Hi Heather,

1 ) I’ve read the summaries of IBR & ICR on the studentaid.ed.gov site, but I’m not finding a clear distinction between the two. They both seem to calculate your monthly payments based on income, and both have forgiveness after 10/25 years of consistent payments. Can you provide a clear English explanation of the two?

2) Our specific situation is as follows:
My wife and I are both finishing Masters programs. She will have $77k in loans and I will have $45k, both are in Staffords. We’ll be looking to consolidate both pools of loans into two loans. How do I determine whether the IBR or ICR is better? The consolidation calculator on loanconsolidation.ed.gov just gives the beginning monthly payments and rate.

3) Also, when using the calculator, it asks for mine and my spouse’s AGI to calculate the monthly payments. So it seems as if it does not take into account that part of my AGI will be used to pay down my loans and would not be available to pay down my wife’s. Do you know, when it comes time to apply, whether we can have them consider both my loan and my wifes when calcualting payments based on our AGI?

Thanks!

Check it out!: http://askheatherjarvis.com/blog/five_ways_IBR_beats_ICR

If a borrower is married and files a joint federal income tax return with their spouse, and if the spouse also has IBR-eligible loans, they look at the combined amount of the borrower’s IBR-eligible loans and their spouse’s IBR-eligible loans.

And married borrowers who file separate tax forms can have it based on their income and loans alone.