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Post by jeremysgirl on Oct 10, 2024 13:48:51 GMT
So, all along during Covid, I've been throwing a bit of money at my student loans, even though I didn't have to. Last year, when they began the onramp to student loans, I was told in January that I had 56 more payments of $569. This is more than I can afford. I applied for the SAVE plan in May. I was told I qualified for a payment of $387 per month through SAVE. So I paid $387 per month while waiting for my loan servicer to reconfigure my payments. It was alright because during this time, the government was holding harmless student loan borrowers. Then in August I got a statement saying my payment would be $697 per month. I called my servicer, explained that I had applied for the SAVE plan and I had been paying them the $387 per month because that's what SAVE calculated I owed. They said, there was nothing they could do to help me. I explained to them that even if they couldn't put me in the SAVE plan at this time, in January they said I had 56 more payments of $569 and now they wanted $130 more a month. So they put my payments on hold saying they would look into my case and determine the correct payment by 11/5. OK, so I waited.
I received a letter on Tuesday. It said I owed 7 more payments of $1503. Due 11/5. Then yesterday I received another letter. It said, no I owe 120 more payments at the original $569. Then today, I received a bill. It did not say how many payments I owe. But it said that my new payment was $2010 per month, with first payment due 11/5.
So what, exactly, do I owe? I know I owe something by 11/5. I'm debating mailing in the letter with the 7 payments of $1503 and a check for the entire thing and then just fighting them in court if I have to. Because they said that's what I owed and that's what I paid.
But sheesh. I have no idea what to do here. I'll have to call them. I'm sure it's going to take at least an hour out of my work day because last time, it took me an hour and a half to get anywhere with them.
What do I owe?
ETA: these are federal student loans. These are not private loans.
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Post by Merge on Oct 10, 2024 13:53:11 GMT
That's insane. I wonder if it's the kind of thing your US Rep or Senator's office could help with. Might be worth a call to them.
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Tearisci
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,249
Nov 6, 2018 16:34:30 GMT
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Post by Tearisci on Oct 10, 2024 13:57:02 GMT
Ugh that is a shitshow. I don't have student loans but how it is legal for them to keep changing the terms?
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3boysnme
Full Member
Posts: 405
Aug 1, 2023 13:28:26 GMT
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Post by 3boysnme on Oct 10, 2024 14:02:42 GMT
Yeah, I'd be calling your representative asap! Have all their correspondence in a media file that you can email your representative if they need it.
That is one of the biggest runarounds I've seen in a while!
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pantsonfire
Drama Llama
Take a step back, evaluate what is important, and enjoy your life with those who you love.
Posts: 6,273 
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Post by pantsonfire on Oct 10, 2024 14:02:49 GMT
Now I am usually against getting a loan to pay off a loan but in this case could that possibly help you?
Because we had to do that. $10,000 loan and our loan amount is $235 a month. There is zero change. It is through our credit union.
You could certainly look at options and if it would be cheaper.
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pantsonfire
Drama Llama
Take a step back, evaluate what is important, and enjoy your life with those who you love.
Posts: 6,273
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Post by pantsonfire on Oct 10, 2024 14:03:17 GMT
Also do you not qualify for loan forgiveness?
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Post by jeremysgirl on Oct 10, 2024 14:07:22 GMT
That's insane. I wonder if it's the kind of thing your US Rep or Senator's office could help with. Might be worth a call to them. I'm going to do this. I just need to go through my pile of mail and pull out all their statements and bills. But this is insanity. |
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Post by Merge on Oct 10, 2024 14:17:13 GMT
That's insane. I wonder if it's the kind of thing your US Rep or Senator's office could help with. Might be worth a call to them. I'm going to do this. I just need to go through my pile of mail and pull out all their statements and bills. But this is insanity. It is and unfortunately, it always has been. I have a long story about why I never got the student loan forgiveness that I was supposed to get, despite spending a decade and a half teaching in Title 1 schools. I won't derail your thread with it here. Just know that I feel your pain and hope you're able to get clarity soon. |
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Post by jeremysgirl on Oct 10, 2024 14:17:59 GMT
Now I am usually against getting a loan to pay off a loan but in this case could that possibly help yo I have debated the merits of a home equity loan for this reason for a very long time. But now with interest rates higher, I'm concerned about getting a rate lower than my student loan rate. Also do you not qualify for loan forgiveness? I am part of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. I completed my MBA in 8/16. I started paying on my loans 2/17. I made all those years of payments until Covid hit. I did not pay my payments in full during covid. But also, my payments keep getting refigured (before Covid) because all that time before Covid I was in the income contingent payment plan. When Covid hit, everything went out the window. They did not send any bills anymore. They did not require reapplying for income contingent payment plans. It just was, you don't have to pay anything. I kept throwing money at them anyway. During Covid, I don't know if it was 2021 or 2022, that's when they did the big push on public service loan forgiveness. So instead of sending my verification every year, I had to have HR send one big letter stating how long I had been employed at my work place. Then I was told to wait on payments by my existing loan servicer and switched to MOHELA which I guess was consolidated to handle PSLF loans. So I stopped paying for about six months while the government figured this out. Then it was in January that I received the letter that my loans had been transferred and I owed 56 more payments (I had been credited for 64 payments) of $569. And then I was limping along for a few months and found that that payment was just too high. And so I applied for SAVE. I paid the SAVE amount while I was waiting for MOHELA to catch up with the paperwork. Since it took over a year just to transfer my loans to MOHELA I knew they would be slow to register this. And then that's where my OP began. |
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Post by Darcy Collins on Oct 10, 2024 14:20:04 GMT
Wow what a mess. What is the actual principal amount?
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samantha25
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,184
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Post by samantha25 on Oct 10, 2024 14:21:41 GMT
Go to your student loan account online. There are links to all of your original loan documents and options for forgiveness and payment plans and what you have paid. I think under new student loan forgiveness if you have paid consistently over 10 years forgiven or if you owe more than when started forgiven. Seems ridiculous amount owed changes radically.
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Post by jeremysgirl on Oct 10, 2024 14:24:37 GMT
Wow what a mess. What is the actual principal amount? I don't want to say. But at this point, I owe just a little bit more than I actually borrowed.  I'm not making any headway at all. But again, I didn't think this was a big deal because I am in the loan forgiveness program. So 10 years (120 payments), I was religiously making all my payments. |
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samantha25
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,184
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Post by samantha25 on Oct 10, 2024 14:26:22 GMT
Wow what a mess. What is the actual principal amount? I don't want to say. But at this point, I owe just a little bit more than I actually borrowed. I'm not making any headway at all. But again, I didn't think this was a big deal because I am in the loan forgiveness program. So 10 years (120 payments), I was religiously making all my payments. yes, I think I read for recent qualifications for forgiveness you may qualify. Check it out. |
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Post by jeremysgirl on Oct 10, 2024 14:32:28 GMT
I don't want to say. But at this point, I owe just a little bit more than I actually borrowed. I'm not making any headway at all. But again, I didn't think this was a big deal because I am in the loan forgiveness program. So 10 years (120 payments), I was religiously making all my payments. yes, I think I read for recent qualifications for forgiveness you may qualify. Check it out. I have been round and round with all of them. I have made 64 total payments if you add up all that I made during Covid at my old payment rate. I think their first letter was correct. The math, maths to me. I did not even question the 56 more payments or the $569 payment in January. I just found this payment to be too high for my current budget. The SAVE plan when I applied, lowered my payment to $387 which felt more manageable. And I would have been fine to make the remainder of these payments at that rate. I have not made 120 payments. I know this. Like I said, I started paying on them in 2017. And then Covid screwed everything up. |
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Post by jeremysgirl on Oct 10, 2024 14:40:14 GMT
One thing is for certain. I'm so overwhelmed by this today, I am going to have to put it out of my mind today and deal with it Monday maybe. After I saw that bill for $2000 I was like, you've got to be kidding me.
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Post by Darcy Collins on Oct 10, 2024 14:40:45 GMT
yes, I think I read for recent qualifications for forgiveness you may qualify. Check it out. I have been round and round with all of them. I have made 64 total payments if you add up all that I made during Covid at my old payment rate. I think their first letter was correct. The math, maths to me. I did not even question the 56 more payments or the $569 payment in January. I just found this payment to be too high for my current budget. The SAVE plan when I applied, lowered my payment to $387 which felt more manageable. And I would have been fine to make the remainder of these payments at that rate. I have not made 120 payments. I know this. Like I said, I started paying on them in 2017. And then Covid screwed everything up. I'm sorry - I know you know the math. I hate that they're sending you so many conflicting notices and you have to call. I was lucky and able to pay off my student loans a few years into working. Interest rates were so insane in the 90s that I feel for those who couldn't put a dent in the principal as I know they just paid and paid and paid forever! |
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Post by bossymom on Oct 10, 2024 14:43:05 GMT
Mohela is a shit show. I applied for SAVE last August (2023) after doing a double consolidation. If your SAVE plan was approved before the courts mucked it up, then you should be on an administrative forbearance with ZERO interest accruing. I wanted to say I file separately from my husband on taxes; SAVE only looks at your income if you do MFS. Yes I pay more in taxes, but I have a zero dollar min payment and am eligible for PSLF at that payment amount as long as I stay with a qualified employer. Are you do for an income recert? They will send out letters for the recalculated payment if you don't certify. And it's always a larger payment. I found this company and they have been immensely helpful. TislaAlso the student loan and PSLF subreddits. Good luck! |
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Post by jeremysgirl on Oct 10, 2024 14:48:58 GMT
Mohela is a shit show. I applied for SAVE last August (2023) after doing a double consolidation. If your SAVE plan was approved before the courts mucked it up, then you should be on an administrative forbearance with ZERO interest accruing. I wanted to say I file separately from my husband on taxes; SAVE only looks at your income if you do MFS. Yes I pay more in taxes, but I have a zero dollar min payment and am eligible for PSLF at that payment amount as long as I stay with a qualified employer. Are you do for an income recert? They will send out letters for the recalculated payment if you don't certify. And it's always a larger payment. I found this company and they have been immensely helpful. TislaAlso the student loan and PSLF subreddits. Good luck! Thank you for that. When my brain can handle it, maybe next week, I will dive deeper. Right now I'm on emotional overload. I'm trying to do the right thing and play by the rules. And sometimes I feel like that just gets you nowhere. |
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Post by bossymom on Oct 10, 2024 15:05:27 GMT
Oh I agree, jeremysgirl. People get pissy because I am going for forgiveness. Guess what? It's a program from 2007, that I qualify for by taking a lower salary and paying slightly more in income tax. If all goes to plan I will have 132k forgiven (Parents Plus Loans). Or die trying, lol. That's my joke - we are playing beat the clock! (older mom). I paid my undergrad off in the '90's. |
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Post by jeremysgirl on Oct 10, 2024 15:14:03 GMT
If all goes to plan I will have 132k forgiven (Parents Plus Loans). Or die trying, lol. The thing is, if it all went according to plan for me, and they took that $387 for the next 56 payments, they would be pretty much forgiving about $10k + interest. They will have gotten almost the entire principle balance out of me. |
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stacyjinup
Shy Member
Posts: 16
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Post by stacyjinup on Oct 10, 2024 16:25:23 GMT
If you had several loans, could each of the statements be for only one loan each?
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Post by jeremysgirl on Oct 10, 2024 16:56:14 GMT
If you had several loans, could each of the statements be for only one loan each? No they are all consolidated. |
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Post by melanell on Oct 10, 2024 17:33:34 GMT
I'm so sorry. That's awful. The day we paid off the last of our student loans I was so relieved to finally be done with them. The whole situaion sucks.
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Post by mikklynn on Oct 10, 2024 17:54:36 GMT
Wow what a mess. What is the actual principal amount? I don't want to say. But at this point, I owe just a little bit more than I actually borrowed. I'm not making any headway at all. But again, I didn't think this was a big deal because I am in the loan forgiveness program. So 10 years (120 payments), I was religiously making all my payments. Owing more than the original amount after paying for years is criminal. I don't think many people without student loans understand this. I agree with the others, I'd reach out to my congressperson about this disaster. |
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Post by crazy4scraps on Oct 10, 2024 19:40:37 GMT
I don't want to say. But at this point, I owe just a little bit more than I actually borrowed. I'm not making any headway at all. But again, I didn't think this was a big deal because I am in the loan forgiveness program. So 10 years (120 payments), I was religiously making all my payments. Owing more than the original amount after paying for years is criminal. I don't think many people without student loans understand this. I agree with the others, I'd reach out to my congressperson about this disaster. This is how I feel too. It’s predatory. I paid off my own student loans but I think that in a lot of cases something should be done to relieve people’s student loan burden especially if they have paid back most or all of the principal amount faithfully. |
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Post by mom2kbs on Oct 10, 2024 23:03:48 GMT
We have been through a lot with ours. We both work for state agencies and have made payments to qualify for the PSLF. We have continued to pay but because at some point we did a spousal consolidation (which is a whole story in itself-- the form is our signatures but now our info) we don't qualify. I have tried consolidations for years. Nothing ever happens. We get notices saying it is under review, then denied as something is missing but the email and paper trail show it has all been sent in. I know I took the loans out and need to pay but if there is a way to forgive for 28 years of teaching in a low income area I would like to do that. I have called every company, every phone number I have been given, been on hold for hours, sent certified letters, called my Senators and Representatives and even the media who reached out on my behalf and were told something completely different than I have been told. Soooo, I continue to take classes so I can not pay the huge monthly bill and just pay the interest.
I agree with you, it is exhausting and frustrating. I have pretty much just given up.
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mimima
Drama Llama
Stay Gold, Ponyboy
Posts: 5,104
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Post by mimima on Oct 10, 2024 23:21:50 GMT
I hope that you get resolution - I like the idea of going to your Senator or Congress Critter.
The entire way that student loans figure interest is so messed up - this is why I get frustrated by people who say, "I paid my student loans, why shouldn't others?" My student loans, through an accident of timing, didn't amortize the same way they do now.
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I'm not making any headway at all. But again, I didn't think this was a big deal because I am in the loan forgiveness program. So 10 years (120 payments), I was religiously making all my payments. 
