Getting overwhelmed a little overwhelmed with all the plan choices and really trying to see what my best choice might be here at the EOD –
I have $37,294 remaining from my original $69k balance I had pre-covid (Interest rate average is probably around 3.7%.
Pre-COVID, I was in a PAYE plan. Despite trying to re-enroll, the application was either denied or followed up with a "Are you sure you want to re-certify? You don't have to pay anything during COVID" message.
Since the SAVE plan has been in court and everything in forbearance while they get everything figured out, I wasn't making payments until last August due to the informational that went out informing that interest would begin accruing. During that time, I got a part-time job and use those funds to go solely towards my loans (approx $500 per month towards one loan principal at a time)
I called student loans today to get an idea of how much longer I have before I qualify for IDR forgiveness and was informed that despite having taken loans out in 2013, I only have 80 months accumulated due to all the forbearances, deferments, etc. that have been put into place. The only way for me to begin accumulating months again is to switch myself from SAVE to an official IDR plan (even though it still shows I'm in an IDR plan on the website🐸🍵)
My options at this time are:
Stay put where I'm at (No required payments w/ no benefits – will need to eventually change to an actual plan)
PAYE ($239 monthly payment; end of term date May 2039 – potential forgiveness of $557)
ICR ($285 monthly payment; end of term date Sep 2039)
IBR ($359 monthly payment; end of term Feb 2036)
Standard ($517 monthly payment; end of term Nov 2032
From my options, I'm considering staying where I'm at and then switching to PAYE when it's required to by the gov. This just allows me to have some type of cushion in the event some emergency would come up with the lower payments these have. Plan would be to continue paying as I have.
With all the info provided, is there some benefit to selecting any of the other payment options?
Posted by Catatau1992
1 Comment
You can use PAYE for now but it will be gone by July 2028. You will only have IBR and RAP by then.
Your IBR will require 300 qualifying payments for forgiveness.
I wrote a summary post of all the repayment plan changes that the OBBBA will bring, including RAP. You can find that here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/StudentLoans/s/lsHO2ct2JR](https://www.reddit.com/r/StudentLoans/s/lsHO2ct2JR)
The covid forbearance counted towards forgiveness on eligible loans.
You can use this link to view the hidden data file used for the IDR counts to check your progress. You MUST LOG IN FIRST to your studentaid.gov account and then click the link: [https://studentaid.gov/app/api/nslds/payment-counter/summary](https://studentaid.gov/app/api/nslds/payment-counter/summary)
It should look like a black page with a bunch of white text. You are looking for the parts that say “qualifyingpaymentcount”. It will appear multiple times. It’s broken down per loan and then per each payment plan. That number is your IDR count towards forgiveness. Keep in mind that there may be errors in the counter but right now this is what will give you the best idea about your progress.