Advice on Student Loan Forgiveness
March 16, 2015 9:25 AM Subscribe
My spouse may be eligible for student loan forgiveness, but I'm having a hell of a time making sense of the forgiveness programs and requirements. Are there any consultants or organizations who will look at the loans, employment history, etc., and give us advice?
Call Fed Loan Servicing as well as your particular loan servicer--that's what I did; I got everything sorted out, got my account flagged as logging time toward forgiveness, got into a lovely income-based-loan-repayment plan and they gave me a great estimate of when my loans can/will be forgiven, as well as what the potential tax consequences are.
Otherwise, AskHeatherJarvis has good info.
posted by crush-onastick at 9:44 AM on March 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
Otherwise, AskHeatherJarvis has good info.
posted by crush-onastick at 9:44 AM on March 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
I would not use an outside service because the government really does handle this well and I can't tell you the number of tax preparers I have talked to who really have no idea at all how to handle this stuff, so I don't think there's a good potential for finding help outside of the government loan servicers.
posted by crush-onastick at 9:46 AM on March 16, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by crush-onastick at 9:46 AM on March 16, 2015 [2 favorites]
Perfect timing - today I saw a (sponsored) post on AskaManager.org about for Student Loan Insider. I generally trust Alison Green (the eponymous manager) so it is probably worth checking out. Discount code is available on her site as well.
posted by cessair at 9:46 AM on March 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by cessair at 9:46 AM on March 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
What you do may also depend on the kind of forgiveness you're seeking.
I would qualify for forgiveness for working for a 501c for 10 years (my employer qualifies). However, I would have had to have re-consolidated my loans with the new government program, and my interest right now is absurdly, absurdly low. The interest on the new program would have been 5 times that and the time only counted from the day my loans were consolidated into that program. So it made no financial sense to do that in the end............
posted by zizzle at 9:50 AM on March 16, 2015 [2 favorites]
I would qualify for forgiveness for working for a 501c for 10 years (my employer qualifies). However, I would have had to have re-consolidated my loans with the new government program, and my interest right now is absurdly, absurdly low. The interest on the new program would have been 5 times that and the time only counted from the day my loans were consolidated into that program. So it made no financial sense to do that in the end............
posted by zizzle at 9:50 AM on March 16, 2015 [2 favorites]
The financial aid office at the school will likely be happy to speak with you. Since loan default can potentially interfere with the school's ongoing eligibility for federal loans, there may be assistance offered to former students to help manage their loans. The school may have also offer its own resources, such as a Loan Repayment Assistance Program for students who work in public service.
posted by Little Dawn at 9:51 AM on March 16, 2015
posted by Little Dawn at 9:51 AM on March 16, 2015
Check out ibrinfo.org for a lot of information on student loan repayment. Is your spouse seeking Public Service Loan Forgiveness? I'm six years into that program and consider myself fairly knowledgeable about it.
posted by notjustthefish at 10:01 AM on March 16, 2015
posted by notjustthefish at 10:01 AM on March 16, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
I would start first by reviewing the department of Ed's site that gives you all the information you need to get started. You should also call your loan servicer who can give more details.
If you provide more details as to your situation I may be able to give more thoughts. Feel free to me mail if you prefer.
posted by Karaage at 9:36 AM on March 16, 2015