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Exactly. that's why making the minimum payments is so bad long-term, it takes forever to pay off the loan because you're spending so much on interest and not as much on the principle.
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Nov 17, 2011 18:09
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The amount of interest that builds up is based on the rate and the principal balance. As you pay down the loan, the amount of interest you pay per month will go down.
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Nov 17, 2011 23:58
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maverick99 posted:So if I made lets say, a $500 payment, would only $70 be applied to interest? Yes. Payments are applied in this order: Fees > Accrued Interest > Principal. Unless you're within 120 days of disbursement, that will never change.
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Nov 18, 2011 17:56
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Effexxor posted:Yes. Payments are applied in this order: Fees > Accrued Interest > Principal. Unless you're within 120 days of disbursement, that will never change. This is true. Basically, once you pay that $50 in interest, you will start paying down your principal. Additionally, interest accrues daily. The 10 day interest accrual is probably just to help you figure out what your monthly interest is.
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Nov 19, 2011 05:34
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maverick99 posted:So if I made lets say, a $500 payment, would only $70 be applied to interest? Yeah, your payment gets applied like this: 1. fees and poo poo 2. accrued interest 3. principal 1 and 2 just keep you from getting sued, 3 reduces how much you owe, and reduces future interest accrual.
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Nov 20, 2011 02:32
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I'm 26 and just got accepted for grad school (Masters) starting in January. I'm going to need about $45,000 over the course of 1.5 years. I have good credit and good income. From what I've read in this thread and elsewhere, it appears a GradPlus loan is what I want. My employer is willing to pay for my schooling, but they'd deduct the amount paid from my salary. This would save me a great deal of money tax-wise. Assuming this isn't tax-fraud (I'll ask my accountant), can I have the GradPlus loan paid to me (for living expenses) and have my employer pay my tuition? If I can't do that with GradPlus, can I do that with a different kind of loan?
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Nov 20, 2011 07:36
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TotallyGreen posted:I'm 26 and just got accepted for grad school (Masters) starting in January. I'm going to need about $45,000 over the course of 1.5 years. I have good credit and good income. Do you understand that your GradPlus loans are going to be lent to you at 8.5% interest that starts accruing daily as soon as they are disbursed? I mean if you need the loans then take them but it sounds like your employer will pay most of your tuition. Good credit doesn't mean anything when it comes to student loans. All you need is a pulse and an educational institution willing to approve the mountains of federal cash waiting to flow in.
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Nov 20, 2011 14:44
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It sounds like his employer is willing to use his salary to pay the school. It sounds like a raw deal to me.
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Nov 20, 2011 15:39
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What I'm asking is can I have a GradPlus loan pay my living expenses if my employer is paying for my school or does this section from the OP:quote:The GradPlus loan can be used for personal expenses, but it is still sent to the school first. The school maintains controls over the amount disbursed. If they won't certify your 100,000 request, we can't send it. mean that I can't have it pay all of it's money to me as living expenses?
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Nov 20, 2011 19:00
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TotallyGreen posted:What I'm asking is can I have a GradPlus loan pay my living expenses if my employer is paying for my school or does this section from the OP: Oh I see what you're saying. As long as you fill-out a FAFSA you can get GradPlus loans for your living expenses up to the total cost of attendance (tuition + living expenses) as determined by your school. You can pay the tuition portion with your own money and then request the GradPlus living expenses to be direct deposited into your account. Shouldn't be a problem if you work it out with your financial aid counselor but just remember that the school determines your living expenses not your own actual monthly expenses. If tuition is $40k but the school sets your living expenses as $13k, then you're only going to get $13k in GradPlus loans.
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Nov 20, 2011 21:01
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blar posted:Oh I see what you're saying. As long as you fill-out a FAFSA you can get GradPlus loans for your living expenses up to the total cost of attendance (tuition + living expenses) as determined by your school. You can pay the tuition portion with your own money and then request the GradPlus living expenses to be direct deposited into your account. Shouldn't be a problem if you work it out with your financial aid counselor but just remember that the school determines your living expenses not your own actual monthly expenses. If tuition is $40k but the school sets your living expenses as $13k, then you're only going to get $13k in GradPlus loans. Awesome, thank you.
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Nov 20, 2011 21:18
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Guy Axlerod posted:It sounds like his employer is willing to use his salary to pay the school. It sounds like a raw deal to me. It doesn't count as income for him, and won't be taxed as income. Actually a pretty nice deal if they won't cover it outright.
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Nov 22, 2011 05:35
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Harry posted:It doesn't count as income for him, and won't be taxed as income. Actually a pretty nice deal if they won't cover it outright. It will probably be taxed as income.
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Nov 22, 2011 05:37
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Roger_Mudd posted:It will probably be taxed as income. You're right, it looks like if it's over $5,250 it counts as taxable income. Got it confused with healthcare costs.
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Nov 22, 2011 05:47
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As a 24 year old sophomore, I've received the maximum allowable amount in Stafford Loans in addition to the Pell and TPEG grants totaling $13100 for the 11-12 aid year. However, my cost of attendance being $16540, I am eligible for an alternative loan of $3440. I applied at several banks with and without my parents as cosigners and due to our credit haven't been able to get approved for a private student loan. Halfway through this semester I quit my job in order to dedicate more time to school (engineering student) but my savings is starting to dry up rather quickly and it would be extremely helpful to get that extra $3440, or half that since it's split between the two semesters, to help me throughout the spring semester. I looked into the Direct Plus Loans for Parents, but seeing that eligibility is determined by a credit check has discouraged me from considering that any further. So basically what all this boils down to is, what are my options as far as getting a student loan for only the Alternative Loan amount ($3440) when both my parents and myself have bad credit? Thanks for reading.
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Nov 22, 2011 08:20
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I apologize in advance, but trying to read through 62 pages of posts to find one that meets my particular question is more time than I have available but I really do want to hear an expert's point of view on this: I was lucky enough to go to undergrad from 2001-05 when rates were very low (2.8%) and I have those consolidated with AES at that rate...about $11k left. Now recently I started going back to grad school and so I took some new subsidized loans (about $8k @ +6%). Currently my grad servicer is Nelnet. So on to my question... What's the best method of dealing with this? Keeping the two seperate or trying to consolidate again? I know it averages the interest rates, but my undergrad ones are so low at the moment I really don't want to mess that up. Would a better move be to try and pay off the grad loans as quickly as possible instead? Basically, I'm looking for the best way to pay these off without doing something really dumb in the process and since I only know so much about ed loans I figured it's worth a shot to ask. Thanks.
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Nov 22, 2011 21:50
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The Ted posted:As a 24 year old sophomore, I've received the maximum allowable amount in Stafford Loans in addition to the Pell and TPEG grants totaling $13100 for the 11-12 aid year. However, my cost of attendance being $16540, I am eligible for an alternative loan of $3440. I applied at several banks with and without my parents as cosigners and due to our credit haven't been able to get approved for a private student loan. If your parents have bad credit, it's not necessarily a bad thing in terms of Plus loans. When your parents are denied for a Plus loan, the amount you're able to get in Stafford loans rises, so I'd say go for it, get the Plus loans denied, and rejoice in getting more money in lower interest Stafford loans. Oxphocker posted:I apologize in advance, but trying to read through 62 pages of posts to find one that meets my particular question is more time than I have available but I really do want to hear an expert's point of view on this: Personally, I'd pay the minimum for your AES loans and starting paying extra towards the Nelnet loans. Consolidation will make it so that all of your loans are at a lower rate, but having the bulk of your loans at 2.8 is a great deal. Also, since you're going back to school, pay on your unsubsidized loans when you can to lower the amount of interest accruing while you're in school. Also, pay whatever you can within the first 120 days of your loans being disbursed, since when you do that, all of your payment will go to principal.
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Nov 23, 2011 23:01
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Effexxor posted:If your parents have bad credit, it's not necessarily a bad thing in terms of Plus loans. When your parents are denied for a Plus loan, the amount you're able to get in Stafford loans rises, so I'd say go for it, get the Plus loans denied, and rejoice in getting more money in lower interest Stafford loans. I thought that was only for dependent students whose parents were denied for the Plus?
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Nov 24, 2011 13:17
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Effexxor posted:Baquerd is correct, as long as you're still in school at least half time you don't have to repay them till you're out of school. Dear god the ACS thing is pure rear end. Poof, away went all the payment history, away went autopay settings and the only warning I got in advance was an email that was flagged for phishing. Is there some magical reason why they got rid of the .gov? All I see is less information, less options, less everything. Why the gently caress must every god damned thing be privatized just so some crony gets a fatter wallet? My nice even $150 payment magically becomes an annoying 149.99 and it doesn't let me just change it back to $150. I hosed over SLM and it felt great, but the fed stuff I always paid, mainly because they didn't gently caress with me. I'm seriously tempted to just walk away from it all at this point. Don't live in the US, don't own anything in the US and my income all gets paid to foreign banks that are exempt from reporting poo poo to the US. edit: misplaced rage perhaps... appears to be nelnet, which is also absolute rear end. Pro-PRC Laowai fucked around with this message at 17:12 on Nov 24, 2011 |
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Nov 24, 2011 17:04
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Is there a way of finding out if your federal loans are FFEL or Direct? I have them through Great Lakes and Sallie Mae, and it doesn't say anywhere on my statements. Give them a call I guess? Alternatively, I'm looking at consolidating these federal loans, and was curious if I can consolidate these loans (Stafford loans) and consolidate a Perkins loan in down the line? My Stafford loans payment start this January, whereas the Perkins loan starts in May, and has the grace period associated with it. Would it make sense to consolidate my Stafford Loans now, and re-consolidate the Perkins loan in down the line if needed? My future financial situation is up in the air for the time being, since I just got hired but don't start until Mid-January, and currently cannot afford my loan payments that start in January (2 lenders are Federal, then private CitiAssist loans)
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Nov 28, 2011 19:48
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I need to find a loan for the spring semester for about $5,000, does anybody have any recommendations where to get one? I'm already receiving the maximum amount in sub/unsub Stafford. Not eligible for Perkins. I'm looking for something with a low interest rate and post graduation grace period. Is there a website I can go to to compare different types of loans? This is 4th year undergraduate.
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Nov 29, 2011 16:31
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MentosMan posted:Is there a way of finding out if your federal loans are FFEL or Direct? I have them through Great Lakes and Sallie Mae, and it doesn't say anywhere on my statements. Give them a call I guess? Your normal Stafford loans should sat Stafford Subsidized or unsubsidized, your Direct Loans are Direct Subsidized or unsubsidized. As for consolidating, you can, but keep in mind that now a days consolidation isn't that great, i.e. you pay more in interest usually.
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Nov 29, 2011 17:46
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I have to vent: gently caress the consolidation process. 60-90 day application time + 30 day application time on IBR? Unbelievably incompetent, not to mention how loving godawful the consolidation website is.  I still dont even know if I have all my loans included because some of them are magical loans that don't appear on NSLD for some bizzare reason, and I don't have any mail documentation from them. No account number = cant finish the consolidation application.  e: not to mention for the next 30 years I am a wage slave. My loan payments take everything (plus some) that I would have put into savings. mitztronic fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Nov 29, 2011 |
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Nov 29, 2011 23:47
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So I took out the maximum amount of aid I could get from my school but I think right now I need to get private loans and have no idea what I should look for in comparing what I can get on SimpleTuition. I'm still doing my undergrad and haven't taken out a private loan before. I was originally going to get a PLUS loan but after having my dad apply for it online and doing the credit check and all that and giving paperwork to the school and waiting for a month and a half someone finally told me that since I'm 24 I don't qualify for a PLUS loan since I'm an independent. I wish they had told me that the couple times I had gone in to talk to them so I wasn't sitting around waiting on nothing, but there isn't much I can do about it now. So can anyone give me some advice on what to look for in private loans or have a good site or article to read up on them at?
Jota fucked around with this message at 12:25 on Nov 30, 2011 |
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Nov 30, 2011 12:21
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So, apparently, even though I've been approved for Income-Based Repayment on both of my student loan holders, I get a 12-month forbearance and after that, I need to make payments of $270.85 despite the fact that I don't have a drat job. So, uh, what now? e: wait, if I'm not making any money at the time, I'm below 150% of poverty level, and that makes my payment $0. Under IBR, that counts as a payment toward the 25-year or 300-month forgiveness plan? I thought that the 25-year forgiveness counted as long as you paid them any money and any months not paid just postponed it, not that the $0 "payment" under the poverty level counted. CraigK fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Nov 30, 2011 |
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Nov 30, 2011 22:45
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Effexxor, you're the best! Special thanks to everyone who has helped answer questions. Life is crazy busy right now and I'm glad that people can still get help via this thread  Pro-PRC Laowai, while I feel your rage is totally justified, what's happening is actually the opposite of what you think. The FFEL program was discontinued when the health care bill was passed as part of the reconciliation bill that went with it. So what you're seeing is things moving into the federal direction rather than the privatized direction. So everything that sucked about Direct's servicing standards and website will not suck across the board. Woohoo! Melting Eggs, https://www.simpletuition.com is a great search engine for private loans. mitztronic, the NSLDS will list all of your federal loans regardless of location or servicer. If the loans aren't there, they are likely private loans that cannot be consolidated with your federal loans. Do you have any letters from the servicer(s) with a phone number to call and ask/clarify? Also, be sure to ask about lowering your payments. Obviously you want to pay as much as possible to pay them down faster, but there are options to lower the monthly payment which would give you flexibility in how much you pay per month (so you can pay the higher rate normally but drop down to your actual lower payment in months where you need the money). Jota, I don't have any particular articles but my personal recommendations are: look for a fixed rate loan if possible, always call and ask about their repayment options (can you lower a payment? Is there forbearance time you can use in case of financial hardship?), and be careful about whether you need to make payments will in school. Some private loans do require interest-only payments while you're in school. CraigK, weird though it may seem, IBR can indeed make monthly payments $0 and these do in fact count toward the forgiveness. The only stipulation is that you must be in repayment for the payments to count, and if your payment is $0, then doing nothing counts.
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Dec 1, 2011 03:46
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My experience with myedaccount.com customer service Please regroup my loans by interest rate so I can pay off the high interest rate loan first Sure it will take 7-10 days.9 business days later I called before to get my loans regrouped, and they should be by now, but they aren't. It has only been 9 buisness days. So does that mean it will be done tommorow? No we don't regroup them anymore. So how do I pay off the high interest loan? Make a payment, then call and ask for it to be applied to a specific loan. I don't believe this will work, but I guess I'll try it.I make a payment on the website, wait 2 days. First it disappears completely from pending payments, then a day later it shows up as a posted payment. Notes balances of all loans. Make my new payment apply to the high interest loan. 7-10 business days.10 business days later. I want to speak to a manager. Short summary of how I have been jerked around and lied to multiple times. But I have to try to help you first, let me tell you statistics about your interest. Your interest is $2.66 per day. I don't care about statistics about my interest rate, let me talk to a manager. Is there anything I can help you with. No. Hello I am a manager, how can I help you. I tried to get my loans regrouped, but it was a lie, and.. I will regroup your loans now.... ok its done. Anything else I can help you with? Thanks. That was very helpful.Loans are actually regrouped. tswtrm (too short want to read more) Every single call they go through social, date of birth, name with middle initial, address, read my my phone number, do you want to add a second phone number, read me my email. And anytime the first line agents are feeling confused about what you want they will start reading off statistics on your loans. "You have loan 1... loan 2... loan 3... and loan 4. Loan 1 has balance blah, interest rate blah, and the interest ist blah per month." tldr 7-10 days is bullshit. Ask for a manager if they say that. modig fucked around with this message at 17:07 on Dec 1, 2011 |
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Dec 1, 2011 17:02
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I am about to finish my AA at a Florida community college and will be transfering to an out of state school, which will require me to take out some private loans in addition to my Staffords and Pell grant. I am a 24 year old, married, independent student with a 740 credit score. My wife and I both work now, but I will likely have to take a pretty big pay cut to focus on school after we move. I do not have anyone who can cosign for me. Can I actually get approved for a private loan by myself? If so, am I going to mess something up when my income drops and we move? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Dec 3, 2011 18:47
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modig posted:tldr 7-10 days is bullshit. Ask for a manager if they say that. Hey now. I get the massive frustration with dealing with ACS, I think we all know how I feel about them, but there are some things that do legitimately take time to fix, and a lot of the times the customer service rep you're talking to can't do anything else. Remember, there are people on the other line and they are (hopefully) trying. Also, ACS is relearning a whole new system that they process on, so they're on a really insane position right now.
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Dec 4, 2011 16:59
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Effexxor posted:Also, ACS is relearning a whole new system that they process on, so they're on a really insane position right now. While I understand the perspective you are coming from with this, they really should have learned their new system before they forced 20 million people to have to switch to it. I honestly don't even know what they improved with their new website that the old one wasn't already doing.
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Dec 5, 2011 01:49
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Effexxor posted:Hey now. I get the massive frustration with dealing with ACS, I think we all know how I feel about them, but there are some things that do legitimately take time to fix, and a lot of the times the customer service rep you're talking to can't do anything else. Remember, there are people on the other line and they are (hopefully) trying. Also, ACS is relearning a whole new system that they process on, so they're on a really insane position right now. My experience is that when they told me 7-10 days they just didn't do it. When I talked to a managed it took less than 60 seconds.
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Dec 5, 2011 05:28
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modig posted:My experience is that when they told me 7-10 days they just didn't do it. When I talked to a managed it took less than 60 seconds. Thanks to you guys I immediately asked for a supervisor after being told to wait 30-60 days. Problem solved in 60 seconds.
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Dec 5, 2011 14:56
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Sirotan posted:While I understand the perspective you are coming from with this, they really should have learned their new system before they forced 20 million people to have to switch to it. I honestly don't even know what they improved with their new website that the old one wasn't already doing. modig posted:My experience is that when they told me 7-10 days they just didn't do it. When I talked to a managed it took less than 60 seconds. blar posted:Thanks to you guys I immediately asked for a supervisor after being told to wait 30-60 days. Problem solved in 60 seconds. Trust me, I know how it sounds, and I'm just gonna state something that is not really student loans related and more of just call center focused. If I know how to get something done quick, I will. If I can't, then I can't and there's nothing that no one can do to fix it. If someone asks me to go double check on something, I'll go and do it even if I know what the answer will be. Of course, I know that there are some very stupid customer service reps. And if you have someone that's getting bitchy or sounds super incompetent then yeah, ask for a sup. But keep in mind that they might not have the magic fix. And let's get some questions on loans!
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Dec 6, 2011 04:31
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modig posted:
Full name, DOB, and Social is something that every servicer will make you verify every single time. This is your loan information. They want to make sure they're only giving information to the correct person. 7-10 days is code for "I can't do this because I'm taking calls and or don't know how to do it, but someone will get to it." It sounds like your situation was caused by the fact that someone gave you wrong information. Although, it wouldn't surprise me if Direct Loans is just so backed up that no one is getting to the stuff in the time frame they quote. I just emailed them on November 17th and didn't get an answer until December 2nd.
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Dec 6, 2011 05:53
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Wiggy Marie posted:mitztronic, the NSLDS will list all of your federal loans regardless of location or servicer. If the loans aren't there, they are likely private loans that cannot be consolidated with your federal loans. Do you have any letters from the servicer(s) with a phone number to call and ask/clarify? Also, be sure to ask about lowering your payments. Obviously you want to pay as much as possible to pay them down faster, but there are options to lower the monthly payment which would give you flexibility in how much you pay per month (so you can pay the higher rate normally but drop down to your actual lower payment in months where you need the money). Thanks for the reply. My loan payments are ~$1050 with extended plan (I don't qualify for IBR because they don't take into account cost of living, thanks!) so I'm going to have to start living out of my car soon. My grandparents gave me $5k (god bless) to put towards my loans and they thought it was going to pay for a large amount or something, so I'm using that as a buffer since I cant afford more than $500 a month, which gives me almost a year to sell all my stuff and blow my brains out.  But seriously, going to make the best of 2012 because I may just kill myself. Total repayment: over $300,000. They literally are going to make almost $200 grand just for letting me borrow money with no risk to them. So awesome... Thanks America! At least I have a master of science in a job pays and requires the level of a BS. e: All my loans are though salliemae except for two private loans, one of which my parents are paying for (so lucky )and the other I still have to figure out.
mitztronic fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Dec 7, 2011 |
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Dec 7, 2011 02:29
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mitztronic posted:Thanks for the reply. My loan payments are ~$1050 with extended plan (I don't qualify for IBR because they don't take into account cost of living, thanks!) so I'm going to have to start living out of my car soon. My grandparents gave me $5k (god bless) to put towards my loans and they thought it was going to pay for a large amount or something, so I'm using that as a buffer since I cant afford more than $500 a month, which gives me almost a year to sell all my stuff and blow my brains out. How in the everloving gently caress did you spend $300k on college? My fiancee is going to come out of her Doctorate program with less than $100k (granted, her parents paid for 3 years of undergrad, but that's only $35k more.
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Dec 7, 2011 02:44
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Who the hell takes out loans for a doctorate? I thought almost all PhDs got tuition remission and a stipend.
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Dec 7, 2011 02:53
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mitztronic posted:Thanks for the reply. My loan payments are ~$1050 with extended plan (I don't qualify for IBR because they don't take into account cost of living, thanks!) so I'm going to have to start living out of my car soon. My grandparents gave me $5k (god bless) to put towards my loans and they thought it was going to pay for a large amount or something, so I'm using that as a buffer since I cant afford more than $500 a month, which gives me almost a year to sell all my stuff and blow my brains out. Hahah, you will literally NEVER pay that off. If there is no co-signer, I'd look into telling em to gently caress off. Again, you will NEVER be able to repay that amount, especially with the interest rates they charge and any stumble along the way will be wiping out years of payments.
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Dec 7, 2011 02:55
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FISHMANPET posted:How in the everloving gently caress did you spend $300k on college? My fiancee is going to come out of her Doctorate program with less than $100k (granted, her parents paid for 3 years of undergrad, but that's only $35k more. Interest. I have a BS EE and an MS EE and the total cost was ~$120k, including a semester paid for my by grandparents and a few PLUS loans by my parents. I also regularly took out less than the maximum 'cause I didn't need it. I wouldn't mind paying back every penny, even with some interets, the whole +$200grand in interest is what pisses me off. Sallie mae had zero risk in giving me these loans and they get to make bank. And yeah, I don't believe I will ever be able to afford to pay them all. Currently looking at alternative housing I can move to in March/April. Pro-PRC Laowai posted:Hahah, you will literally NEVER pay that off. If there is no co-signer, I'd look into telling em to gently caress off. Again, you will NEVER be able to repay that amount, especially with the interest rates they charge and any stumble along the way will be wiping out years of payments. I'm pretty  , and e: I also got identity theft/frauded this weekend for $1000 (http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/san-francisco/lucky-stores-warn-possible-dangers-wake-credit-card-155338259.html?bouchon=807,ca) so just poo poo news all around. Time to drug myself into a coma mitztronic fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Dec 7, 2011 |
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Dec 7, 2011 03:50
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MrKatharsis posted:Who the hell takes out loans for a doctorate? I thought almost all PhDs got tuition remission and a stipend. Yeah, if you get a PhD in something with a ton of grant money. She's getting an educational doctorate, so no such luck, though she does get a good bit of tuition paid for now with her assitanceship, so welp. And I didn't realize you were talking about principal plus interest.
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Dec 7, 2011 05:40
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