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Trickortreat
Oct 31, 2020
I have multiple loans with the same interest rate. The only difference is the amount of interest and principal balance. If I want to make a lump payment to make the biggest dent, how should I prioritize the dispersion of the payment?

Should I be focusing on the lower principle loans to just completely wipe it out? Or should I be focusing on the loans with a higher amount of interest accrued so I can bring the interest down?

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meatpimp
May 15, 2004

Psst -- Wanna buy

:) EVERYWHERE :)
some high-quality thread's DESTROYED!

:kheldragar:

nm

meatpimp fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Sep 16, 2023

Raimondo
Apr 29, 2010

Raimondo posted:



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?

If anyone is curious, to the answer:

Yes, the subsidized sequence was forgiven when it got to 120, even though the unsubsidized had 4 to go.

Also, here was the timing:
Submitted PSLF Manual application 7/31/23. Mohela updated count to 120 on 9/7/23. Balanced was changed to $0 on 10/9/23.

2 more months and we can submit for the remaining loan and be done!

BonoMan
Feb 20, 2002

Jade Ear Joe
edit: whoops just totally hosed over myself by not realizing that consolidation was going to capitalize TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS of interest. Love my life.

It was a $5k original unsubsidized loan that capitalized over $10K in interest. Love capitalism!

BonoMan fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Oct 31, 2023

The March Hare
Oct 15, 2006

Je rêve d'un
Wayne's World 3
Buglord
So I've got the following stuff floating around:

code:
Servicer #1:
Stafford - Subsidized: $2,746.72 @ 5.350%
Stafford - Unsubsidized: $2,224.75 @ 6.550%
Direct Loan - Subsidized: $2,938.99 @ 6.550%
Direct Loan - Subsidized: $3,672.85 @ 5.750%
Direct Loan - Subsidized: $3,365.70 @ 4.250%
Direct Loan - Unsubsidized: $2,112.26 @ 6.550%
Direct Loan - Subsidized: $1,944.29 @ 3.150%

Servicer #2:
MEFACR: $4,302.51 @ 8.500%
I believe the loans under Servicer #1 are all fixed rate, while #2 is variable.

I just sort of want these things gone. I understand I may be better off paying my minimums and investing the money elsewhere, but my brain is fundamentally broken and I would sleep better at night knowing I don't have this stupid debt looming over my head.

If I punch all my info into the studentaid.gov repayment calculator thing it tells me I should sign up for REPAYE and pay ~$1,102/mo. Whatever plan I'm currently on has me paying ~$300/mo I think across both servicers. Am I better off staying on my current plan and overpaying toward my highest interest loans first, rather than moving to REPAYE and spreading the payments out across all of the loans?

Also, I assume there's no reason to consolidate these loans right? None of them have any uncapitalized interest on them (other than whatever from this month).

The March Hare fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Oct 31, 2023

pmchem
Jan 22, 2010


i dunno how student loans work these days in terms of mechanics or rules for repayment but i’d be super frugal and pay all that off asap, starting with the floating rate and then going down the fixed rate stuff (highest rates first) until the only rates left were under, say, 4.5% (ballpark for likely near term 10 year treasury yields)

see also flowcharts in bfc newbies or long term thread OPs

Ol' Limber Legs
Nov 20, 2002

PLEASE KILL ME NOW
This PSLF process is making me feel very dumb. Help please!

In June I completed 10 full years working as a public school teacher, so I started my PSLF paperwork shortly afterward. It took a couple of tries to get my current employer to fill out their form, so I didn't get an answer from MOHELA until about a month ago.

Their first message, from 10/09/2023 just confirming payment counts:


Not sure why the payments are out of sync by 3... my teaching career started 08/2013 and I changed employers last summer so I was not employed for 07/2022 and 08/2022. But that's only 2 months. Not sure if this is a huge deal anyway.


Second message, from 10/10/2023 saying I'm not yet eligible:


Question on this one: Loan sequence 2 and 3 have 121 eligible payments, but the message says I'm not yet eligible... does that mean they won't forgive those two until the third one is eligible in a couple months?

And current payment tracker on the MOHELA website:


So, my gut feeling is that I make my two payments on loan sequence 1 and then recertify my employment in January or so, and then hopefully get my forgiveness processed soon after? Does that sound right or am I missing something?

Thanks!!

The Slack Lagoon
Jun 17, 2008



There's a PSLF Facebook group that is run by volunteers but the admins posted something from MOHELA basically saying they are way behind and gently caress you just wait. It seems like MOHELA has lost staff and at the same time correspondence is significantly increased due to return to payment.

BonoMan
Feb 20, 2002

Jade Ear Joe
So I guess "staff up to insure you can handle it" was not a requirement from the government when they made them the official servicer?

Wiggy Marie
Jan 16, 2006

Meep!

BonoMan posted:

So I guess "staff up to insure you can handle it" was not a requirement from the government when they made them the official servicer?

Having seen the requests for information the Department of Education puts out, I can just about guarantee that 1. This was part of the ask and 2. MOHELA overpromised by leaps and bounds.

webcams for christ
Nov 2, 2005
My general strategy is do IDR and make the minimum monthly payment until I hit 20/25 years.

I'm consolidating my FFEL loans because it seems like the right move to make?

Who should I choose as my new servicer?

LanceHunter
Nov 12, 2016

Beautiful People Club


webcams for christ posted:

My general strategy is do IDR and make the minimum monthly payment until I hit 20/25 years.

I'm consolidating my FFEL loans because it seems like the right move to make?

Who should I choose as my new servicer?



EdFinancial has been entirely competent for my purposes.

Annath
Jan 11, 2009

Batatouille is a great and funny play on words for a video game creature and I love silly words like these
Clever Betty
How do I go about figuring out who actually services my loans now?

My loans were paused during Covid, like many other people's were.

I work for the Department of Health, so I was incredibly busy during Covid, often working 12 hour days 6 days per week, so I honestly wasn't paying much attention to the loan stuff. I do remember that it was originally serviced by Great Lakes Borrower Services, but I seem to recall getting a notice of it being changed to someone else?

I've gotten no letters or emails from a servicer asking where my payment is, and they haven't billed the card I had on file last time I made a payment.

I'm not sure how to proceed... any advice would be appreciated.

Josh Lyman
May 24, 2009


Annath posted:

How do I go about figuring out who actually services my loans now?

My loans were paused during Covid, like many other people's were.

I work for the Department of Health, so I was incredibly busy during Covid, often working 12 hour days 6 days per week, so I honestly wasn't paying much attention to the loan stuff. I do remember that it was originally serviced by Great Lakes Borrower Services, but I seem to recall getting a notice of it being changed to someone else?

I've gotten no letters or emails from a servicer asking where my payment is, and they haven't billed the card I had on file last time I made a payment.

I'm not sure how to proceed... any advice would be appreciated.
I had Great Lakes and my account was transferred to Nelnet. You definitely would’ve gotten emails but maybe they went to spam or got lost in the shuffle.

It’s possible your previous credit card has expired. My payments are drawn from my checking account, presumably because charging a card would’ve incurred a fee.

Annath
Jan 11, 2009

Batatouille is a great and funny play on words for a video game creature and I love silly words like these
Clever Betty

Josh Lyman posted:

I had Great Lakes and my account was transferred to Nelnet. You definitely would’ve gotten emails but maybe they went to spam or got lost in the shuffle.

It’s possible your previous credit card has expired. My payments are drawn from my checking account, presumably because charging a card would’ve incurred a fee.

I'll have to dig through my emails then. I never delete emails, Gmail has enough storage to keep them all, so it might be in there somewhere.

JackBandit
Jun 6, 2011
I think if you log in on studentaid.gov it will tell you who your servicer is link

Epiphyte
Apr 7, 2006


So I'm a bit confused on the IDR payment adjustment requirements, I keep seeing news stories saying you must consolidate before the end of 2023, however on the studentaid.gov sites it states:

"Please note that submitting a consolidation application alone does not guarantee any benefits under the payment count adjustment. In general, it takes at least 60 days to process a Direct Consolidation Loan application and to disburse the new loan. This means that if you want to consolidate your loan(s) in order to get the benefit of the adjustment, you should submit a loan consolidation application by April 30, 2024."

We currently have approx 50K left from on my wife's loans. If possible I'd like to wait to consolidate because we filed taxes jointly this year which makes all the IDR plans higher than our current payment. But, If I can wait until we file this coming years taxes and file them separately, my wife's smaller income makes this a very attractive proposition, especially if we get credit for former payments.

I could swallow a couple months of higher payments if necessary before recertifying, but being able to wait until I get my W2s done in February would be far easier

Ol' Limber Legs
Nov 20, 2002

PLEASE KILL ME NOW

Ol' Limber Legs posted:

This PSLF process is making me feel very dumb. Help please!

In June I completed 10 full years working as a public school teacher, so I started my PSLF paperwork shortly afterward. It took a couple of tries to get my current employer to fill out their form, so I didn't get an answer from MOHELA until about a month ago.

Their first message, from 10/09/2023 just confirming payment counts:


Not sure why the payments are out of sync by 3... my teaching career started 08/2013 and I changed employers last summer so I was not employed for 07/2022 and 08/2022. But that's only 2 months. Not sure if this is a huge deal anyway.


Second message, from 10/10/2023 saying I'm not yet eligible:


Question on this one: Loan sequence 2 and 3 have 121 eligible payments, but the message says I'm not yet eligible... does that mean they won't forgive those two until the third one is eligible in a couple months?

And current payment tracker on the MOHELA website:


So, my gut feeling is that I make my two payments on loan sequence 1 and then recertify my employment in January or so, and then hopefully get my forgiveness processed soon after? Does that sound right or am I missing something?

Thanks!!


Update: 2 of my 3 loans were seem to have been forgiven in the last couple of days, but I haven't received any correspondence saying so. I just see that they have a negative balance adding up to the ~$25 payment I made in October before my forbearance kicked in. So...yay? Studentaid.gov still shows my full balance, but it's as of 12/31.

Turns out my 3rd loan was still in forbearance for a couple months after I started my first job, but it's hit 120 qualifying payments now too. Hopefully it doesn't take another 4 months to finally zero out.

Tyro
Nov 10, 2009
Booyah roughly $200K in loans are now gone, thanks PSLF.

:feelsgood:

Ol' Limber Legs posted:

Update: 2 of my 3 loans were seem to have been forgiven in the last couple of days, but I haven't received any correspondence saying so. I just see that they have a negative balance adding up to the ~$25 payment I made in October before my forbearance kicked in. So...yay? Studentaid.gov still shows my full balance, but it's as of 12/31.

That's how it worked for me. My principal was updated to a negative number (the amount of the one extra payment I had made), then 5 days later the FSA site displayed a zero balance, then a few days after that I got the official notification that my loans were forgiven.

LanceHunter
Nov 12, 2016

Beautiful People Club


Tyro posted:

That's how it worked for me. My principal was updated to a negative number (the amount of the one extra payment I had made), then 5 days later the FSA site displayed a zero balance, then a few days after that I got the official notification that my loans were forgiven.

Zero'd out over here, too. Had a negative balance for the couple of payments I made once things resumed, and the total now shows a bunch of "Payment Reversal" listings for those. Not entirely sure if/how I'll get that money back, but I'm not complaining.

Tyro
Nov 10, 2009

LanceHunter posted:

Not entirely sure if/how I'll get that money back, but I'm not complaining.

I got it back surprisingly quickly, via direct deposit.

Josh Lyman
May 24, 2009


Sometimes I feel bad I didn’t sign up for the PSLF bonus stuff during Covid, but my loans will be paid off (mostly by work) this calendar year and I’ll only hit 6 years in government. Unless they were going to count my 5 years as a PhD student when I was technically an employee of a public university (though probably not considered full time) plus a bunch of years working on-campus jobs during my undergrad and masters, also at a public university.

skooma512
Feb 8, 2012

You couldn't grok my race car, but you dug the roadside blur.
My partner has 70k in private loans we'd like to refinance.

* Is there a vendor we should be looking at in particular or are they all bad? Navient is offering like 6-7%, down from 9%. Sofi and nelnet were worse, but they also don't hold the original loans like Navient does
* Are there advisors we should talk to or are they all commissions sharks and there is no better deal beyond consolidating them online?

UCS Hellmaker
Mar 29, 2008
Toilet Rascal
I used a website that just let me choose based on the current rates that were reported by the agencies, then went to each one with favorable terms to see what the rates were. Ended up with a credit union that gave me a 3.45 interest rate two years ago. Sofi seems way more iffy anymore, and was a big pusher trying to restart student loans because they wanted to force people to refinance. We did have citizens for awhile when we first refinanced, then moved to first tech with the better rate 3 years later.

A big thing is based on how high interest rates are, and your loan amount. More then a few coworkers are fu ked with 9 or 12 interest rates because they know they have to pay it.

Residency Evil
Jul 28, 2003

4/5 godo... Schumi
Last fall when interest resumed I paid off my student loans. I still haven't gotten a paid in full letter or my interest overpayment of ~$600.

I finally called Mohela today. After being bounced around a few times and 1.5 hours on the phone, they told me they had to manually request an overpayment check for amounts greater than $100, which would take 60-90 days, and only then would I get the letter.

Surprisingly, the rep was confused when I asked him whether I'd be getting $600 + interest due since the fall.

UCS Hellmaker
Mar 29, 2008
Toilet Rascal
Goal this year is to pay off at least 10k of my wife's 30k loan, mine are almost done and will be paid off in April. Hope is by the end of next year the loans are paid off and all we have left is 10k @3.25 interest that I had refinanced right before rates went insane.

Remulak
Jun 8, 2001
I can't count to four.
Yams Fan
Holy poo poo I thought I was ineligible and just got a check for my balance outa nowhere.

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Aexo
May 16, 2007
Don't ask, I don't know how to pronounce my name either.
Hell yeah, congrats!

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