How to Get Started Dealing with Student Loans
Most student loans have a six-month grace period before you have to start making payments. If you graduated this past spring, that means now is a good time to get a grip on your student loans. Here’s how: Figure out which loans you have. You’ll find all your federal student loans listed in the National Student Loan Data System. Check for private student loans by pulling a free copy of your credit report using AnnualCreditReport.com. Decide whether consolidation makes sense for you. Some student loan…
Department of Education to Contact Federal Student Loan Borrowers, Explain Repayment Options
As first reported, September 3, in The Huffington Post in an article co-authored by Shahien Nasiripour and Joy Resmovits, Sallie Mae, the nation's largest servicer of federal student loans, is failing to enroll many of its distressed borrowers into income-driven repayment plans. "Sallie Mae, a.k.a. SLM Corp., has enrolled relatively few borrowers into the Income-Based Repayment program. Sallie Mae dominates the now-discontinued Federal Family Education Loan Program, owning between 37 and 40 percent of the outstanding…
Sallie Mae Needs To Do More to Educate Borrowers on Repayment Options
Sallie Mae, the nation's largest servicer of federal student loans, is failing to enroll many of its distressed borrowers into income-driven repayment plans, critics say. According to documents obtained by The Huffington Post, "Sallie Mae, a.k.a. SLM Corp., has enrolled relatively few borrowers into the Income-Based Repayment program. Sallie Mae dominates the now-discontinued Federal Family Education Loan Program, owning between 37 and 40 percent of the outstanding FFELP debt held by the private sector. But its share of FFELP borrowers…
Income-Driven Repayment Options for Gay or Lesbian Couples (Post DOMA)
On Wednesday, June 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the federal government to recognize marriages between same-sex couples. Equal protection for my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters! What does the DOMA decision mean for gay and lesbian student loan borrowers? Same-sex married couples with student loans will find that having one’s marriage recognized by the federal government makes for some mighty tricky tax decisions. The income-driven repayment plans (like Income-Based Repayment and Pay-As-You-Earn) limit a borrower's…
Sorting Out the Income Driven Repayment Options
You say tom-a-to, I say tom-ah-to. But the income driven repayment options are much more different than their names imply. Pay As You Earn (PAYE) gets you the lowest payments and earliest forgiveness, but can't be chosen by people who borrowed before October 1, 2007. Income-Based Repayment is a little more expensive than PAYE but is available to more folks. Income-Contingent Repayment isn't the newest or cheapest option, but if you are a Parent PLUS loan borrower, it's the only available income-driven plan (and only after…