Thanks to this site and the FB page, I've been more active in researching ways to handle student loan debt. Something new to me, which may be old news to you, is the idea of IBR. Supposedly, your monthly payment is based on your AGI and your family size. Has anyone pursued this with their lenders, and, if so, to what degree of success? I owe A LOT, so I find it hard to believe that at the 25 YEAR MARK (it will take me an estimated 33 yrs...) the rest will be forgiven. My guess is it's hard to apply for and they don't let it happen very often. Your input is appreciated!
What do you do if you cannot afford your IBR amount? Be nice I'm already stressed as it is.
What do you do if you cannot afford your IBR amount? Be nice I'm already stressed as it is.
Hi,
I have been using IBR since it started. I consolidated all of my federal loans to direct loans, applied for IBR (it took a month or two), sent in my income information and have been making lower monthly payments since.
I was able to make my student loan payments each month($1300), but with the IBR I am able to make higher payments to my private loans. Since private loans are not forgiven if you should die, and since they have a higher interest rate I figured these were the ones I wanted out of my life.
The direct loan website also has a calculator in order to see if you would qualify and what your estimated per month payment would be.
I am so happy I did it. I only pray that they get rid of the tax portion after the 25 years. Please write to your congressmen/women and representatives to vote to rid the tax!
Regards,
Janell
Reading a lot of these posts, it feels like it's lost on most of you that the purpose of IBR is to make the payments on student loans more affordable, not to give people a way to stop paying them.
Of course your wife's income is counted if you file jointly. That might not have made perfect sense prior to July 1, 2010, when the IBR calculation didn't treat both spouses' student loan debts as a single total, but now it does. Two incomes : two loan debts = one obligation. That's how family income works.
And IBR is for people who are facing a "partial financial hardship." That's a pretty generous definition: payments can't exceed more than 15% of discretionary income. For my wife and I, that means we can't pay more than $1180 per month. We owe a total of about $340,000, so IBR makes our payments much more manageable than the $4000+ they'd otherwise be under the Standard plan.
But we still have to pay them. That's how loans work, and everyone here who is looking for a handout just because he or she went to an expensive school is really missing the boat.
I have over 150K in Student loans with 100K in federal. Because I am married, my husband's income is counted in calculating my IBR payment. I only make 38K in my public service job. Basically, almost all of my income goes to paying my student loans. I am on extended repayment at $460 a month because my standard payment would be over $1200 a month or my IBR payment would be $880. Basically, I am screwed. I will not qualify for the loan forgiveness for public servants because I am on extended repayment, but I cannot afford to pay any other way.
I just did my taxes for this year and tried filing married but separate and the IRS wanted me to pay $5000 in taxes where filing together I get a refund. I also would not have gotten credit for having a child or for the $7000 I spent in daycare this year. I cannot believe how this system is working!
It is important that you write your congresspersons and the President, and Joe Bidens middle-class task force promptly. There may be some help with some of the new legislation that President Obama is intending to implement. See Robert Applebaums recent post. Do not give up, there is hope for the educated middleclass poor, but we must keep actively engaging and sharing all the facts with our legislators. They got us into this mess by making laws that were detrimental to the progress of hard working Americans in the middle-class, and now they need to change those laws. You have encountered gridlock because of the legislation that has been passed over the past 20 years that has slowly disempowered and stagnated the wages and opportunities of the middle class. Write your congresspersons and tell them just how you feel. Tell them you won't vote for them and you belong to a group of hundreds of thousands strong, Americans in situations like yourself, and they are all voters! Good Luck.
Helped how?
She owes $100,000 and is paying $460 per month on that debt. That's an extremely favorable rate; it's about 5.5% interest.
Does anyone appreciate that student loans are voluntarily borrowed to finance education?
IBR is great; it's important that we have a way for people to pursue education in things that don't pay very well, because salary isn't all that determines the value of a career path.
But to listen to some of you, you just think education should be free. The U.S. government should not have bailed out the banks; I think we can agree on that. But that doesn't mean that we should now deficit-finance a huge payoff of student loan debt.
Federal student loans are some of the best-structured, most generous credit offerings that exist anywhere. Accept some responsibility, and yes, if you benefit from your husband's huge income, it's entirely rational that taxpayers -- because that's who made you the loan -- will be repaid in part by that income, regardless of what you make or how you chose to file in order to scoop up other government handouts.
Geez.
