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Another dumb question. Tuition is due in mid August. Federal aid is disbursed a month later. Does this mean I have to pay upfront and wait for a refund? That's a lot of money! And kind of defeats the whole purpose.
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Jul 24, 2011 03:40
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I have a question regarding public service forgiveness. I had been planning on applying for this around 2019 when I will have made 120 consecutive payments on my Stafford Loans. Today I noticed that this may actually only apply to Federal DIRECT loans, and not to all Stafford loans. My federal stafford loans came from a private company so am I safe to assume that I do not have a "federal direct" stafford loan? In that case, is there any other public service forgiveness for my loans? I will be working for a non-profit company for the foreseeable future and was hoping to benefit from this. Regarding public service forgiveness: http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/attachments/siteresources/LoanForgivenessMarch18.pdf Medikit fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Jul 24, 2011 |
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Jul 24, 2011 04:37
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baquerd, thank you for your help! Seyelence, are you asking what best way to shop for a private loan? Assuming you can and WILL pay it back immediately, I suggest simpletuition.com to shop for one. You can also ask the school if they recommend/participate with any in particular that they prefer. TheManWithNoName, yes they do and some schools will let you hold over funds to cover the summer. Otherwise it is entirely up to you to make sure you have the funds you need for the summer session. This is harder than it sounds, but it is doable. If you don't get your full eligiblity during the year, you could also get additional aid in the summer (since you have some left over). Most schools require a separate summer aid request be filled out for this situation, but the money would still be available to you. Also, yes that's correct, and what happens is the school assumes the loans will cover your tuition and refund you the difference. If they send you a bill with a due amount you need to contact the Bursar immediately to make sure your loans are showing as coming in the system. Magicmat, you can certainly take out private loans but if the school won't certify them you won't get the funds. Most likely they would certify, you just need to get the information sent in. If they really fuss, you might get some benefit from providing some kind of documentation of why you need the extra money/higher budget (statement of expenses or something?). Normally it doesn't get to that point, just apply for a private loan for what you need and have the information sent to the school. If on the other end, you get a totally outside loan that is not education-related, you're on your own and have to deal with that loan on its own terms. But the school can't stop you. Medikit, as of this year all new originated loans are Direct loans, however in years previous they were not. If you have FFELP loans prior to July 1st 2010, they may qualify for the program. You can always call your servicer to double check, though. A lot of regulations have changed and they opened up a lot of programs for the older FFELP loans, so there's a possibility you could still get forgiveness. If they're private credit-based loans (not GradPLUS), you can't get forgiveness  Sorry.
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Jul 24, 2011 05:03
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Medikit posted:I have a question regarding public service forgiveness. I had been planning on applying for this around 2019 when I will have made 120 consecutive payments on my Stafford Loans. Today I noticed that this may actually only apply to Federal DIRECT loans, and not to all Stafford loans. My federal stafford loans came from a private company so am I safe to assume that I do not have a "federal direct" stafford loan? In that case, is there any other public service forgiveness for my loans? I will be working for a non-profit company for the foreseeable future and was hoping to benefit from this. Even if those Staffords don't qualify right now, you can consolidate them with the Department of Education which will allow you to use public service forgiveness after 10 years of payments. This is assuming they really are federal student loans and not private loans you mistakenly believe are Stafford loans.
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Jul 24, 2011 13:04
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blar posted:Even if those Staffords don't qualify right now, you can consolidate them with the Department of Education which will allow you to use public service forgiveness after 10 years of payments. This is assuming they really are federal student loans and not private loans you mistakenly believe are Stafford loans. Okay, I'll have to give them a call. They are stafford loans, I got them through CFNC. My first year's loan was actually consolidated that year via a popular loop hole that existed at that time so I'm not sure if they will consolidate those again.
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Jul 25, 2011 02:20
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~
Dr. Mantis Toboggan fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Aug 11, 2021 |
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Jul 26, 2011 01:18
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Vary by school is correct, so that is a better question for the financial aid office. Each school has their own regulations about Satisfactory Academic Progress.
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Jul 28, 2011 20:50
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Made my last student loan payment today. Shout out to VSAC for consolidating at a low interest rate and always being helpful and nice when I call. Seriously, VSAC is the only student loan company that I've ever heard anyone say anything good about. They're nicer than my bank.
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Jul 29, 2011 13:24
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Congratulations!!! Also, awesome on them. I've never done business with them but I'll remember if we have any other Vermont students about!
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Jul 29, 2011 16:54
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Hello, sorry if you've answered any questions i might bring up or if you can't help me with anything i ask but here it goes: So initially I had planned on going to a film school in california and after being accepted and basically preparing to go there after high school graduation my parents had filed for bankruptcy (they told me even before that they might not be able to help me pay for much of it but i figured as much anyway,but failed to realize how much the school actually would have cost me). As a result of their bankruptcy they can no longer help me pay for school at all. . . (or at least that's what i've been led to believe). I've rather hastily applied to nmsu and been accepted and according to what the other school i applied to has told me regarding my fafsa i should get about 9,500 in federal loans. I was wondering if there was any way i could appeal to the school for more aid or if i could somehow get declared an independent based on my parent's bankruptcy( I know this is the loan thread and this is off topic)? The thing of it is the $9,500 isn't enough to cover the cost of going to school, i think i'd actually need $5,000 more. What are some of the safer private loans to go to? as it seems the need to take one out has become unavoidable. Sorry for the longwinded explanation but the prospect of having to go into debt to pay for school really frightens me. 
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Jul 29, 2011 19:01
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It looks like you've exhausted the Staffords, however you might want to call and ask the school about Pell grants. If they say you need a PLUS loan, have one of your parents apply for a PLUS loan. Since they've filed bankruptcy, they should be denied. Once the school has the denial on file they can offer you additional aid - assuming there is any additional to offer. As for private loans, unfortunately there's not really one I'm aware of that is the "best." Your best shopping around option is simpletuition.com . Good luck!
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Jul 30, 2011 00:51
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If I have to take out loans for two years at community college and then transfer to a four year college for my remaining two years, will I be required make payments on those loans right away?
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Jul 30, 2011 10:22
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Draconi Ann posted:If I have to take out loans for two years at community college and then transfer to a four year college for my remaining two years, will I be required make payments on those loans right away? If you are enrolled in an accredited school for at least halftime, it's federal regulation that you have to be put into an In School Deferment. Either your school will report your status automatically or you will have to make them fill out a sheet and send it in to your servicer, make sure to find out what you need to do for your school to be in an In School Deferment. In terms of time spent between attending, make sure you do not spend six months or more out of school. You only get one 6 month grace period and by the time you've used it, you can't get it back. If you spend 5 months on it and are enrolled in school before 6 months is up, you'll get it back. Just don't use it all up, because you're going to want that grace period.
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Jul 30, 2011 19:03
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Thanks Effexxor! The only addendum I have is that those rules only apply to federal loans applied for using the FAFSA (Staffords, PLUS). You will need to research any private loan(s) you might take for their regulations.
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Jul 31, 2011 03:45
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Hi I have a question, I'm filling out the Direct Consolidation loan paperwork and it asks for the account numbers for my loans, on the NSLDS website I have all my loan information EXCEPT the account numbers, is there somewhere else I can look for them? Thanks for the help.
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Aug 1, 2011 04:40
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Logged in here https://www.dl.ed.gov and found my account numbers, got the idea of searching for the guaranty agency from another answer you gave a few pages back, so thanks OP!
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Aug 1, 2011 05:14
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Edit: nevermind, the question got answered answered.
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Aug 1, 2011 05:19
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Ok I have another question, I'm trying to add my Federal Direct Grad PLUS loans but the closest Loan Type is "U-Direct PLUS Loans" when I try to choose IBR as the repayment plan it says I can't because I have Parent PLUS loans, which I don't. Should I choose a different loan type or do I have to choose ICR as the repayment plan and then call them up to change it to IBR?
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Aug 1, 2011 06:21
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It might be a glitch in their system. Call them up and ask before proceeding. What are the other loan type options they have available? Maybe it's hiding out under another code.
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Aug 1, 2011 23:17
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Wiggy Marie posted:It might be a glitch in their system. Call them up and ask before proceeding. What are the other loan type options they have available? Maybe it's hiding out under another code. Here are all the loan types in the Direct consolidations dialog box   I'm going to call them up in the morning and ask which one I should use, I'll let you guys know what they say.
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Aug 2, 2011 01:22
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Starkk posted:I'm going to call them up in the morning and ask which one I should use, I'll let you guys know what they say. Definitely report back, I can see myself getting asked this question and I'd like to know the answer. (Btw Wiggy, I've been reading though the old pages of this thread and have been learning a lot to be able to take back to my job, so thanks for all of your info!)
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Aug 2, 2011 01:50
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No problem at all, and thank YOU for your help! Your knowledge is WAY more up to date than mine, so take some of the regulation-related stuff with a grain of salt. If you see anything in the OP that needs to be updated, let me know and I'll get it fixed.
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Aug 2, 2011 02:17
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Wiggy Marie posted:No problem at all, and thank YOU for your help! Your knowledge is WAY more up to date than mine, so take some of the regulation-related stuff with a grain of salt. If you see anything in the OP that needs to be updated, let me know and I'll get it fixed. Why thank you! It's a little intimidating posting in a thread you're so established in, but I feel like answering questions and seeing what's being asked in this thread will help me advise people about their loans. It's kind of terrifying doing the job and being wrong.  I would suggest going over what the process is for in school deferment though, that seems like one of my biggest questions being asked recently at work. Namely that if your school is in clearinghouse, they will report you as being in school, and that if they aren't, you'll need to send in an in school deferment. Also, should the types of deferments get put onto the OP page? I'd be willing to write up a basic version of what deferments there are, and what you need to qualify for them.
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Aug 2, 2011 04:00
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Ok so I just called, what they said is that any PLUS loan, even the Grad PLUS loans, are considered by the website to be a parent PLUS loan. So what you have to do is fill out the consolidation app, pick one of the repayment plans available (I'm going to choose ICR but it doesn't matter) then 2-3 days later (if you filed electronically) you call them up and ask to be put on the IBR plan.
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Aug 2, 2011 19:59
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Thank you for the follow up Starkk! Super helpful in case someone asks in the future  Effexxor, no worries. I haven't been in the servicing side in YEARS so your more up to date knowledge is more than welcome. As for adding to the OP, if you write it I will proof read and slap it up. Actually, the reason I started this thread was partly to reinforce what I was learning every day, so I imagine it will be a tremendous help for you to keep contributing.
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Aug 2, 2011 22:32
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I graduated with $50,000 in loans from Sallie Mae. How hosed am I?
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Aug 2, 2011 23:25
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ashgromnies posted:I graduated with $50,000 in loans from Sallie Mae. I've seen worse, you'll be fine. Just avoid that call center whenever possible, because I hear horror stories. Your choices are a standard plan, an extended plan and a graduated plan, if you intend on paying off your loan. If not and you make little enough, go onto the income based repayment plan, which will give you $0 payments for 12 months if your income is low enough or if you're receiving federal or state aid, though your loan will be stretched out to 25 years and you may or may not get your loan forgiven then. The 10 year standard is the best option for paying off your loan. It's a set monthly payment for ten years or 120 payments and while the highest of your repayment options, you will get your loan paid off the fastest and with the least amount of your payment going towards interest. The extended standard plan is similar, but stretched out to 25 years. You end up paying almost as much in interest as you do in principal, but sometimes it's the only option, though even the terrible extended plan is worse than... The graduated plan rises in payment amount by 30% every two years. It starts off with low, almost interest level payments, and then raises till you're paying a ton in 8 years. You will pay a lot of interest and you won't feel like you're making headway for about 6 years. However, if you're starting out at entry level and will be making more in a few years, this could be your only option. But for the love of god, whenever you can, make extra payments. The extended graduated plan is like the graduated, only spread out to 25 years. Income Sensitive and Income Contingent might sound like good ideas at first. They're based off of your gross income, and can be a hell of a lot lower. But the problem with them is that they count against your loan term. In other words, if you pay less than the amount of interest accruing a day, you will not only end up owing more, but you will not only have to pay more, but also have to do it in a shorter amount of time meaning that your payments go up. I've seen people go on ISR for a year and pay a small amount, but then find their 'high' $350 payments become 'impossible' $500 payments. Avoid them. Reduced Payment Forbearance is a much better option. With RPFs, you pay an interest only payment, or if you want, you can pay an interest only payment plus whatever you want to go to principal. And unlike ISR/ICR, it doesn't count against your loan term so your monthly payment will be the same next year. Your loan adviser can also do it over the phone with you, and it's the only repayment plan that can be processed in a day, the others take at least 30 days to process. The Income Based Repayment plan is a pain. Your Average Gross Income has to be less than %150 of the poverty level for how many dependents you have, or you or your spouse are only receiving an income from federal or state aid (SSI, Disability, WIC) or other sources (child support, alimony. If your AGI is low enough, or if you're on federal aid, you get $0 payments, as long as you send in supporting documents and fill out what you need to fill out. You qualify for it every year, but after 25 years, apparently the government will forgive your loan. But this is a big risk, because the government may not forgive those loans with a. how broke we are and b. this is a new program. Keep in mind that it is always better to pay something than fall delinquent, unless you can get a postponement of payments. (Wow, I ended up doing a big post about repayment plans, I'll do deferments tomorrow at work, but Wiggy, think this would be good for the OP?) Effexxor fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Aug 3, 2011 |
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Aug 3, 2011 04:20
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My Direct consolidation application has been in the certification stage for a long time now. I filed it back on June 20th. Is it normal for it to take this long? Kinda has me worried.
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Aug 3, 2011 22:31
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Effexxor, lovely! Keep prodding me and I'll get it added, super hectic right now but I think it's fine. Edit: Done! Thank you again! couldcareless, not really. You should call the company (or companies) that Direct is consolidating from and check if they received the request. If not, Direct will need to send a new one. If so, call Direct and ask what the hold-up is. Wiggy Marie fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Aug 4, 2011 |
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Aug 4, 2011 00:52
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Effexxor posted:
So when it comes down to it, IBR is the worst option? My husband and I are looking into moving from upstate NY down to NC. There are no jobs up here. We had a "regular" job 2yrs (had it for 2yr up to that point) ago with under the table pay; during that time I kept my credit card balance at/near $0, and paid extra on my loan whenever possible. When we lost our jobs there, it took 1yr for him to find a new job (I struggled to find anything, especially since I had to shuttle him to/from work). In June he lost that job, and jobs are still very scarce around here. He does IT work on the side, and includes that in our tax filing. Anyway, economy seems better down there than up here, and there are actually alot of companies relating to our fields. I'm looking to change my repayment (at least temporarily), because we're having trouble paying all our bills. He's not eligible for unemployment (I'm still unemployed), so we have to rely on his infrequent oddjobs and IT side-jobs. What's my best option? We're stuck in a loop here. We don't have money to move to where we'll have more opportunities, and we're barely staying afloat where we are. There's no reason to stay here, and we want to get out asap. We cut corners wherever else we could already. If I can do something about my loan temporarily, it would help ease things up. My current monthly payment is $180 (they also just reduced my interest rate by 1% for a reason I don't know). I considered a temporary forebearance, but I always thought that was the worst option because interest keeps accruing. Is that my best option, or is there something else I should consider first? My other question... they ask for a copy of the tax return. Do they use that solely as the basis for whether they approve/deny or how much you pay? He was making decent money at his last job (from Sept-June), but how will they know that we don't have that income anymore? It doesn't seem that the applications have a line anywhere for current income (unless I've overlooked it), just income based off the tax returns.
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Aug 4, 2011 01:24
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about repayment options
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IdeoPhanthus posted:So when it comes down to it, IBR is the worst option? Any repayment or postponement option that helps you to not be delinquent is a good option. But no, actually ISR or ICR are the worst options and I try and steer them away from those whenever freaking possible. IBR isn't a bad option for the first 3 years because the government pays the subsidized interest for that long, but I do try and steer people away from it unless they will never be able to make enough money to repay their loan because frankly, I don't trust the government to forgive the loan after 25 years, not with our economy. It's a much safer bet to pay off your loan than wait for the government to forgive your loan. IdeoPhanthus posted:My husband and I are looking into moving from upstate NY down to NC. There are no jobs up here. We had a "regular" job 2yrs (had it for 2yr up to that point) ago with under the table pay; during that time I kept my credit card balance at/near $0, and paid extra on my loan whenever possible. When we lost our jobs there, it took 1yr for him to find a new job (I struggled to find anything, especially since I had to shuttle him to/from work). In June he lost that job, and jobs are still very scarce around here. He does IT work on the side, and includes that in our tax filing. Anyway, economy seems better down there than up here, and there are actually alot of companies relating to our fields. Income Based repayment plan wouldn't be too bad for you, as long as you don't stay on it for too long. There's an option in the IBR Alternative Documentation form that specifically asks how much income you've made since Jan. 1 2011 that would qualify you for it. That being said, there are a lot of other options. You're unemployed, so you can file for an unemployment deferment, during which the government will pay the interest on your subsidized loans. As long as you are actively seeking full time work in a variety of fields (or say that you are) you can get a deferment for 6 months at a time, up to three years. Also, if you make payments will in an unemployment deferment, you will have less interest accrued so more will go to the principal. Forbearances are not necessarily a bad thing, and in fact, they can be godsends. Depending on whether you have FDLP or FFELP, you either have 36 or 60 months of forbearance, respectively. I do forbearances all the time at work, if you're in a forbearance your account is current and if you pay the interest 30 days before the forbearance is due to end, it doesn't get added onto your principal. There is no shame in a forbearance at all. Effexxor fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Aug 4, 2011 |
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Aug 4, 2011 01:59
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Wiggy Marie posted:couldcareless, not really. You should call the company (or companies) that Direct is consolidating from and check if they received the request. If not, Direct will need to send a new one. If so, call Direct and ask what the hold-up is. Well, called both of them. Sounds like Sallie Mae is dragging their feet. Said they received it early July but the guy on the phone had no information on how long it would be processing since it was handled by a different department. drat people.
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Aug 4, 2011 17:15
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Keep nagging. Don't be rude, but don't back off either. Ask for a supervisor if you need to and see if they can check on the status.
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Aug 4, 2011 23:16
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I had my Stafford loans bought out by Sallie Mae. I called about a month ago asking about when my payments would be due, and they said I would be getting a "Welcome" letter. A month later, nothing. So I called again a few days ago, because at some point in the past week my login for their website stopped working. It claims that my date of birth is invalid. Some foreign person answered. I asked when exactly my payment would be due, because I received an email saying a statement was ready, but I couldn't access it online because my login didn't work. The lady said that my loan is in a permanent hold and that I would receive my first correspondence within 45 days, and until then I owed nothing. I asked her if she could fix my date of birth, and she read something off a script about how I wouldn't be able to access my account until my loans were fully transferred over. I'm scared that she's full of poo poo and my credit rating will take a hit from this.
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Aug 5, 2011 01:18
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Eugene Jerome posted:I had my Stafford loans bought out by Sallie Mae. I called about a month ago asking about when my payments would be due, and they said I would be getting a "Welcome" letter. A month later, nothing. Sallie Mae outsources to India, which is a beyond terrible idea because you need to know a lot of different ways to explain student loans and frankly, they just don't have the language skills for it. Check NSLDS on it's status, and try emailing them, that be answered by someone who can actually explain it. Till then, wouldn't be a bad idea to send a copy of your birth certificate or driver's license to their correspondence office to get it changed on your account. Edit: Also I have never heard of a permanent hold on a loan, except for something like bankruptcy, and even then you can still give the person their loan information. When my servicer gets loans, we have pretty much instant access to the pertinent info like next payment due and payment amount. Also, Wiggy, you may want to edit the OP about the consolidation part, the only entity allowed to consolidate loans right now is DirectLoans, i.e. the department of education. Effexxor fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Aug 5, 2011 |
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Aug 5, 2011 02:00
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Effexxor posted:Check NSLDS on it's status, and try emailing them, that be answered by someone who can actually explain it. Till then, wouldn't be a bad idea to send a copy of your birth certificate or driver's license to their correspondence office to get it changed on your account. The NSLDS website says all my Stafford Loans are still serviced by Citibank, even though if I go to Citibank's payment site they inform me that Sallie Mae is now servicing my Stafford loans, and that they are no longer accepting payments for Stafford loans. So confusing.
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Aug 5, 2011 05:40
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Eugene Jerome posted:The NSLDS website says all my Stafford Loans are still serviced by Citibank, even though if I go to Citibank's payment site they inform me that Sallie Mae is now servicing my Stafford loans, and that they are no longer accepting payments for Stafford loans. Yikes, if you were with anyone besides Sallie Mae this would be so much easier. My only other option is for you to log a complaint with the department of education ombudsman and tell them that they won't give you your payment date, they won't give you access to basic information on your loan, and ask if they can find out what's going on.
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Aug 5, 2011 15:59
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Is there any disadvantage to taking one of the longer term payment options (e.g., extended/graduated), but to pay more money sooner, as if you were on one of the shorter plans? Seems like if all else is equal, I might as well choose the option with the lowest minimum payment, even if I intend to aggressively pay down the debt. Any reason not to do so, other than the psychological effect of having a higher mandatory minimum forcing me to pay it off sooner?
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Aug 5, 2011 18:51
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NJ Deac posted:Is there any disadvantage to taking one of the longer term payment options (e.g., extended/graduated), but to pay more money sooner, as if you were on one of the shorter plans? Seems like if all else is equal, I might as well choose the option with the lowest minimum payment, even if I intend to aggressively pay down the debt. Any reason not to do so, other than the psychological effect of having a higher mandatory minimum forcing me to pay it off sooner? Nope, no disadvantage. Just don't get complacent and just pay the minimum if you don't want to pay a metric fuckton of interest!
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Aug 5, 2011 19:40
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Does the OP need to be updated? I was just told by my financial aid office that not only does repaying your loans free you up for more money for loans if you return to school, but you are allowed 12 semesters of loans for undergrad, not just 5 years.
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Aug 6, 2011 00:05
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