Hello,

So happy to find this place to ask a question! We’ve spent the last 6 months trying to get answers and we are at a dead end.

Here’s the story:

My husband and I consolidated our loans in a spousal consolidation, back when that was allowed, prior to 2006. We had one payment and all was good. Our loans were with Direct Loan.

About 2 years ago, we applied for IBR and were approved. Our payment went down significantly. Direct Loan advised us to file tax returns as MFS so that only my husband’s income would count when calculating the IBR payment. (Because he was unemployed for 6 months) So we did that and have done so since 2010.

We have submitted new AGI tax forms every year but this year, EdFinancial took over our loans from Direct Loan. Ever since January, we cannot get someone to tell us how they have calculated our payment (it’s now over $700 a month, according to them).  It was our understanding that the law changed in 2010 so that married borrowers are no longer paying twice the amount (that of two single borrowers) but we can’t get any answers on that. We have had 4 separate supervisors give us a different payment amount each time. The latest one is over $700.

Here is the break down:
My AGI: 39,500
My spouses AGI: 39, 500
We live in Az so community property state so the income amount is divided equally, we were told.
Our student loan (consolidated loan, spousal) is $80,505 now. When we originally took the consolidation, it was $93,000.

I’ve tried to go through several online IBR calculators but they are not clear about how I can enter the student loans. Do I enter the FULL amount or just the amount that I entered into the consolidation with?  Ed Financial tells me I am a “co-signer” on the loan and I get that I am fully responsible for them should we divorce, but does that also mean I can count the full amount of that loan towards calculating our IBR payment?

EdFinancial also told me that the reason I had low payments for the past 3 years is that Direct Loan calculated us wrongly - that our loan is a SPECIAL loan since it’s a spousal consolidation and that doesn’t count in the regular IBR calculator.

We want to remain in the IBR program as we are both in Public Service (I am a teacher, husband is also employed in the same school district as technology coordinator) and it’s our understand that to be eligible for Public Service forgiveness, we must be in IBR.

Bottom line, we just want to know what our payment should be and that it’s been calculated correctly in light of the “special” (spousal consolidation) loan and in the addition of the 2010 benefit for married couples, filing separately. 

Thank you so much for any input!

Margie