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Relayer posted:I'm currently enrolled at Berklee College of Music and the money I was spending on school has run out, so I'm going to take out my first ever loan. The problem is that I'm an idiot and didnt get the process started months ago, and I need to pay my tuition for the spring semester which starts at the end of January. Generally speaking, am I way too late? You shouldn't be too late. Schools generally want the loan money ready to be dispersed prior to the start of the semester. However, you should immediately find the place you want to pull out a loan through, fill out an application, and have it processed asap. It generally takes 5-7 days for a loan app to be processed, and then you need to allow another week for your financial advisor to tell the company how much money they need. You still have time, you're just cutting it close and need to get the process started asap. You should probably call your financial advisor to double check on deadlines, and they'll also probably be able to give you a list of places that offer student loans in case you're not sure where to look. Edit: Forgot to mention, but if you haven't filled out a fafsa, then you might be too late to apply for a student loan. Usually places want you to have filled out a fafsa if you're applying for a student loan. IdeoPhanthus fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Jan 2, 2007 |
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Jan 2, 2007 03:07
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 08:43 |
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I have a question of my own now. It was my understanding that the stafford loan interest rate was fixed at whatever the interest rate was at the time the loan was disbursed. I have 6 unsubsidized stafford loans spanning from early 2003 to early 2005. I graduated in June '06, at which point my loans entered grace for 6mo. Anyway, all 6 of the loans state an interest rate of 7.14%, even though my first couple loans were taken out when the interest rate was 3.25%, then the third & fourth were after july 1st '03, when interest rates jumped to something like 4.5%. Then loans 5 & 6 were taken out after July 1st '04. So shouldn't my loans be at seperate interest rates? Obviously it really wouldn't have mattered once I consolidated, but I just found it odd. My mom took out PLUS loans and the interest rates on her loans never changed from their original rates (whatever the fixed rate was during each disbursement). The only time they changed was when they were all consolidated at the end (couple months prior to July 1st '06), at which point they took on the interest rate of 6.25% and haven't budged from that rate. I have another question...is there a way to get a better interest rate once I've consolidated, or am I stuck with 7.14% regardless of where I go? I'm talking by switching to a different lender for repayment. I already filed my consolidation paperwork with my current lender since my first payment is due this month, and I don't have the money. So I'm consolidating (which drops my monthly payments from $250 to $130), and then filing for forbearance or something to hold off on making payments until I'm employed again. Once I'm back on my feet it would just be nice if I'm able to somehow get a better interest rate. I also plan to pay at least double the monthly payment (at least whenever possible) just get the loan paid off quicker.
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Jan 2, 2007 21:58
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I have a question related to repayment. I defered my loan for 1yr after graduating; I had made maybe 3 payments & decided I needed to defer until I had a job (my fiance was lending me money to pay it, and we started struggling to pay other bills). It's about to come due for the first payment since deferrment, sometime in the next 30-60 days. I currently have a job where I'm getting paid under the table, and because of that, I can't file taxes. I'd have to file as independent contractor & even then I'd still have to have some sort of paperwork from my employer in order to do so; I have none of that, and if I did I'd have filed this year & claimed my work expenses. When I start paying on my student loan, is this going to get me in any trouble? Are they going to wonder where the money is coming from or are they not going to care?
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Apr 17, 2008 19:07
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Wiggy Marie posted:IdeoPhanthus, how would they even know where the money was coming from? Obviously they wouldn't, but I figured maybe they (someone) would look into it when they see that the person who took out the loan is paying on it, so they must have a job, but yet they haven't been paying taxes. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't going to set off some kind of red flag. Though I suppose maybe it was a stupid question. We do have a car loan that we took out when I had an on-the-books job, and for the past ~3yrs of that loan we've been paying & I've been under the table, and that didn't seem to make anyone look into it. So I guess it was a stupid question, sorry about that.
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Apr 18, 2008 06:55
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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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Effexxor posted: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. I'm going to apply for a temporary hardship forbearance. How do I know how much interest got racked up during it? I went on a temporary forbearance for about a 6mo period years ago, and couldn't find info anywhere on the interest that accrued during that time. I feel like I'm going to be paying on this until I die, considering I've been paying on the loan since '07 (did a deferment from '06-'07) and only paid $622 off the principal (and $1330 in interest). Also, another question. I just checked my loan & the overview says my next payment due (on the 5th) is $177, which is normal. However, if I go into "view loan details", it says I have $66 in unpaid interest, and the help box says that's "unpaid interest that is currently outstanding on your account". I've paid the amount listed in my "$xxx due by the 5th" section every month. Some months I'm on time, others I'm 5 days late, but late fees aren't assessed until the 14th, so I always pay before then. Whether I'm on time or a few days late always depends on if my husbands clients pay him on time. So how do I have outstanding interest on my account? Wouldn't any outstanding amounts be included in the overview as what I owe (in addition to the normal payment) by the due date?
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Aug 22, 2011 03:01
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Effexxor posted:As for paying it off, how many of the 'How to pay off your loan like a champ' steps have you done? I consolidated back in '06 as soon as my 6mo grace period was up. So currently my loan is a subsidized consolidation loan. So no multiple loans to worry about paying off certain ones first. I made no payments during the grace period since I was jobless. I tried making a couple principal-only payments, but they seemed to ignore my request; maybe I'm doing it wrong, because I tried to do the same thing on a car loan in the past and it didn't work. I've had to do a short forbearanc in the past, since it didn't seem I was eligible for a deferment, but I had no money to pay so it had to be done. I try to always pay more using whatever's left in my account after other bills. Sometimes it's only a couple bucks, and other times it's more like $20. Though some months I put the extra toward the credit card bill. My husband has been paying all the bills, and he was able to get approved for unemployment, but I have to apply for something to reduce/put off my payments. I would still pay off interest. The extra money is needed elsewhere... like paying off his remaining fines so he can get his license back, which would help us immensely since it opens up job prospects (currently limited to the immediate area, which has very few jobs).
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Sep 7, 2011 17:14
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quote:I consolidated back in '06 as soon as my 6mo grace period was up. So currently my loan is a subsidized consolidation loan. So no multiple loans to worry about paying off certain ones first. I made no payments during the grace period since I was jobless. I tried making a couple principal-only payments, but they seemed to ignore my request; maybe I'm doing it wrong, because I tried to do the same thing on a car loan in the past and it didn't work. I've had to do a short forbearanc in the past, since it didn't seem I was eligible for a deferment, but I had no money to pay so it had to be done. I try to always pay more using whatever's left in my account after other bills. Sometimes it's only a couple bucks, and other times it's more like $20. Though some months I put the extra toward the credit card bill. I ended up doing a forebearance until april, planning to pay accumulated interest before it capitalizes. However we are still jobless, living with my family, on unemployment (my husband), and he decided to do an associates program in the meantime to help with future jobs. At the rate things are going, when my forbearance drops we will still be struggling to pay my loan. We weren't even eligible for either of the state health insurance options (medicaid/etc) because unemployment pays him enough that he's $80 above the 2-person cutoff, so we get to pay medical expenses out of pocket. I couldn't find the IBR alternative form on my lender's site, but I found it elsewhere. I'm going to fill it out and send it in because I don't really see any other option. I was hoping the forbearance would be enough and we'd have jobs by now. I'm beginning to think I should have went with my original plan years ago to just continue toward a masters, become a teacher, and hope for loan forgiveness or something down the road. Or just avoided college altogether (or stuck with a community college where everyone & their mother around here was seeming to get a free ride).
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Jan 28, 2012 12:11
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I'm on IBR, and AES wants my renewal paperwork in their hands by the 25th or else I have to start paying $230/mo in April (right now my minimum is $0/mo & I pay $0 because we just don't have the money). They don't offer any sort of digital option, so it has to go snail mail. Anyway, they obviously want a copy of the taxes. I actually had a little bit of income near the end of 2013 (nowhere near enough to be required to file, it was around $400) & don't need to fill out the alternative form. However, my husband is dragging his feet on filing & I don't think he's going to do it in time for me to get the taxes & renewal forms to them. He really would have to file today or tomorrow before the post office closes in order for me to get them there in time. What should I do here? Can I just send them a copy of my W-2 & the alternative form, or will that cause problems because we file jointly (whenever he gets around to doing it)? I really hate this time of year because I never feel like I remember how to fill out the IBR forms & I'm going to screw something up. They say they must receive my forms by the 25th, but then the very next sentence says the forms must be returned within 10 days of the deadline. So which is it? Is it the 25th, or up to 10 days after the 25th? And then further down it says if I don't provide the forms/etc by the deadline then the interest will capitalize. It does say I may be able to e-file through studentloans.gov, so I guess I can try that if he waits too long to file. They make it sound easy enough. It sounds like it's just filling out the forms online & then using their IRS retrieval tool thing.
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Feb 18, 2014 19:23
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If I'm submitting my IBR paperwork for renewal (because it's the end of my IBR year), do I select that I'm requesting a repayment plan based on my income (and then check off IBR)... or do I select that I'm submitting annual documentation to recalculate under my current repayment plan? I'm assuming I'd want to check (b), but I don't want to do that & have it think my current repayment plan isn't the IBR I'm renewing, or something.
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Feb 24, 2014 04:59
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Okay, thanks. That's what it currently is & this is just my annual reapplication or whatever it's called. Since it was due today I had it faxed over rather than paying $20 for next day air. I tried doing it online but the IRS verification (to pull my taxes) failed. First there was a proxy error, then it said my info didn't match the 2012 taxes, so I gave up. I tried again the next morning & at that point it appeared to be pulling the 2013 tax return finally, but it said my address didn't match (I typed it in exactly as it was listed on the pdf of our return). After trying twice it just stopped letting me enter my info & started sending me to the "doesn't match our records" page automatically. I also made sure to toss my loan servicer an email letting them know it was faxed & asking for confirmation that it got received (and sent to the proper person/department), and that I wasn't missing anything. I did the same thing last year after it (should have) arrived at their offices & received a response confirming. I figure it's better than leaving it to chance & then having things go wrong.
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Feb 25, 2014 23:20
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 08:43 |
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I sent in my IBR yearly renewal paperwork a couple days ago. I didn't checkmark anything regarding filing jointly. I just checkmarked that my earnings were significantly different than last year & included proof (copy of a paystub and my w2). Here's my question...is it going to cause a problem when my husband files his taxes & does so jointly? Or is my loan company not going to care, since I mailed it out before any filing was done? He says he plans to file this week, so now I'm worried they're going to get to my forms after he files and deny them as a result, and then ill be rushing to try and fill out alternative documentation and whatever else they want before my Feb deadline hits. The reason I didn't put down on the form we were filing jointly was because it would want a copy of that. I didn't know when he'd be filing, considering last year I had to twist his arm to get it done in time (my renewal paperwork is always due mid Feb). His 2013 earnings were really low due to no regular job, so the filing last year reflects that. His earnings in 2014 were much higher because he had a nice salaried job nearly all year. Then a few days after Xmas he got fired, so when he files its not going to be accurate for what he will earn in 2015. And right as I mailed out my IBR forms, with proof of only my income (which was like $2500), rather than wait on him & estimate what he might make this year, he gets hired somewhere (making much less than last year's job).
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Feb 1, 2015 22:03
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