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So currently 69 of my payments are flagged as qualifying. Of the 55 flagged as ineligible I could only get 41 bank statements proving I paid for those months, since Chase doesn't keep records more than 7 years old. That should put me at 110. 6 are flagged as needing employment certification, and if the extension to October is true then I'll get the 4 remaining that I need for 120. Then hopefully all I need to do is recertify my employment. PSLF tech said it could take up to 6mo to review my bank statements so I guess the best I could hope for is they'll get around to it after I recertify.
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Jan 20, 2021 21:10
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Aexo posted:So currently 69 of my payments are flagged as qualifying. Have you contacted the ombudsman? It seems like a lot of people have had success in quickly resolving these kinds of issues after they do that. https://studentaid.gov/feedback-ombudsman/disputes/prepare
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Jan 20, 2021 21:20
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I have not yet. That site seems pretty keen on making sure to say all attempts to resolve disputes should be made first. I'll keep that in my pocket if the bank statements aren't enough. I think at this point it's just getting someone to actually look at my stuff. Thanks 
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Jan 20, 2021 21:36
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I'm going to assume the continued pause on loans still count for pslf payments?
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Jan 21, 2021 05:34
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The Slack Lagoon posted:I'm going to assume the continued pause on loans still count for pslf payments? Thai is correct. Basically just extends the existing policies started with the CARES Act.
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Jan 21, 2021 13:03
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Hello debtfriends, I have not read this enormous thread but wanted to ask if anybody has experience doing a lump sum settlement with a private student loan. I've heard of this being a thing you can sometimes pull off. I still have a fairly sizeable amount of private loan to pay, but due to inheritance I will actually have more than $5 in my bank account so would love to be done with this thing. My dream is basically that I can offer to pay 50% of the remaining total right now and have the rest cancelled (all properly documented obviously). My co-signer is now deceased and I do not plan to ever live in or make money in the US again once I go back abroad, so I'd probably mention to them they have zero leverage over me so they can take half now or nothing forever. I have no idea how stupid any of this is though. I still have a bit of outstanding federal loan but it's nothing in comparison, I'll just finish paying it off. Plus telling the government to go gently caress itself seems more potentially problematic than doing the same to a bank.
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Mar 15, 2021 21:18
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I recently certified my employment and received confirmation that I've made 120 qualifying payments for PSLF. Today, I filed my application for forgiveness. I'm curious if anyone in this thread has actually had their loans forgiven and if so, how long did it take after they filed their application? I searched for "PSLF" in posts going back a couple years or so and saw plenty of people talking about it, but no posts from anyone who actually received forgiveness. I will update when/if I hear anything.
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Mar 19, 2021 01:47
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hepcat posted:I recently certified my employment and received confirmation that I've made 120 qualifying payments for PSLF. Today, I filed my application for forgiveness. I'm curious if anyone in this thread has actually had their loans forgiven and if so, how long did it take after they filed their application? Still 5 years off for me 
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Mar 19, 2021 01:54
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hepcat posted:I recently certified my employment and received confirmation that I've made 120 qualifying payments for PSLF. Today, I filed my application for forgiveness. I'm curious if anyone in this thread has actually had their loans forgiven and if so, how long did it take after they filed their application? There's a PSLF reddit that I follow and it seems like it's taking 5-6mo for the process to complete. Just read somebody's thread from today that submitted their final ECF on Nov 17 2020 and today got the forgiveness email. Of my 9 loans, 7 of them will reach 120 payments in 3 days, then the last two not until May (this is a gently caress up by FedLoan but since I'm not making payments I'm not going to fight it). To say I am excited is an understatement.
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Mar 19, 2021 02:05
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They denied my PSLF pretty fast back in March of last year, but I was not on a qualifying repayment plan so I knew I was gonna get denied, but you gotta get denied for TEPSLF which is where I've always intended on heading. Last I spoke to someone about it, they said it would take 6mo. I can't remember when that was, but I'm supposedly still in the system for a TESPLF review. After get my ECF submitted this year I'm 100% sure I'm past the 120 payments. 2nd'ing the PSLF reddit for info and a pulse on timelines. I think I have a few posts in this thread about my headaches around it so I'll post a success should it ever happen.
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Mar 19, 2021 21:29
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The pandemic has been weirdly good for my finances, I'm lucky enough to be in a stable job with no risk of furlough/being laid off, live abroad with a favorable exchange rate, and my expenses have just tanked since I've been in home office for the past year. I realize I probably should have been just dumping money into loan payments a year ago, but I wanted to build up a bit of an emergency reserve in my bank account first. Anyway I'm now at that point where I have enough saved up to enable me to pump the vast majority of my monthly paycheck into loan payments. While the government ones are paused, I'm going to send a few thousand over to my private loans each month. Should be able to knock them completely out by the end of this year. Anyway, my loans were previously with Wells Fargo, and since they're out of the loan business now (seeing which way the wind is blowing, I guess?) I just made my first payment to Firstmark. No complaints, the site is super easy to use. With a single $2k payment I wiped out my two oldest loans, and even though they make up a tiny slice of the overall pie, it's still a really good feeling to have that behind me. Now just to work through the rest of the $16k I have in private loans, and hope in the meantime that Biden's geriatric rear end decides to finally do something about the public loans (lolno). Grand Fromage posted:My co-signer is now deceased and I do not plan to ever live in or make money in the US again once I go back abroad This is a really good question and I'd be interested in the answer too... not necessarily because I'm going to do similar, but because I'm also an American abroad who has no intention of ever returning and whose original private cosigner has also since passed away. That being said, from what I understand even if the cosigner is deceased, the estate is liable in case you default on it (unless the only member of the estate is you, I guess, which kinda makes it a moot point?). Drone fucked around with this message at 07:37 on Mar 27, 2021 |
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Mar 27, 2021 07:32
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Unfortunately I'm not versed in private loans. You'd need to call the respective companies and talk to them. I have not heard of private student loan companies accepting settlements on non-defaulted loans, but that doesn't mean anything since I know very little about them. What I can say is that when I worked with them at my old company, if the co-signer passed away, it made no difference to paying off the loan. The borrower was still required to pay it off. I hated working with them.
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Mar 27, 2021 13:23
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Drone posted:This is a really good question and I'd be interested in the answer too... not necessarily because I'm going to do similar, but because I'm also an American abroad who has no intention of ever returning and whose original private cosigner has also since passed away. Yeah, they sent a letter making it clear that the cosigner's death doesn't affect my repayment, which I knew. But I am the only family member so the estate's all mine, and if I were going to go nuclear I'd wait until I have everything in cash and move it abroad first. That said, some day my mom's going to die too and I inherit another house/etc, so I really don't want to just skip out on it since I presume the bank will instantly take all of that. Plus if I found a good remote job in the future that involved me being paid from the US I'd be in trouble. That's not an impossibility, I've done it once already.
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Mar 27, 2021 18:25
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I was denied TEPSLF, it doesn't feel like they looked at my bank statements so I guess I'll have to call to explain to someone and hope they understand the situation.
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Apr 10, 2021 17:13
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Hi, I paid off my loans a while ago, but I'm buying a house and the bank wants a monthly statement showing the payment amount. I remember getting a loan summary from the NSLDS link from the OP back in the day, but it seems to be broken now. Is there something that has replaced it?
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Apr 27, 2021 17:17
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Tell me if I am being incredibly stupid or not: Preamble; I'm a non traditional (late 30's) undergrad student transferring from a community college (where I didn't apply for and thus received no aid) to a 4 year school for the fall. I have a healthy amount saved, but no income. Some stock grants from 15 years ago did very very well, and thus, my Expected Contribution is.... approximately 10x tuition and fees. Put another way: I can just write a check for my tuition and that was my plan when I started this journey a year ago. I'm comfortable with the idea of doing that and not having any student debt. HOWEVER, after a bunch of urging, I filled out a FAFSA anyway for this upcoming year, and to no surprise, was not found eligible for any grant money or subsidized loan of any sort, but... I am eligible to take out ~12k of student loans at 2.75%. Now, I am not a particular financial genius by any means, but a 12k loan at 2.75% interest is dangerously close to 'free money'. Especially with the potential upside of some sort of loan forgiveness policy in the next four years. Am I incredibly stupid to max out my federal loan eligibility, and conservatively invest that full amount somewhere else to defer the 'cost' of carrying the interest, as a YOLO bet against a potential windfall forgiveness program?
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May 7, 2021 23:38
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Simply the question you are posing yourself. If you were to take school out of it entirely, and someone offered you a 12k loan at 2.75% interest, would you take it and invest it? Take school or loan forgiveness out of the story. Is it still free money?
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May 8, 2021 00:31
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Sub Rosa posted:Simply the question you are posing yourself. If you were to take school out of it entirely, and someone offered you a 12k loan at 2.75% interest, would you take it and invest it? Take school or loan forgiveness out of the story. Is it still free money? It remains dangerously close to free; interest only ~1% above inflation is… not hard to recoup. My degenerate gambler brain is thinking of it as ~12:1 odds of forgiveness happening within 4 years, and getting an advance as if I had won; if not, time value of money eats most of my loss anyway, so long as I effectively set it aside. I’m just worried that there’s some gotcha I’m not seeing because I have literally never interacted with the student loan system and all I hear are horror stories. Theoretically, those don’t apply to my dumb gambler brain plan, but I don’t know what I don’t know.
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May 8, 2021 00:39
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There’s never going to be $50k loan forgiveness, if that is what you are banking on.
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May 8, 2021 15:53
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remigious posted:There’s never going to be $50k loan forgiveness, if that is what you are banking on. Even a theoretical 10k makes the play extremely EV+ unless I am missing something in my basic evaluation of the terms.
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May 8, 2021 17:00
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Don't make any decisions based on potential forgiveness, ever. It's a political football no one should count on. If you don't need a student loan, don't get it. If you do need it, get it. You don't get the full 12k by the way. They will give you the remainder after tuition and fees are covered.
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May 8, 2021 18:48
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Wiggy Marie posted:
Money is fungible; this is not really relevant; as I said, I have sufficient dollars in a bank account to just pay tuition. I’m trying to decide if the interest rate is low enough, given time value of money, to justify using the loan instead. Potential forgiveness is the maximal upside angle here, but even without it, taking 2.75% is not inherently dissimilar to taking out an auto loan at favorable terms rather than paying cash upfront. Which is something that people do all the time because it is often a very financially favorable thing to do! My main question is not really about the value of debt at 2.75 - that’s clearly a good deal. It’s what don’t I know about this debt that would make it somehow not a good deal.
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May 8, 2021 19:07
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You should research student loans, then. If any of the links in the op are broken let me know, I haven't refreshed it in ages. Another bit I didn't mention before is that the money is disbursed in portions per semester. So what happens is they disburse per semester to you the borrower the portion remaining after tuition is paid. I wouldn't take out loans of any kind for purposes other than what they're intended for. If your question is should you do it, my answer is no. If your question is how risky this debt is, the answer is it's less risky than others but it's still debt.
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May 8, 2021 19:35
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You can default on your auto loan and they'll repo the car. Your default on your student loans and you get your wages garnished and credit ruined until you pay them off or are dead. Car analogy really doesn't work in this case. That being said, what you're saying makes logical sense, sure. I've got a saving account making 3% APY right now so 2.75% is dirt cheap. I probably still wouldn't do what you are suggesting due to the purely psychological reason of not wanting a bunch of debt over my head when I had the ability to pay it all off.
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May 8, 2021 19:37
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Also, the school certifies what you need, so if you pay off tuition and fees they may (depends on timing) decrease the loan amount you receive accordingly. These loans are tied to your enrollment directly. Edit: it's also not unheard of for schools to have borrowers pay them back funds they ended up not needing. Wiggy Marie fucked around with this message at 19:45 on May 8, 2021 |
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May 8, 2021 19:41
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Guy Axlerod posted:Hi, I paid off my loans a while ago, but I'm buying a house and the bank wants a monthly statement showing the payment amount. I remember getting a loan summary from the NSLDS link from the OP back in the day, but it seems to be broken now. Is there something that has replaced it? Sorry I missed this, it should redirect you here: https://studentaid.gov/
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May 8, 2021 19:48
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So I've been out of university in Ontario since 2018. I started full-time work in the winter of 2019 and I'm in repayment for my loan. I owe about 40k but my yearly income is 38K so I've been using the Repayment Assistance Plan. The trouble is that every six months when I go to re apply for the RAP it seems something else has changed on the NSLSC website to try and discourage me from using the program. Because I'm making slightly above the amount needed to waive repayments, I've been paying back about $200 a month rather than the listed rate of $461 a month. Yesterday I received an email saying my 6 month period had ended and that I would need to re-apply for RAP, so I go to the website, hit apply and get smacked with a big error sign saying that I haven't paid off my current month's repayment of $461 due at the end of May so I'm not allowed to apply for RAP. Except that my RAP period ended in April and I've had my payments set up for autopay, so I'm essentially going to have to eat the cost of a full month payment and shave really close to my budget for the month because the website is refusing to let me apply again. I know this is more of a rant than a call for help but it's not the first time I've had issues with the NSLSC website and it won't be the last. I just spent the last year clawing my way out if credit card debt and now that I have that out of the way OSAP comes a knocking to hoover up any flush money and put me right back onto credit reliance.
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May 11, 2021 07:52
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Today is finally the day I am able to submit my final PSLF form! Knowing the Dept of Ed wants a wet signature on things, I ask our HR director to please print, sign, and then scan the document back in to me. She is working from home and her scanner is broken. 
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May 24, 2021 16:10
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Sirotan posted:Today is finally the day I am able to submit my final PSLF form! Knowing the Dept of Ed wants a wet signature on things, I ask our HR director to please print, sign, and then scan the document back in to me. So jealous. I'm switching jobs to a non-PSLF eligible job, approximately 1.3 years before my 10 year PSLF period.
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May 24, 2021 21:45
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Residency Evil posted:So jealous. On the upside the clock stops but your progress isn't eliminated so you could always change jobs again and resume the process down the road......? 
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May 25, 2021 16:53
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Sirotan posted:On the upside the clock stops but your progress isn't eliminated so you could always change jobs again and resume the process down the road......? True, but the way my PSLF is staggered, I have 120k or so in loans forgiven in May 2023, with the final 40-50k forgiven in 2026. With my current IBR payments of $2k/month, I'd be banking on making an additional 20 payments/40k or so, getting the 120k forgiven, and then having to pay off the final 40-50k without forgiveness because the payments are large enough that the remaining amount is done by 2026 anyways, so I'm "only" missing out on...80k or so of actual forgiveness if I give up PSLF. My plan is to see if there's some last minute forgiveness thrown to borrowers before the October 2021 deadline. If not, I'll likely refinance from 6.8% down to the 2-3% rates I've been seeing.
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May 25, 2021 17:07
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From your avatar I assume you are a doctor?
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May 27, 2021 16:52
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remigious posted:From your avatar I assume you are a doctor? Yes
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May 27, 2021 23:22
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Hello Student Loan thread! I've had my student loans paid off for a while now, but my girlfriend still has a loan from her Masters, and I'm hoping someone can guide me to the right answers. She has a combination of federal consolidated subsidized and unsubsidized loans serviced by Navient totaling about 46K. The consolidation occurred back in 2002. She has been a 1099 worker since that time, and because of that has been and is on an IBR plan. Currently she is unemployed due to the pandemic, and payment is in forbearance. I'm trying to help her find her best coarse of action on these loans. I'm seeing that if you've been on IBR for 20 or 25 years, the loan is forgivable, and through 2025 because of the CARES act, any loans forgiven does not count as a taxable event. So I'm wondering how to find out how close she is to the 20/25 year finish line on her IBR plan, and which it is, or if she's even eligible for that at all. Any help is very much appreciated!
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Jun 1, 2021 20:35
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I'm sure this question has been asked here, but I'd love to hear the reasons for and against refinancing government student loans with a private company. Currently 2/3 of my significant student loans are federal, and on COVID forbearance at 0% interest until October. When that ends, they'll go up to about 5.6%. Private loans are currently between 3 and 8%. I have been spinning my wheels for years, hardly making a dent in the principals, as you do. I got a refinance offer from Navient and just got approved for 2.59% for all of my loans if I pay off in 10 years (2.79% for 15 years). I can basically choose my interest rate and the amount and type of loans I want to refi based on how much I want to pay each month. I'm probably going to go with the 10 year plan after I discuss the monthly budget with my wife. That would be the most comfortable. But I'd lose any wiggle room on repayment of the federal loans, and I'd lose the 0% interest for the next four months, as well as any federal protections on the loans. I'm not eligible for any of the current or proposed forgiveness programs, and I have a high income with my earning capacity expected to increase or stay the same. I'm mostly nervous about losing federal protections, but at the same time, I'm not sure those are worth very much given my situation. Any thoughts would be welcome! I don't have to decide right away but I would like to figure this out as soon as I can. My loans have been an albatross that have been affecting my retirement and future housing decisions for a long time now. Thanks!
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Jun 22, 2021 20:01
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The important thing is your contingency plan. You're married, if one of you loses their income, do you have enough in savings to pay the loan as well as all other essential expenses until they can secure a new job? How much money do you anticipate saving at the lower interest rate? If it's in the hundreds as opposed to the thousands, it may be worth paying it to preserve the federal protections. If the worst happens and you do default, what are the consequences? It sucks regardless, but some people are subject to credit and background checks as a condition of employment, and a student loan default can end a career in many industries.
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Jun 23, 2021 09:02
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All good points, and things I have considered. Fortunately we've budgeted so that we could survive on just my income. It would be tight but doable. We're also in the process of adjusting our budget as we have some income disparity as she works through the first year of her sole proprietorship. Currently I pay a small majority of our mortgage and bills (although I will be reassessing this to take on a bigger portion), and all of my own student loans. Her student loans are almost nothing and should be paid off this year. Neither of us has any appreciable credit card debt or other lines of credit aside from small car loans. The only federal protections I'd be losing are the 0% interest and $0 due monthly, both ending in October, as well as the potential for open-ended hardship forbearance. Private loan forbearance caps out at a year, I believe, but I also believe all things are negotiable and should the worst happen, a private bank I have a long-term relationship with (who holds all of my student loans at this point), is probably going to be amenable to negotiating a forbearance past that timeframe and continue collecting interest. That is clearly the worst case scenario and something I hope never happens, but you never know. As I mentioned, I'm not eligible for any sort of forgiveness currently, and I doubt I ever will be as I'm a corporate shill. The interest savings would go from 5.6 and 8.5% to 2.89% fixed (I misspoke earlier). Given the size of my balance, we're talking tens of thousands in savings, a lower monthly payment overall, no penalty for early payoff, and an end date in 10 years. Our biggest expenses are the mortgage, my student loans, retirement contributions, and various hobbies (which are lower cost currently as we've prepaid for certain things and won't be needing equipment anytime soon). We're not having kids. But we do have to rebuild our rainy day fund after we spent some of it on a house down payment. I don't believe I would be subject to any sort of credit checks in my line of work as I don't think I'd ever work in finance, but my credit is good now (after years of hard work), but that's kind of moot. I've spent years rebuilding my credit after years of making bad decisions, and I'm committed to making sure it stays where it's at or goes up. I spoke to my wife and a few trusted colleagues who have done the same, and we went ahead with it. I have until the 30th to change my mind, but the rate is so low and my expected future earnings are so solid that I don't think I will. The first payment is due in August so my wife and I will be spending July socking away a few extra thousand bucks, reassessing our budget, cutting out some of the useless expenditures we make, and consulting with our financial advisor. Thanks for the advice!
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Jun 23, 2021 17:26
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Here's my promised PSLF trip report. tl;dr -- My loans are history! After certifying that I'd made 120 payments, I applied for forgiveness on March 18, 2021. June 23: Did one of my regular checks and there was no update. Not surprising considering that in the PSLF reddit, most successful applicants are saying it currently takes 5-6 months. June 24: I checked again for the hell of it and...zero balance! June 25: I received an official letter saying my loans were forgiven. (I would have posted about this sooner, but I also became a dad again on the 25th, so I've been kinda busy...) My only guess as to why my application went through so quickly is that I've worked for the same employer for all 120 payments. Maybe that helped? To everyone else still involved in this process, keep the faith. You can do it!
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Jun 27, 2021 19:59
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hepcat posted:Here's my promised PSLF trip report. tl;dr -- My loans are history! Congrats, this is amazing. What was your total amount forgiven in the end?
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Jul 7, 2021 16:47
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Hooray, congrats!
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Jul 7, 2021 20:21
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