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Zantie
Mar 30, 2003

Death. The capricious dance of Now You Stop Moving Forever.
I have a question on interest payments for deferred Stafford loans.

My undergraduate loans are all consolidated with Educational Loan Center, and as I'm a full time grad student, they are also deferred. However, for the Unsubsidized loans, I'm still having to make monthly payments on the interest. The rate averages somewhere around $85/month.

While I hate the idea of it being applied to my principle month after month, I can't help but feel I could be putting it to better use. Not like "yay let's get more shoes!" use, but just stuff like building up my emergency fund/paying off medical expenses etc.

How would I go about contacting Ed Loan about changing the terms of my deference? Is this a good idea, or should I continue to make payments on interest?

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Zantie
Mar 30, 2003

Death. The capricious dance of Now You Stop Moving Forever.
There's an article here: http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2011/0809/Budget-cuts-five-groups-likely-to-feel-the-pinch/College-and-graduate-students

This says the incentives will continue if you're signed up for auto-payments. I haven't heard anything from either of my lenders about this. Though, one of them is/was Citibank and I still haven't heard from Sally Mae since the initial "we bought you!" email.

Zantie
Mar 30, 2003

Death. The capricious dance of Now You Stop Moving Forever.

Eugene Jerome posted:

Please, please, PLEASE contact Sallie Mae.

They almost hosed me over royally as I explained earlier in the thread - make sure they haven't issued you a statement already that you don't know about.

I suggest calling their Office of the Customer Advocate at this number - all the attendants are US-based and they'll respond to you in a timely manner if you leave a voicemail:

https://www1.salliemae.com/about/corp_leadership/management/advocate.htm

Thankfully Citibank is still accepting my payments so I'm not to that stage *yet.* I did read what happened to you last month and am totally bookmarking that just in case.

Zantie
Mar 30, 2003

Death. The capricious dance of Now You Stop Moving Forever.
Welp that was short-lived. I just sent those advocates an email with my old address and maiden name included because my new address and married name seem to be confusing Sallie Mae. I really want to avoid calling because my phone is pre-pay and I *really* don't feel like spending 10 cents/min. on names that can be too easily misheard or misspelled.

My posting last week jinxed it I'm sure :(

[Edit]

Was on the phone for less than 10 minutes and everything's sorted out! Awesome.

Zantie fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Sep 8, 2011

Zantie
Mar 30, 2003

Death. The capricious dance of Now You Stop Moving Forever.
Just a head's up for anyone with a loan or has had a loan with Nelnet, their Kwikpay system went haywire and billed everyone who's ever been set up with them a monthly payment. To give you all an idea of how huge this is, my only loan with them was paid in full over a year ago. Still, it does remind me to delete bank info for the other loan companies I've paid off.

The customer service rep said this happened to everyone and was an error on their part. Two ways to get a refund; either fax/mail them a copy of your bank statement with the unauthorized debit circled or dispute it with your bank. She said they can't send anything official out saying it's their bad, just that they will confirm it's unauthorized when your bank asks them. I have no idea how true that is so I just took a screen cap of the chat log.

Zantie
Mar 30, 2003

Death. The capricious dance of Now You Stop Moving Forever.

Effexxor posted:

They're refunding the money, and paying back for any overdrafts. It's fine.

Are they mailing you a check or doing it electronically, and do you still have to send them a copy of your bank statement? I was going to file the unauthorized withdrawal form at my bank tomorrow but if they're just going to reverse the charge without any paperwork on my end that'd be loads easier.

Edit:

Nevermind. I got a check from the Dept of Ed. in the mail today :)

Zantie fucked around with this message at 17:20 on Oct 27, 2011

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Zantie
Mar 30, 2003

Death. The capricious dance of Now You Stop Moving Forever.

Captain Apollo posted:

God I hate ACS Education. Is it impossible to pay extra to the principle of my loan? All they do is keep rolling back my payment date. UGH

Would be better to take out secured loan at 4 percent and use it to pay off ACS than deal with this crap.

I'm pretty sure there's a way to reset your payment date to the next month. On the individual loan detail page, upper-rightish corner, it should say something like "In repayment, [date]" or something to that effect in red text.

Above that should be a link for resetting the due date. It's been a few weeks since I've seen that though, which of course makes me wonder if they've stopped allowing people to do this online.

I know a few years ago I tried doing what their FAQ said to do and mailed in a physical check with coupon and written note stating to apply the extra to my principle. Yeah....they didn't bother reading the note.

This month I paid off one of the two loans I had with ACS. I'm keeping the last one on the stupid Checkmate II thing because it mysteriously keeps my interest rate at 4.8% instead of it's actual 6.8%. The extra payments I make are via their express pay link. Only 14.5k to go :gbsmith:

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