrees, payments should be auto-suspended and those months still count toward loan forgiveness programs. This is different than if you look at the FAQ on the forbearance option on FedLoans, but that's based on the executive order from 2 weeks ago allowing anyone to go into forbearance. People have called FedLoans to try to confirm this, but mostly are getting responses of 'we're still figuring this out.' https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/what-you-need-to-know-about-student-loans-and-coronavirus-pandemic/
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Mar 31, 2020 12:11
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Chu020 posted:CFPB agrees, payments should be auto-suspended and those months still count toward loan forgiveness programs. This is different than if you look at the FAQ on the forbearance option on FedLoans, but that's based on the executive order from 2 weeks ago allowing anyone to go into forbearance. People have called FedLoans to try to confirm this, but mostly are getting responses of 'we're still figuring this out.' I'm still crossing my fingers, but really hoping it remains true. 
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Mar 31, 2020 12:50
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When I log into FedLoan now it tells me I'm all caught up and have no upcoming payments. Generally it's forecasting my next payment immediately after my auto pay goes through (on the 21st). Looking forward to only having to make 8 of my last 14 payments towards PSLF.  Edit: lol jk logged in and now there is a payment reminder for 4/21... Sirotan fucked around with this message at 17:07 on Mar 31, 2020 |
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Mar 31, 2020 13:17
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The actual language in the bill seems pretty clear that you can go on forbearance and your payments still count towards PSLF. Now I need to decide, keep making payments on my federal loans that can go entirely to principal, or take the money and dump it in my private loans and try to get those paid off by next year. Private interest rate is slightly lower, so on a pure money-saved analysis, making payments to the federal loans is smarter. But I can get the private loans paid off earlier and that gets me more flexibility when that payment disappears and would be a nice achievement, so it has that going for it. Or just save the money in case things really go to poo poo but I think our jobs are pretty secure.
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Mar 31, 2020 13:38
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Kase Im Licht posted:The actual language in the bill seems pretty clear that you can go on forbearance and your payments still count towards PSLF. Forbearance and payment suspension are two different things. Do not request forbearance because this will not count towards PSLF.
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Mar 31, 2020 14:23
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It's my understanding that you can only take forbearance for a limited amount of time. Does this new program count against that?
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Mar 31, 2020 16:48
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Sirotan posted:When I log into FedLoan now it tells me I'm all caught up and have no upcoming payments. Generally it's forecasting my next payment immediately after my auto pay goes through (on the 21st). Fedloan does that randomly and I have no idea why, but it'll always do the monthly autopay. At this point for me it's like the check engine light on an old family car, I'd think something weird was happening if I hadn't seen it a bunch before.
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Apr 1, 2020 00:47
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To my surprise, DOE has updated their COVID FAQ to say that everyone is automatically going on a 6 month forbearance during which time interest rate will be zero and skipped payments will still count towards PSLF. I'm sure it will get hosed up in implementation (for example my automatic payment went through about a week ago and apparently I need to ask to have it refunded) but that's basically the best possible interpretation. DOE FAQ
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Apr 2, 2020 11:14
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Oh hell yeah, looks like I can get my March 21 payment refunded, and I'll actually get 7 months of free payments out of this since it goes until September 30.
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Apr 2, 2020 12:32
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Wiggy Marie posted:I understand not wanting to wait, but if you're looking at loans you really want to think about what will come post-graduation. I would suggest you check and see what you can get in terms of international loans for US citizens (check with the school's financial aid office, then maybe try simpletuition.com) and play with some numbers on an amortization schedule calculator to figure out how much you'll actually be paying and for how long: hey, thanks for the help Wiggy but unfortunately recent events have conspired to make this utterly impossible. I got into another program stateside that's pretty similar, got financial aid, and with this school I can use FAFSA. Thanks again!
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Apr 16, 2020 02:23
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Hey no worries, and congratulations! I hope everything works out 
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Apr 16, 2020 15:40
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A question for the group. I have about 170k left in loans eligible for PSLF. 120k of that is eligible for forgiveness in April 2023, while 50k is eligible in 2026 (thanks consolidation). I'm currently in forbearance, but my monthly payments are regularly on IBR, although maxed out at the standard 10 year repayment plan, which works out to about 2k/month. Unless things change, I'll have about 30 qualifying payments left on the larger loan until I'm eligible for forgiveness, after which I'll have approximately 50k left in loans that are eligible for forgiveness in 2026. I'm actually unclear as to what happens then, and if my payment remains at 2k/month and gets completely applied to the 60k balance, or if it proportionally goes down and I may get something forgiven in 2026. Either way, I'm calculating about 60k or so in student loan forgiveness. We've already paid off my wife's med school loans and have no debt other than a mortgage at 3%. If I were to refinance my student loans, I'd choose a variable interest rate loan (currently 0.5% or so) and pay off the loans over 5 years. I have no concrete plans to change jobs (especially now). My question is what the group would do here: would you continue on the IBR/PSLF track, or refinance at historically low interest rates and lose the possibility of forgiveness? I guess I'm having a tough time the calculating the possibility of forgiveness (with all the caveats/problems people have experienced) versus historically low interest rates/the opportunity to not worry about a job qualifying for forgiveness.
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May 13, 2020 14:22
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I'm fully on the PSLF train personally with about 5 more years to go before eligibility, and my balance is slightly higher than yours. But I'm a government employee and therefore less likely to run into issues of "lol jk your qualifying payments don't actually count"
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May 13, 2020 14:34
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Tyro posted:I'm fully on the PSLF train personally with about 5 more years to go before eligibility, and my balance is slightly higher than yours. But I'm a government employee and therefore less likely to run into issues of "lol jk your qualifying payments don't actually count" Yeah, I've always worked for academic 501c3s and have been dutifully filing the Employment Certification forms every year without issues, but who knows.
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May 13, 2020 14:44
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Where are you seeing a .5% interest loan?
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May 13, 2020 14:49
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Kase Im Licht posted:Where are you seeing a .5% interest loan? That's what Sofi is currently offering for prime borrowers on variable interest rate loans. We previously refinanced my wife's student loans through them and qualified at their best rate, so I imagine we'd qualify for that rate again.
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May 13, 2020 15:04
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If I go here I don't see anything close to .5%: https://www.sofi.com/refinance-student-loan/refinance-student-loan-rates/ Your total payment is made up of smaller individual payments that go toward each loan. There should be something in your monthly statements showing how much goes to each loan. I think the portion going toward the big amount would drop off after that chunk is forgiven. Your payment toward the remainder should remain the same since your payment is already the 10 year repayment. You should be able to take the individual payments for each loan and put them in a loan calculator and see when you would pay it off if you kept making the same payment amount at the lower refinance interest rate. I doubt you're going to find any benefit, certainly not for the loans being forgiven in 2023. Given you said you're expecting 60k in forgiveness, it's doubtful you can make that up with lower interest for a few years. But if that's all on the 120k chunk and you're not expecting forgiveness on the second portion, there will be some financial benefit to refinancing the second portion, but this is something you can and should calculate so you can see exactly what you'll gain before you make the decision. If you have been doing your certifications and you've been on an IBR plan the whole time I don't think you would have any issues. The problems have usually been people on an ineligible plan or who have issues with their employer certifications. If you've been on IBR with the same government employer the whole time that part's easy. Either way you should not be refinancing federal loans while they have 0% interest and not until you know there won't be more 0% periods to come. I am in a similar position but farther away from forgiveness. I'm waiting until at least the election to see if anything else significant gets proposed.
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May 13, 2020 15:35
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Kase Im Licht posted:If I go here I don't see anything close to .5%: https://www.sofi.com/refinance-student-loan/refinance-student-loan-rates/ Before we paid off my wife's loans on Sofi, they were at 1.5%, and that was a few months back. Rates have dropped since then and their top interest rate is at 0.5% currently. For whatever reason, they don't publish their best rates. Yeah, I'm not sure what happens in 2023 after forgiveness, as my payment is on the 10 year plan: does my payment remain 2k with the full amount going towards the 60k loan (in which case it would make sense to refinance then), or does my payment decrease to the current portion that's going to my 60k loan, at which point hey, maybe I can eventually get that forgiven too. And yeah, definitely not touching anything until the fall.
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May 13, 2020 15:50
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Residency Evil posted:And yeah, definitely not touching anything until the fall.
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May 15, 2020 10:25
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I have $1,440 remaining on a 5% interest Perkins Loan that I've been paying off at $40/month for the last ~4 years. If I'm doing the math right, continuing to pay at this rate will have me done in 3 years 5 months, and including the interest I'll end up paying about $1560 total on the remainder--i.e., an additional $120 thanks to interest. I do have $1,440 available, and while I don't relish parting with such a chunk of change, I would still have a decent amount in my savings. Is there any reason not to pay it all off now, save the $120 long term, and also never have to deal with this stupid loan again? I'm thinking especially of tax interests and related matters, since I don't know much about tax implications on loans or on paying them off.
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Jun 5, 2020 17:46
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I would do it if you feel good about your savings after it. Bring free of student loans is unfortunately one of the best feelings in life.
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Jun 5, 2020 18:00
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