I keep seeing references on these forums and elsewhere to “$0 payments.” I see that these payments count towards PSLF and the 25-year loan foregiveness. My wife and I are both currently in IBR with $0 payments. My wife has had $0 payments for several years, and I’ve had it for several months (I graduated last year). So far so good.

BUT, on the servicer websites (EdFinancial and MyEdAccount), I never see a “payment due” of $0. All I see is a giant Standard Plan payment amount of $X,XXX.xx due sometime in 2014 (when I need to re-submit my income info to get the lower payments again).

More importantly, I never see a payment of $0 in the “payment history” on the website. Worse, the payment history says “Our records indicate you have not made any payments toward your account(s) at this time. Once you have made payments toward your account(s), they will be reflected below showing the amounts applied to principal, interest, and fees.” This seems like a red flag to me! I don’t have any documentation of $0 payments.

There are two main reasons I’m worried: the obvious and the not-so-obvious:

1. I want to be armed with proof when the time comes to apply for PSLF. I can’t find any way to document these “$0 payments.”

2. More immediately, though, I’m applying for a mortgage, and I need to document my debt payments. My credit report also doesn’t mention $0 payments. But even worse, it says that my current monthly payments are $X,XXX.xx, which is of course completely untrue. But, I have no way of “proving” that I pay $0, since the servicers don’t supply me with bills or a payment history that show my $0 payments.

So, does anyone have any advice about how to document $0 payments? If I switch to paper billing will that help?

As a last resort I’m considering making $1 payments every month just so I have some sort of record in my “payment history.” Would this help? (I tried manually making a payment of $0 through the website and it wouldn’t accept it).

You are dealing with one of the many frustrating student loan “servicing” issues. 

Here are my thoughts: request IN WRITING from your loan servicer written confirmation that 1) your loans are in a “repayment status”, 2) you are enrolled in the Income-Based Repayment plan, 3) your “calculated monthly payment” due is $0 and will be reevaluated on x date, 4) a complete record of your “payment history”.  Your wife will likely need to do the same.

Brace yourself for the potential of an annoyingly long exchange and keep after them as long as necessary.  Consider following up with the student loan ombudsman if you don’t get an appropriate response.

Supply the mortgage underwriter with the documentation you gather and consider also supplying a statement regarding income driven repayment and monthly payment amounts.  The way things look on credit reports is an issue, certainly, but I’m not sure that there is any practical way to change that.  My thought is that alternative documentation to supplement that incomplete information is your best bet.

Thanks so much! It sounds like a real hassle, but I’ll get on it immediately.

Do you have any insight about my other question about consolidating loans, and whether it re-starts the PSLF clock? (in another IBR thread)

I couldn’t find an answer to that one anywhere.

Thanks!

The whole mortgage process is a giant pain, no?  Got your other answer on the other thread finally.  Thanks for the patience.  I get pretty busy.  BTW, everybody should feel free to chime in with some answers too if you’ve got em!

Op brought up a good idea about making $1 a month payments to prove payment history on credit report and to qualify for mortgage. As someone who is just starting on an IBR, is this a good idea? It seems like it might prevent a lot of frustration down the line given that over the next 25 years mortgage, car loans, etc are going to come up. Are there any drawbacks to this plan?