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UCS Hellmaker posted:Everytime we looked at sofi they always were higher interest rates then others. But they could be more aggressive and better now? Lately for sure they have been slamming us about refinancing with them. I recently refinanced my med school student loans in March 2023 through Sofi to a 3.615% fixed rate (lower than the fed funds rate), so I had a great experience refinancing with them.
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Jun 9, 2023 23:51
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Hello thread I just a new job about three weeks ago with a nonprofit that I believe would qualify for the eventual forgiveness of my student loans after like 10 years or so. I know part of this involves switching to an income based repayment plan. Before I call the department of education or my loan servicer directly, I was wondering if anyone who had gone through something similar could give me some basic pointers. Should I make the switch to IBR immediately or should I wait a bit more with this job before making the switch? Do I have to notify the department of education that my job is a qualified nonprofit for this forgiveness thing? The job has been great so far, virtually zero stress. Should make it easier on me to get 10 years in.
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Jun 14, 2023 17:02
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Shinjobi posted:Hello thread You don't have to notify at job start, but you can do certifications to certify past employment. There is a tool on the Student Aid website that allows you to send a DocuSign version of the document for signature (this is much faster to get processed than a paper uploaded form). You should probably certify IBR because it could drop your payments. If you submit an ECF (employer certification form) I believe your loans will automatically transfer to MOHELA. Note that MOHELA is pretty bad and also absolutely inundated with calls so it's very hard to get through to support, but their website is ok. IBR and ECF are both done directly through the studentaid.gov website. You also don't have to stay at the same employer for 10 years, and the payments do not need to be consecutive, so long as the employer is a qualified entity (501(c)(3), federal, state, local, tribal govt, and a few other employer types.
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Jun 14, 2023 18:42
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Awesome, thanks
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Jun 14, 2023 18:55
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Is it possible/reasonable to negotiate a bulk repayment for a less than the total balance for a loan otherwise in good standing? e.g., if there's 50k outstanding, it is weird to negotiate an immediate repayment of like 40k or something (and have the servicer consider the loan paid in full)? PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Jul 2, 2023 |
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Jul 2, 2023 01:12
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Has anyone had success with the double consolidation strategy that seems to exist for Parent Plus loans? Apparently by consolidating parent plus loans, and then doing it again into a single loan at a new servicer, you (or I guess your parents) gain access to all of the IDR plans rather than just ICR. The information looks pretty consistent across seemingly-legit sources, and people elsewhere on the internet have reported success, but I'm wondering if anyone here has tried it and if there are any pitfalls to be aware of? My partner and I are taking over payments on our parent plus loans once the pause ends, and I'm trying to understand our options.
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Jul 7, 2023 14:53
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Baronash posted:Has anyone had success with the double consolidation strategy that seems to exist for Parent Plus loans? Apparently by consolidating parent plus loans, and then doing it again into a single loan at a new servicer, you (or I guess your parents) gain access to all of the IDR plans rather than just ICR. I consolidated something under the temporary expansion that I wouldn't have been allowed to before and now it's on the 120/120 list. Ill check that it was a parent plus later but I'm pretty sure it was and easy.
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Jul 7, 2023 17:41
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So I just got this email...quote:You're eligible to have your student loan(s) forgiven! I'm guessing this only applies to the ~$12k of consolidated loans I have left over from the my first attempt at college back from 1998-2002, rather than any of the loans I took out when I went back to school to finish my degree a few years ago. This will be more forgiveness than I was going to get under the old plan, so that's cool.
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Jul 14, 2023 17:42
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Hi, my partner is trying to get her loan forgiven via public service loan forgiveness (she has been working as a therapist for 10 years, and has made payments for every month in that period, meeting the 120 month requirement). Her "employers" would be various insurance companies like Aetna, Blue Cross, etc. What would be her next steps? It's difficult because she has to have these health insurance companies verify her employment as an independent contractor in the state, and there's quite a few. Presumably they are non-profit but they would need to be to qualify. the other thing is that some places aren't listed as eligible (like Blue Cross of MN) even though they are a non-profit. Well, they are for profit now, but they were non-profit up until 2020. She might need a resource at the state level to help with this. I did find an attorney that specializes in this area, so that might be the way to go. actionjackson fucked around with this message at 04:57 on Aug 13, 2023 |
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Aug 13, 2023 04:39
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Unfortunately she may have a tough time qualifying for PSLF. If she was an independent contractor (ie, got paid on a 1099) she likely won’t qualify. If she was a w2 employee, she needs to have worked for a non-profit, ie most likely a 501c3. Most of the insurance companies you listed are for profit. Aetna, for example, almost certainly doesn’t qualify.
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Aug 13, 2023 15:11
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OK thank you
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Aug 13, 2023 15:44
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LanceHunter posted:So I just got this email... Following up on this: I logged in to my loan servicer’s site today and they have repayment dates/amounts set for the loans I took when I went back to school, but the old consolidated loans still show $0 due. The balances are still showing there, though. So I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
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Aug 13, 2023 16:40
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Another question, if someone has debt being paid under income-driven repayment, and they get married, their cost will go up right? Because it will consider both incomes together.
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Aug 13, 2023 17:05
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actionjackson posted:Another question, if someone has debt being paid under income-driven repayment, and they get married, their cost will go up right? Because it will consider both incomes together. I think that was always the case, but the new changes in IDR (that I guess go into effect in 2024) now let you calculate your payment just on the one party’s salary if you file your taxes separately. I don’t know how that gonna work, I.e. if you need to file separately in 2023 to have it work that way in 2024, but it’s something to keep your eye on.
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Aug 13, 2023 17:35
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JackBandit posted:I think that was always the case, but the new changes in IDR (that I guess go into effect in 2024) now let you calculate your payment just on the one party’s salary if you file your taxes separately. I don’t know how that gonna work, I.e. if you need to file separately in 2023 to have it work that way in 2024, but it’s something to keep your eye on. thanks! I'm guessing you could be married but file taxes separately? who knows
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Aug 13, 2023 18:43
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actionjackson posted:Another question, if someone has debt being paid under income-driven repayment, and they get married, their cost will go up right? Because it will consider both incomes together. I don’t know if its still true but it definitely used to be. When I got married my wife and I just filed separately to avoid the issues it would have caused, especially since she makes more than I do. My loans were forgiven a little while ago though and since then we started filing jointly.
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Aug 13, 2023 18:53
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actionjackson posted:Another question, if someone has debt being paid under income-driven repayment, and they get married, their cost will go up right? Because it will consider both incomes together. My wife and I have been on IBR (one of the IDR plans) and we MFS for taxes. Some of the IDR plans take both people's incomes regardless of filing status, but IBR only counts the borrower's income if you MFS.
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Aug 13, 2023 18:54
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what is MFS? I've also read that if you get married, you don't take on part of your spouse's student loan debt if you get divorced, unless you're in one of a few states. But that if that debt is refinanced during marriage, the spouse may be partially responsible for it.
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Aug 13, 2023 18:58
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actionjackson posted:what is MFS? MFS = Married, filing separately, it's one of the ways married couples can file their taxes. There are some disadvantages in that certain tax credits or favorable tax treatments are disallowed when filing separately.
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Aug 13, 2023 19:00
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thanks. she's on the 25 year repayment plan - did the three "covid years" count for that, even if they weren't required to make payments? i know the interest during that period is forgiven at least
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Aug 13, 2023 19:11
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If you were on a qualifying plan and had a qualifying employment status during the COVID forbearance, each month counted as a qualifying payment. At least they *did* count when I got forgiven at the end of 2021... I wasn't on a qualifying plan because I was dumb when I consolidated, but I fell under the temporary expansion to PSLF (along with other headaches, but I finally got them forgiven)
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Aug 13, 2023 20:39
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Planet Money had a decent episode about the new IDR plan: https://www.npr.org/2023/08/08/1192703211/biden-save-plan-how-it-works
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Aug 14, 2023 00:38
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Thanks for the NPR link. Good summary there Speaking of the new SAVE repayment plans, does anyone know about what the two tiers are? I can't find them mentioned anywhere, but it shows up for my loans with the second tier with higher payment kicking in after a certain date. Here is a screenshot from Mohela https://ibb.co/yhywcGQ
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Aug 14, 2023 20:10
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unfortunately most of the debt my partner has is from graduate school which isn't really affected? it stays at 10% while undergraduate was cut to 5%
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Aug 14, 2023 22:32
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LanceHunter posted:Following up on this: I logged in to my loan servicer’s site today and they have repayment dates/amounts set for the loans I took when I went back to school, but the old consolidated loans still show $0 due. The balances are still showing there, though. So I guess I’ll just have to wait and see. Follow-up to the follow-up. I just got the confirmation through my servicer that one of these two old consolidated loans was forgiven. Don't know why the second wasn't, as I thought they were set up at the same time. The other old loan still shows $0 due, though, so I'm not quite sure what is up there. This second loan not yet being forgiven might be a blessing in disguise, though, if I'm understanding things properly. As I understand it, if you consolidate loans then the IDR 20-year forgiveness kicks in based on the payment history for the oldest item in the consolidated package. So I might have a chance to consolidate this old loan with the loans I took out a decade later when I went back to school, and be able to hit the 20-year mark in a year or two and get everything cleared. Clearly I'll have to do some more research to figure all of this out. I don't have that much student loan debt (it's less than my car note), but after that bullshit SCOTUS decision I kinda want to get as much cleared as possible just on principal. EDIT: Okay, I think this info on the page for the SAVE program has more info... US Department of Education posted:Borrowers who consolidate will not lose progress toward forgiveness. They will receive credit for a weighted average of payments that count toward forgiveness based upon the principal balance of the loans being consolidated. So consolidating probably wouldn't be the best plan, since the remaining old outstanding amount isn't that high and wouldn't swing a weighted average that much. EDIT 2: Welp, nevermind. Second old consolidated loan is now also wiped. Guess they were just slow in processing everything. LanceHunter fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Aug 16, 2023 |
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Aug 16, 2023 14:56
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Hi thread ! We too have to now re figure out student loans. Quick background: Wife has a lot of student loans. I have $0 or close to zero (the provider for mine is currently showing they’re gone with what I assume was the $10 forgiveness that got rejected, so not sure if that will stick or not). My wife has worked off and on in non profits and public sector like libraries. She is currently a librarian at a city library. We’ve paid off and on, deferred a lot, def deferred the last 3 years. By my quick math, we have paid 3.5-4 years worth of payments in terms of qualifying towards 10 year forgiveness. Obviously no payments the last 3 years, so I assume those years don’t count. We have filed taxes married jointly the entire time. With the new SAVE, it spits out our monthly payments would go from $550 to $850ish. So….obviously we are fortunate that our incomes went up (specifically mine), but yeah that sucks. Her income in its own is $45k. So I’m thinking a plan of: -defer until next tax filing in February ish -file married separately -probably pay a lot more in tax -but submit for SAVE so the monthly payments are way lower -long term pay less in student loans than in the higher taxes for separate filing -get loans forgiven at the 10 year payment mark, pay as little as possible on the way. I’m going to be talking to our tax guy, but that’s my hope. Any input, am I off on this, etc ?
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Aug 20, 2023 17:07
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Duckman2008 posted:Hi thread ! We too have to now re figure out student loans. The deferred payments during COVID do count. My biggest recommendation is to have your wife certify her employment with every place she's worked while she's been in repayment, including during COVID. MOHELA will calculate her remaining payments for her once this is on file. I just sent in my recertification, and it was all electronic and super easy.
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Aug 20, 2023 19:48
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Wiggy Marie posted:The deferred payments during COVID do count. My biggest recommendation is to have your wife certify her employment with every place she's worked while she's been in repayment, including during COVID. MOHELA will calculate her remaining payments for her once this is on file. Even if we had it under forbearance the past 3 years? And yeah, I’m working on gathering the EINs of each place and filing.
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Aug 20, 2023 20:18
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I am suffering from information overload and have a question - I am already enrolled in IBR. Do I need to enroll in SAVE or will I be automatically enrolled?
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Aug 23, 2023 17:43
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remigious posted:I am suffering from information overload and have a question - I am already enrolled in IBR. Do I need to enroll in SAVE or will I be automatically enrolled? Which IDR plan are you on? If you're on the IBR or any other IDR plan than REPAYE you will have to request to transfer to SAVE. If you are on REPAYE it will automatically convert to SAVE. I was on IBR and submitted the paperwork this morning. Should drop my payment from $200 on IBR to $0 (working towards PSLF).
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Aug 23, 2023 18:03
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The Slack Lagoon posted:Which IDR plan are you on? If you're on the IBR or any other IDR plan than REPAYE you will have to request to transfer to SAVE. If you are on REPAYE it will automatically convert to SAVE. Pretty sure I am not on REPAYE so I will just apply for SAVE. Thank you for the reply!
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Aug 23, 2023 18:34
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Duckman2008 posted:Even if we had it under forbearance the past 3 years? Do you mean you had it under a separate forbearance, or the COVID repayment pause? If it was an unrelated forbearance, I don't think it would count. The paused payments under the COVID pause do count though.
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Aug 23, 2023 22:38
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Oh poo poo I just submitted my final PSLF form. Now to wait for HR to countersign, and DOE to process and send to MOHELA, then MOHELA to process and send back to DOE, etc etc etc for the next year or so
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Aug 24, 2023 20:51
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Quick dumb question: Student loan interest begins accruing again on Sept 1st, so if you were planning on paying off a big chunk of your loans, you'd want to do that before then, correct?
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Aug 24, 2023 22:01
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trip9 posted:Quick dumb question: Student loan interest begins accruing again on Sept 1st, so if you were planning on paying off a big chunk of your loans, you'd want to do that before then, correct? Yes. I hope those assholes are happy.
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Aug 25, 2023 17:02
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I was reading up on the new SAVE plan and this appears to be newquote:Under the SAVE plan, borrowers whose original principal balances were $12,000 or less will receive forgiveness after 120 payments (the equivalent of 10 years in repayment). For each additional $1,000 borrowed above that level, the plan adds an additional 12 payments (equivalent of 1 year of payments) for up to a maximum of 20 or 25 years. Per the press conference https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...-new-save-plan/ "For undergrads, it’s 20 years. For graduate students, it’s 25 years." I believe PAYE/REPAYE was max of 20 years. IBR was 25. I 'think' that for moderately high earners, the new SAVE plan could be worse (trading somewhat lower payments for 5 more years of them) than the PAYE plan and it will be interesting to see how switching between programs is handled. Presumably you wouldn't be able to go to SAVE for 20 years then switch back to PAYE. I'm also interested in how the interest is handled, will it be placed into a suspense account? Forgiving it will have tax consequences once the current law expires in 2026. Edit: Reading further regarding interest, this could help my cousin-in-law depending on how the interest works out. Using fake numbers, let's say she was paying $500/mo on PAYE before, but only $250 of that was principal and $250 was towards interest. Assuming her monthly repayment drops significantly; with the interest changes, if she kept paying $500/mo, would she just wipe out the principal pretty fast, and the interest be forgiven in another decade or two after a few dozen months of paying $0? trevorreznik fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Aug 29, 2023 |
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Aug 25, 2023 17:34
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Hello thread. I know most student loan payments are stating up soon, but mine don't appear to be starting up until December of 2024. It says right on my Nelnet account (and I just got a text) that my next payment won't be until mid-December 2024. Any idea why that's so long from now (not that I'm upset about it), and will interest still begin to accrue come October?
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Sep 5, 2023 03:17
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literally this big posted:Hello thread. I know most student loan payments are stating up soon, but mine don't appear to be starting up until December of 2024. I'm seeing the same thing. Did you by chance graduate earlier this year? I suspect that's what's causing it for me.
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Sep 5, 2023 15:23
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Chevy Slyme posted:I'm seeing the same thing. Did you by chance graduate earlier this year? Nope, graduated almost 10 years ago. Although I read something on Reddit about one's pre-pause payment plan effecting when one's next payment is due post-pause, based on when you finally re-certify your income. So maybe I won't have to re-certify my income until December '24, and thus not owe anything until then?
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Sep 6, 2023 05:23
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 Somehow the subsidized and unsubsidized loans are out of sync on payment counts. The subsidized just updated to 120 today after recertifying about a month ago. Will the subsidized get forgiven when the other one still has 4 to go? If so, any ideas how long that actually takes?
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Sep 7, 2023 22:04
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