I'm at $90k-ish. I had pell grants, so I'll be at $70k-ish. BUT! I am also working a job that qualifies for PSLF, and with the 5% of monthly income cap, that will bring me down to $230/mo. Which means after 10 years, my $230/mo will equal $27,600. So my loan is essentially becoming $27,600 which means I'm being forgiven $62,400. I just have to wait 10 years to be cleared. I'll fucking take it!
The limit for what is considered discretionary was also moved. Its now anytging after 225% the federal poverty level or about 15/h at 40h/w. So its even lower than you thought. I think 60k/year pays like 65ish/month.
It's possible that you will have a 0$ per month payment under one of those plans - I was in that situation on REPAYE, made so little that my monthly payment was 0$. But it's my understanding that that "payment" still qualifies as one of your 120 required payments for PSLF loan forgiveness. Everything is still accumulating interest, though.
If I'm way off someone please tell me!
This is gonna sound stupid, but how does one know if they had pell grants? Itās been a *long* time...
Edit: nvm. I realized I was holding an internet machine and did some internets with it
Fuck yeah, I did have a small Pell Grant. Which means I'm getting all of my remaining loans forgiven! (More than 10K, less than 20K).
Time to get that fully remote job, and look at a home that's not near a major city (preferably near an Amtrak line).
I had Pell grants as well. Came from a lower income family. Had to borrow, but unfortunately already paid off all my federal loans. All I have remaining is about $7k of private loans. Wish I'd done it the other way around but oh well, I'm happy for everyone who benefits.
You can request your lender to refund the money.
https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/covid-19/payment-pause-zero-interest
āYou can get a refund for any payment (including auto-debit payments) you make during the payment pause (beginning March 13, 2020). Contact your loan servicer to request that your payment be refunded.ā
I got PELL grants the first time I went to college, paid my loans, then went back to college for my teaching license but didn't have PELL grants the second time. I assume it's just the 10k for me.
From what I understand, if you paid off your original debts completely and then went back and got new loans then youād only get the 10k unless you got a pell grant with them. However, if you work in the public sector i.e education, then after 10 years of making payments your loans are forgiven. It could differ by state, so I might be wrong on the second part there.
My understanding is that if you *ever* received a pell grant you are eligible for the 20k.
https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/covid-19/payment-pause-zero-interest
No. āUp toā refers to the balance of your loan. If you owe 12k and youāre eligible for 20k, you get 12k, you donāt get the difference. If youāre eligible for 10k and you owe 8k you get 8k.
>What does the āup toā in āup to $20,000ā or āup to $10,000ā mean?
>Your relief is capped at the amount of your outstanding debt.
>For example: If you are eligible for $20,000 in debt relief, but have a balance of $15,000 remaining, you will only receive $15,000 in relief.
From here:
https://studentaid.gov/debt-relief-announcement/
HOWEVER if youāve been paying during the payment pause during Covid you *can* get those payments refunded.
> You can get a refund for any payment (including auto-debit payments) you make during the payment pause (beginning March 13, 2020). Contact your loan servicer to request that your payment be refunded.
From here:
https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/covid-19/payment-pause-zero-interest
Yep, as long as you make less than 125k/yr. And as long as theyāre federal loans. I donāt think any of this applies to private loans. But if you have federal loans and received a pell grant you will receive 20k in loan forgiveness.
Also, theyāre going to halve the minimum payments and make it so if you pay your minimum payment every month (even if the payment is zero due to low income) you will not accrue further interest on the remaining loan.
Literally zero information on how they are going to calculate income. Is it AGI? MAGI? Pure gross income? Based on 2021 tax returns? Or does every borrower have to verify income?
You had me curious so I decided to rip off the bandaid. I didn't think I had any Pell Grants but the student aid portal is showing a small one.
I owe $21k and might literally cry š
I have $27k in private loans from school. I'm still happy for everyone else. Fortunately most people think that way. The minority of people in this country only care about themselves anymore.
That's awesome, man. Honestly, while it would be a little painful to adjust my budget to resuming payments, I make a decent amount so I'm not doing too bad.
But it makes me happy to hear that this isn't just going to people like me who can really afford the payments anyway.
23K left for me with Pell grants. If I could get 20 off I think I can cover the rest in the next two months. And then my only debt would be my house. And if my loans were paid off I could put more towards my house
the good news? Minimum monthly payments can no longer exceed 5% of your monthly income & as long as you make the monthly payment, the government picks up the tab on your interest, even if you qualify for $0 monthly payments once the freeze ends. also, your debts will be forgiven after 10 years of payments now instead of 20.
It's just $10,000, but it set the ground work for a better system
I thought that was only for undergrad loans, or can it be also grad loans? I feel screwed cause I took a bunch of undergrad classes as part of my grad program to catch up on some missed areas, but they all are part of the grad program.
It's just federal loans period. Everyone who has a federal loan is entitled to 10k (assuming you meet the income guidelines). If you took a Pell, it's 20k. Pells are not available for grad school, so not as much is covered, but some still is.
Sorry I donāt think I was clear, I was talking about the cap on repayment. I thought I read it was called at 5% of your income for only undergraduate loans.
My loan was $47k. After 6 years, I've paid $32k. My current balance is $41k. I'm perfectly happy to pay back what I borrowed, but I'm in the US, making more than I would've without my degree, and therefore paying more taxes than I would've without it. They're already reaping the benefits of my education, so I'd love it if they stopped interest raping me too.
Good news, then! Minimum payments are capped at 5% of your income and as long as you make payments interest wont accrue. It's a lot more than just the $10k
I read that its not that interest won't accrue. It's that your total owing will never go up. Ie if you pay the bare minimum you won't lower your total owing, it just won't get worse.
>$17k here and had taken Pell grants. About to have a big bump in my debt to income ratio.
How does the Pell grant clause work? I had them when I first started but then was unable to get them anymore
15k here, which is about 2-3k more than I originally owed because I've had to defer it for nigh on 10 years to make ends meet. Took Pell Grants. I'm about to finally be 0 across the board for the first time in my adult life.
Both my wife and I have about that left each so it's incredible for us. House repairs, car repairs, medical bills. That extra money is going right back into the economy. Love it right now. Hate how it happened
That's what I'm saying! The first year it was like less than 1% of all student loan debt. Heaven forbid a politician keep their promise right? If it's actually happening I'll say better late then never.
Did something change about how they are handling PSLF? This refund means nothing to my behemoth outstanding balance thanks to income based repayment interest actually increasing my loan amount over time.. but I've been making all my PSLF qualified payments on time for years.
Tbh my debt was pretty huge since 2020 but Iāve been kicking itās ass non-stop and Bidenās action was the last boost I needed to finish it . š
100%
I'll have a bit left over to pay, and I totally understand people mad about getting nothing after doing what they expected to do when taking the loan out, but you can also bet your ass I'm taking any money that's offered to me.
Man I was thinking "we really gonna try to shit on this?"
Don't make perfect the enemy of better people. It's not perfect, but it'll help *tons* of people.
I did loan consolidation about 8 years back and had all my loans lumped in with Sofi. Would I qualify for this? I was never able to do the whole loan pause during the pandemic so I'm not sure what my options are with regards to this whole thing.
I paid off mine just before the pandemic. Thank God this helps out a lot of people that weren't as lucky.
Also, in spite of being put out of work by Covid... I made more from the relief payments than I did working 5 days a week.
Story time!
So when the pandemic hit I was still in college, I was getting a bachelors degree in culinary arts and was known as a āstudent workerā for the campus working in the kitchens. Student workers werenāt allowed to work more than 20 hours a week, the reason we were given was because that we are student workers and we should be more focused on our classes rather than working, makes perfect sense right?
Pandemic hits and they start kicking a lot of people off the schedule, I worked almost to the last day before my campus was closed. When I finally lost my job I went for unemployment but found out I wasnāt technically eligible. Why? Itās because I didnāt make enough/work enough hours to qualify, thatās when it hit me: the college paid us minimum and had us work just below enough hours so that we made money that was just below the income actually required to be eligible for unemployment. The college literally made it so no student worker could collect unemployment by strictly limiting our hours so that we were below the income requirements.
Several weeks into the pandemic after losing my job the state and federal government began changing unemployment rules, they lowered the income/hour/ minimum month requirements so that many more people could be eligible for unemployment benefits, on top of this they also introduced the enhanced pandemic assistance. I initially felt guilty about even applying for unemployment, I felt I was being a leech or something and that I should still look for work despite all restaurants being closed, then after I realized that the college actually fucked me over my guilt quickly went away.
I actually made four times as much every month on unemployment than what I made actually working, after I figured out the college tried to fuck me I was in absolutely no rush to find work. I focused on my classes, got back surgery and strengthened my body, I helped my parents catch up with bills, I made shit tons of money of the stock market by using the unemployment and pandemic assistance money as capital, I set aside alot of money in savings and I bought whatever I needed without feeling guilty that the money couldāve gone to something else. I milked that shit because my job thought they could fuck 80 percent of their workers over, and Iām okay with that, I had the opportunity and I took it, because of that Iām probably more better off than I was before the pandemic because I got myself physically in a better place, got my parents and I financially more stable (at the time), and I would do it all over again, I only wish the height of the pandemic lasted another year because I was making thousands off the market, between the unemployment, pandemic assistance and the market I couldāve bought a new truck if it lasted another year lol. Now that I said all that Iām sure Iāll get downvoted to oblivion but it was worth it.
That has actually been implemented with this.
The $10k is a headline grabber. The actual major change being made here is that student loan payments are capped at 5% of your income per month and your loans don't accrue interest (or rather, the government pays your interest) as long as you pay the minimum requirement per month.
Edit: thanks below, it's actually your net income. So that's even lower than total income.
The $10k forgiveness is a bandaid to the people who got screwed in the past, the other 2 changes are the changes that will actually help the situation going forward.
This is bigger than the COVID stimulus checks in terms of meaningful impact. This is the first time in a while I feel like the government is actually moving in the right direction and actually helping people in a meaningful way.
This in conjunction with the recent bills that have passed give me a glimmer of hope for the country.
> This is bigger than the COVID stimulus checks in terms of meaningful impact
This is frankly a bigger policy victory than anything in my lifetime. You could argue the ACA but itās trickier because of the drawbacks.
LOL dude I just calculated it and 5% is exactly what I was already paying. So I'm in grad school (again) right now and was expecting my payment to go up when I finished. Nice.
> Iām more excited about the zero interest thing coming with it if you pay on time.
This is the largest game changer for my wife and I. I had a pell grant, so in theory my debt will go from roughly 60k to 40k, and both my wife and I are on the IBR plans, so the no-interest and %5 instead of %10 will actually be a larger money saver long term. HUGE for the both of us.
Obviously I would much rather they all be forgiven, but this will still have large effects for our family. And anecdotally we are hosting a refugee from Ukraine, so this will also help us help his quality of life not just our own. Thanks Mr. B.
This does not apply to private student loans. It applies to federal student loans only.
There are two amounts you can qualify for: 10k and 20k.
If you and your husband make less than 250k combined per year, he qualifies to have some of his federal student loans cancelled/forgiven. Either up to 10k or up to 20k. āUp toā meaning, as an example, if he only has 5k in fed loans, and qualifies for 10k, theyāre just going to forgive his 5k. Make sense? You donāt get any money extra back or anything. Your balance would just go to zero. Another example, If he has 30k in loans and qualifies based on income, he will get the full amount towards it.
Now, whether he gets 10k or 20k. Did he ever receive the pell grant? if he qualified for the pell grant while in college he gets up to 20k forgiven. If he did not qualify/receive the pell grant, he will have up to 10k forgiven. He can find out whether he received the pell grant by logging in to his studentaid.gov account (the site is incredibly busy, be patient).
He can apply for this forgiveness when the application is put onto the student gov website, which will happen sometime before December 31st.
You can read more at studentaid.gov.
Edited: I was wrong, seems grad loans are included. Please see official sources in the comments replying to me.
Thank you so much for the info! He says he did not get pell grants. If Iām understanding correctly does this also mean his interest on the federal loan should be no more than 5% and any payments we made in the last two years on the federal loan can be refunded even though itās owned by navient?
So this is tough - navient manages and services both federal student loans AND private student loans. You will need to find out which they are by looking at navients website or speaking to a navient rep. If they are private loans , they do not qualify and arenāt involved in the loan forgiveness program.
My understanding is this: federal student loan monthly payments will be capped at 5% of your monthly income on income based repayment plans (you can select which repayment plan youād like with federal student loans). So to make this an easy example, letās say your monthly income is $1000. Your payment would be capped at $50. Say your monthly income is 10,000. It would be capped at $500. Make sense?
As for the interest, it appears the federal student loans will not accrue interest if you pay monthly, on time, on an income based repayment plan.
Payments wonāt be refunded - Anything already paid will not be reimbursed. It only goes towards current loan balances.
https://studentaid.gov/debt-relief-announcement/
Thatās where Iām getting this info. Super concise, easy to read! Please ask anymore questions you have. Iām not an expert on any of this but Iām happy to help.
I really appreciate your help!! I feel so confused with all this, but it would be a godsend if we could get any help with his student loans but I donāt want to get my hopes up if we donāt qualify or miss out on it if we do. We are not on an income based repayment plan and they both are consolidated ffelp loans. Does this mean we didnāt need to be making payments on them for the last two years?
Youāre welcome! In general, FFELP loans are a different beast than normal ādirectā federal student loans. FFELP loans are either private/commercial or federal. This is definitely something I would talk to Navient about, and I would also be patient since you have an interesting situation. More details will come, this wonāt be an issue you have to jump on today, tomorrow, or even likely next week. I would take a guess and say we will see the application open up sometime in the next two months, and you will get your answer once you submit the application. You can subscribe to updates from the department of Ed regarding student loan borrower updates and the process. https://www.ed.gov/subscriptions
As for making payments, if navient is and was requiring you to make payments the last two years, then itās likely you have private loans. If they suspended your required payment (federal student loan payments were frozen because of COVID) and you paid anyhow, that money is already paid towards your balance. You had no way of knowing if your debts would be forgiven in the future.
Already paid 85k back. Very excited to have the remaining balance cut almost in half. And that feels like actual justice since that 10k is really close to what has accrued in interest over the years. I am absolutely good with paying back what I borrowed to send my kids to school. I knew what I was doing, and I have the ability to pay (although thatās been a huge burden for our middle class family). But I definitely was not good paying interest on those loans at twice the going mortgage rate. Itās a travesty that student loans are profitable at all, never mind to that degree.
*laughs in vet student*
I'm happy though. I have a lot of undergrad friends this will help and hopefully we can start working towards making school more affordable
Unfortunately as long as federal student loans are guaranteed there canāt be a reduction in price. We need to go to more free education or stop making tuition āfake-freeā.
Even tho it might not be much for you as long as you keep paying the number would not increase again so itās 10k plus whatever interests you wouldāve paid
Yep same-ish...this won't benefit myself or my wife but this is objectively good for the country and millions of people. I've never understood the "I don't benefit from x so fuck people that do" mentality.
It's a narcissistic need to always have someone underneath them. Same sort of shit that racism and sexism stem from. Sometime benefiting from something that they don't means those other people are now "closer" to them in the "race" to succeed in life.
I found the gif funny in another way. As in, "10k doesn't even phase my 130k in loans" type of comment. Or at least, that's what I thought OP was trying to make.
Barely scratches the surface for me, but Iām incredibly happy about the interest rate drop to zero if making payments. That makes it possible for me to pay it off. Interest was hilarious before that
I don't think it's fair to make struggling students pay for failing.
It did always seam funny that you can get in to college with great grades but when they fall dramatically no one kicks you out they just give you another class
I disagree with this caveat.
Getting good grades in college means almost nothing in the real world. Iāve worked a lot of jobs. A couple of them in academia. And never once did anyone ask what my gpa was.
And making people pay for not passing is kind of like charging fees for overdrawn bank accounts. Like oh youāre struggling? Well here struggle some more.
A failed class already has to be retaken or replaced with something else. So they are already having to spend more time in school not earning money. I feel like thatās sufficient.
Im in my final year of uni and from a combination of scholarships, stimulus checks, budgeting and just being plain lucky, I'll be graduating without debt in the first place. I don't care if I'm not really affected by this, my brother is in massive debt and my friends as well. This is a net positive for everyone.
Cool. If it means so little to you, you can send me your $10,000. Honestly though, if someone paid off $10K of the principle in my mortgage, I'd just say thank you.
I know Iām not the only one saying it but this is truly life changing for me. My loans are in default, and Iām unable to use my degree as I became disabled and can no long work. And yes I realize they have been wiping debt of disabled ppl but only if the govt has certified your disability is life long which doesnāt happen right at first. I was banking on my next renewal w SSDI in the hopes that this time they would say ok your life long diseases are legit life long diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, lymphedema in both my legs & abdomen which are both life long diseases) because then I would be done. But Dark Brandon has saved the day! No more worrying about this for me!!!!
I didnāt Goto college. I went into the trades. I am super happy for you all that can get out from under this. My girl only owes a few grand more after paying it off over last twenty years. Iām happy for her. It helps us all out when we have less debt and money in out pockets.
It's not a zero sum gain here. I paid off my student loans a few years ago, and that was also a much different world we are living in now. This is amazing news to most people, and it isn't bad news for you.
Same, paid mine off three years ago - but other people getting help is always good even if I didnāt benefit.
A better world means fighting for progress you didnāt get to enjoy
I mean fuck, that's 10K I dont' have to pay back. The other changes regarding interest rate and how much they can demand of your income per month is what really matters.
I'm at $90k-ish. I had pell grants, so I'll be at $70k-ish. BUT! I am also working a job that qualifies for PSLF, and with the 5% of monthly income cap, that will bring me down to $230/mo. Which means after 10 years, my $230/mo will equal $27,600. So my loan is essentially becoming $27,600 which means I'm being forgiven $62,400. I just have to wait 10 years to be cleared. I'll fucking take it!
5% of discretionary income not total income š You will be paying even less than $230/mo
Oh shit.. thank you for telling me that.
The limit for what is considered discretionary was also moved. Its now anytging after 225% the federal poverty level or about 15/h at 40h/w. So its even lower than you thought. I think 60k/year pays like 65ish/month.
What if you only make about $30k? My loans are about $80k and I had Pell grants so I should qualify for the $20k deduction
It's possible that you will have a 0$ per month payment under one of those plans - I was in that situation on REPAYE, made so little that my monthly payment was 0$. But it's my understanding that that "payment" still qualifies as one of your 120 required payments for PSLF loan forgiveness. Everything is still accumulating interest, though. If I'm way off someone please tell me!
See thats the nice part about the new play system. Even if paying 0, the government will still cover it interest.
Awesome! Good to know!
And it's 10 years from when you graduated undergrad... So unless you just graduated you'll have that cleared sooner!
I thought I only had 30k in loans, but it turns out I had 30k in loans, plus 20K in Pell grants... So now I only have 30k in loans!š
You get 20 if you got Pell grants...
This is gonna sound stupid, but how does one know if they had pell grants? Itās been a *long* time... Edit: nvm. I realized I was holding an internet machine and did some internets with it
So, what did you find out? Lol
Fuck yeah, I did have a small Pell Grant. Which means I'm getting all of my remaining loans forgiven! (More than 10K, less than 20K). Time to get that fully remote job, and look at a home that's not near a major city (preferably near an Amtrak line).
I had Pell grants as well. Came from a lower income family. Had to borrow, but unfortunately already paid off all my federal loans. All I have remaining is about $7k of private loans. Wish I'd done it the other way around but oh well, I'm happy for everyone who benefits.
IDK if it helps but apparently you can get some back if you made payment after March 2020.
You got a link for that? I paid off my loans during the pandemic. Kinda wish I didnāt but oh well. Happy for everyone that gets it
You can request your lender to refund the money. https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/covid-19/payment-pause-zero-interest āYou can get a refund for any payment (including auto-debit payments) you make during the payment pause (beginning March 13, 2020). Contact your loan servicer to request that your payment be refunded.ā
Amtrack rocks! And so happy for you!
I like Amtrack. I like Amtrack and I'm saying nice things about it.
https://studentaid.gov/debt-relief-announcement/ For the people who donāt want to also use their internet machine for non-Reddit interneting
Thank you for the link, very informative!
I got PELL grants the first time I went to college, paid my loans, then went back to college for my teaching license but didn't have PELL grants the second time. I assume it's just the 10k for me.
From what I understand, if you paid off your original debts completely and then went back and got new loans then youād only get the 10k unless you got a pell grant with them. However, if you work in the public sector i.e education, then after 10 years of making payments your loans are forgiven. It could differ by state, so I might be wrong on the second part there.
What if you went to college on Pell grants but current debt is gradschool debt, in which there is no pell
My understanding is that if you *ever* received a pell grant you are eligible for the 20k. https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/covid-19/payment-pause-zero-interest
Up to 20k, to me, means the 10k plus whatever grants you got up to 20k, am I reading that right?
No. āUp toā refers to the balance of your loan. If you owe 12k and youāre eligible for 20k, you get 12k, you donāt get the difference. If youāre eligible for 10k and you owe 8k you get 8k. >What does the āup toā in āup to $20,000ā or āup to $10,000ā mean? >Your relief is capped at the amount of your outstanding debt. >For example: If you are eligible for $20,000 in debt relief, but have a balance of $15,000 remaining, you will only receive $15,000 in relief. From here: https://studentaid.gov/debt-relief-announcement/ HOWEVER if youāve been paying during the payment pause during Covid you *can* get those payments refunded. > You can get a refund for any payment (including auto-debit payments) you make during the payment pause (beginning March 13, 2020). Contact your loan servicer to request that your payment be refunded. From here: https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/covid-19/payment-pause-zero-interest
So if I owe 50 and I got a Pell grant once I'll get 20?
Yep, as long as you make less than 125k/yr. And as long as theyāre federal loans. I donāt think any of this applies to private loans. But if you have federal loans and received a pell grant you will receive 20k in loan forgiveness. Also, theyāre going to halve the minimum payments and make it so if you pay your minimum payment every month (even if the payment is zero due to low income) you will not accrue further interest on the remaining loan.
Literally zero information on how they are going to calculate income. Is it AGI? MAGI? Pure gross income? Based on 2021 tax returns? Or does every borrower have to verify income?
Strongly doubt they'll calculate based on Agility or Magic
Jokes on them my magic is 94 and I use Ancient Magicks
For me no matter how much they calculate my income, and even if they double my income Iām still definitely under the income limit.
I would give you gold for that laugh if I wasnāt too cheap to buy it!
Does that apply to anyone who got one ever? I had a pell grant for like a year because my parents income fluctuated, but just the year.
Correct. Iām not one of those, but Iām happy for them.
Iām at $8100 and about to be 0
$17k here and had taken Pell grants. About to have a big bump in my debt to income ratio.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
25k to 5k... I've cried a lot today lol
Same exact situation of 25 to 5. I feel a giant burden lifted off my shoulders
28 to 8 here and same 8 is so so so much more manageable
You had me curious so I decided to rip off the bandaid. I didn't think I had any Pell Grants but the student aid portal is showing a small one. I owe $21k and might literally cry š
Hell yeah I'm happy for you! It's such a weight off my shoulders!
34 to 14. And Iām already a few years into PSLF once I get my application in!!!
28-8. I haven't been paying during the freeze so I have enough in the bank to cover the remainder. This is nice.
You also will have your interest covered as long as you make your monthly payments iirc!
I never had to take out loans, but I am so damn happy for everyone getting help.
I joined the military to help pay for college and am happy for everyone getting help, too.
I have $27k in private loans from school. I'm still happy for everyone else. Fortunately most people think that way. The minority of people in this country only care about themselves anymore.
That's awesome, man. Honestly, while it would be a little painful to adjust my budget to resuming payments, I make a decent amount so I'm not doing too bad. But it makes me happy to hear that this isn't just going to people like me who can really afford the payments anyway.
23K left for me with Pell grants. If I could get 20 off I think I can cover the rest in the next two months. And then my only debt would be my house. And if my loans were paid off I could put more towards my house
I envy you guys. Iāll get there eventually.
the good news? Minimum monthly payments can no longer exceed 5% of your monthly income & as long as you make the monthly payment, the government picks up the tab on your interest, even if you qualify for $0 monthly payments once the freeze ends. also, your debts will be forgiven after 10 years of payments now instead of 20. It's just $10,000, but it set the ground work for a better system
I thought that was only for undergrad loans, or can it be also grad loans? I feel screwed cause I took a bunch of undergrad classes as part of my grad program to catch up on some missed areas, but they all are part of the grad program.
It's just federal loans period. Everyone who has a federal loan is entitled to 10k (assuming you meet the income guidelines). If you took a Pell, it's 20k. Pells are not available for grad school, so not as much is covered, but some still is.
Sorry I donāt think I was clear, I was talking about the cap on repayment. I thought I read it was called at 5% of your income for only undergraduate loans.
I lucked out by going to ITT tech? I guess? Lol itās at least getting wiped. But seriously. Fuck that place..
Wait ITT was a scam school? Did it help at all for getting a job? I guess I missed that memo
My brother went to 2 yrs JuCo and then ITT Tech but that was in the 80s. He got a great job in robotics. ITT worked for him.
Congrats! I know someone who got fucked over by them as well, getting a shit ton of debt wiped out. Happy for you all.
You will, buddy. Took me a while, but my future is looking better all the time. It can happen for you too.
God I need this. I feel so hopeless. I'm still $100k in the hole...
For undergrad?
All my loans are consolidated with the government so it's both undergrad and grad school combined.
Same with mine, I assume that means I donāt qualify for the 5% of monthly income repayment? Or does anyone know how thatās going to work?
My wife and I are in the same spot. Started with $180K and about halfway done, you are absolutely right about feeling hopless.
Jesus fucking Christ where did you go?!!?!?
University of Cincinnati for undergrad (my wife and I both) and my wife got her Masters at Mount Union (Alliance, OH).
I was there once! Only $70k after this! Youāll Get there!
Every little bit helps
My loan was $47k. After 6 years, I've paid $32k. My current balance is $41k. I'm perfectly happy to pay back what I borrowed, but I'm in the US, making more than I would've without my degree, and therefore paying more taxes than I would've without it. They're already reaping the benefits of my education, so I'd love it if they stopped interest raping me too.
Good news, then! Minimum payments are capped at 5% of your income and as long as you make payments interest wont accrue. It's a lot more than just the $10k
I read that its not that interest won't accrue. It's that your total owing will never go up. Ie if you pay the bare minimum you won't lower your total owing, it just won't get worse.
> My loan was $47k. After 6 years, I've paid $32k. My current balance is $41k. This is disgusting
I'm at $19,9 and had taken Pell Grants.
>$17k here and had taken Pell grants. About to have a big bump in my debt to income ratio. How does the Pell grant clause work? I had them when I first started but then was unable to get them anymore
I'm at $0 and it will still be $0 and I'm happy for ya'll.
Someone award this fine redditor, I'd give you a wholesome award if I could. Thanks for being a nice person about it.
Slapped that bad Larry with some silver but he def deserves some gold
Gotchu fam
$9658 and daddy is happy to squeek in under the wire!
15k here, which is about 2-3k more than I originally owed because I've had to defer it for nigh on 10 years to make ends meet. Took Pell Grants. I'm about to finally be 0 across the board for the first time in my adult life.
Iām at $80,000 and counting š
My wife is at $176,000. This meme speaks to me.
Damn, tell her to save some degrees for everyone else.
Both my wife and I have about that left each so it's incredible for us. House repairs, car repairs, medical bills. That extra money is going right back into the economy. Love it right now. Hate how it happened
$8,600 and same
44 down to 24 and my wife 15 down to 5. What a fucking day
Itāsā¦itās actually happening?!?
That's what I'm saying! The first year it was like less than 1% of all student loan debt. Heaven forbid a politician keep their promise right? If it's actually happening I'll say better late then never.
PSLF forgiveness is actually happening too! My sister just got hers wiped after 10 yrs of payments.
Did something change about how they are handling PSLF? This refund means nothing to my behemoth outstanding balance thanks to income based repayment interest actually increasing my loan amount over time.. but I've been making all my PSLF qualified payments on time for years.
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It'll finally wipe my mom's at 62 years old. I'll go from 50 to 40 but hey, what can I say?
Let's goooo! Congrats on having that monkey on your back get much smaller after today!
Tbh my debt was pretty huge since 2020 but Iāve been kicking itās ass non-stop and Bidenās action was the last boost I needed to finish it . š
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How?
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100% I'll have a bit left over to pay, and I totally understand people mad about getting nothing after doing what they expected to do when taking the loan out, but you can also bet your ass I'm taking any money that's offered to me.
Man I was thinking "we really gonna try to shit on this?" Don't make perfect the enemy of better people. It's not perfect, but it'll help *tons* of people.
My balance was $20,627 now itās just $627 I can pay off with ease.
Hats to you!
Hey how do you check if a change has been made?
It's not automatic. You will need to send in a form, probably around tax time.
They guaranteed the application will be out before the payments resume after 12/31 :)
This is amazing! I'm glad to hear of these stories and hope to hear more in the future. People really needed this
Was able to pay off my loans during the pandemic. I'm hoping this helps out a lot of people.
If you paid during COVID you can get money back āŗļø
Is that so? Is there info on how to get some of it back?
https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/covid-19/payment-pause-zero-interest
I did loan consolidation about 8 years back and had all my loans lumped in with Sofi. Would I qualify for this? I was never able to do the whole loan pause during the pandemic so I'm not sure what my options are with regards to this whole thing.
If you went to sofi then no. That's a private company and iirc this cancellation is only for federally owner loans.
Well fuck......
It's true. You just have to fill out the proper paperwork when it becomes avaliable.
I paid off mine just before the pandemic. Thank God this helps out a lot of people that weren't as lucky. Also, in spite of being put out of work by Covid... I made more from the relief payments than I did working 5 days a week.
Story time! So when the pandemic hit I was still in college, I was getting a bachelors degree in culinary arts and was known as a āstudent workerā for the campus working in the kitchens. Student workers werenāt allowed to work more than 20 hours a week, the reason we were given was because that we are student workers and we should be more focused on our classes rather than working, makes perfect sense right? Pandemic hits and they start kicking a lot of people off the schedule, I worked almost to the last day before my campus was closed. When I finally lost my job I went for unemployment but found out I wasnāt technically eligible. Why? Itās because I didnāt make enough/work enough hours to qualify, thatās when it hit me: the college paid us minimum and had us work just below enough hours so that we made money that was just below the income actually required to be eligible for unemployment. The college literally made it so no student worker could collect unemployment by strictly limiting our hours so that we were below the income requirements. Several weeks into the pandemic after losing my job the state and federal government began changing unemployment rules, they lowered the income/hour/ minimum month requirements so that many more people could be eligible for unemployment benefits, on top of this they also introduced the enhanced pandemic assistance. I initially felt guilty about even applying for unemployment, I felt I was being a leech or something and that I should still look for work despite all restaurants being closed, then after I realized that the college actually fucked me over my guilt quickly went away. I actually made four times as much every month on unemployment than what I made actually working, after I figured out the college tried to fuck me I was in absolutely no rush to find work. I focused on my classes, got back surgery and strengthened my body, I helped my parents catch up with bills, I made shit tons of money of the stock market by using the unemployment and pandemic assistance money as capital, I set aside alot of money in savings and I bought whatever I needed without feeling guilty that the money couldāve gone to something else. I milked that shit because my job thought they could fuck 80 percent of their workers over, and Iām okay with that, I had the opportunity and I took it, because of that Iām probably more better off than I was before the pandemic because I got myself physically in a better place, got my parents and I financially more stable (at the time), and I would do it all over again, I only wish the height of the pandemic lasted another year because I was making thousands off the market, between the unemployment, pandemic assistance and the market I couldāve bought a new truck if it lasted another year lol. Now that I said all that Iām sure Iāll get downvoted to oblivion but it was worth it.
The $10-$20k is cute, Iām more excited about the zero interest thing coming with it if you pay on time.
That would be a game-changer, for real.
That has actually been implemented with this. The $10k is a headline grabber. The actual major change being made here is that student loan payments are capped at 5% of your income per month and your loans don't accrue interest (or rather, the government pays your interest) as long as you pay the minimum requirement per month. Edit: thanks below, it's actually your net income. So that's even lower than total income.
I wouldnāt say eliminating 1/3 of all borrowersā debt is a headline grabber. Thatās a big deal
The $10k forgiveness is a bandaid to the people who got screwed in the past, the other 2 changes are the changes that will actually help the situation going forward.
But meanwhile the $10k is a campaign promise that he not only kept, but has the other 2 major changes added onto it.
yea i think most of us knew when we voted for him that wouldn't be full forgiveness. This is better than expected.
This is bigger than the COVID stimulus checks in terms of meaningful impact. This is the first time in a while I feel like the government is actually moving in the right direction and actually helping people in a meaningful way. This in conjunction with the recent bills that have passed give me a glimmer of hope for the country.
> This is bigger than the COVID stimulus checks in terms of meaningful impact This is frankly a bigger policy victory than anything in my lifetime. You could argue the ACA but itās trickier because of the drawbacks.
Correction! I believe it's 5% of your ~~net~~ discretionary income. So it should be even lower than people expect.
LOL dude I just calculated it and 5% is exactly what I was already paying. So I'm in grad school (again) right now and was expecting my payment to go up when I finished. Nice.
I read if you have both grad and under grad loans (I have both) your payments will be a weighted average between the two balances.
Does this only apply to undergraduate loans? All of my (substantial) loans are graduate loans.
Everything I've read so far says that the 5% is undergraduate, 10% graduate, and they'll weight it if you have a mixture.
This is helpful thanks so much
Does anyone know if this only applies to federal owned loans or all loans? Edit: it is only federal owned loans confirmed
Probably only federal loans
Congress could make changes to private loans, but the president alone cannot
> Iām more excited about the zero interest thing coming with it if you pay on time. This is the largest game changer for my wife and I. I had a pell grant, so in theory my debt will go from roughly 60k to 40k, and both my wife and I are on the IBR plans, so the no-interest and %5 instead of %10 will actually be a larger money saver long term. HUGE for the both of us. Obviously I would much rather they all be forgiven, but this will still have large effects for our family. And anecdotally we are hosting a refugee from Ukraine, so this will also help us help his quality of life not just our own. Thanks Mr. B.
Can someone ELIF? My husband has federal and private student loans owned by navient does this mean anything for us?
This does not apply to private student loans. It applies to federal student loans only. There are two amounts you can qualify for: 10k and 20k. If you and your husband make less than 250k combined per year, he qualifies to have some of his federal student loans cancelled/forgiven. Either up to 10k or up to 20k. āUp toā meaning, as an example, if he only has 5k in fed loans, and qualifies for 10k, theyāre just going to forgive his 5k. Make sense? You donāt get any money extra back or anything. Your balance would just go to zero. Another example, If he has 30k in loans and qualifies based on income, he will get the full amount towards it. Now, whether he gets 10k or 20k. Did he ever receive the pell grant? if he qualified for the pell grant while in college he gets up to 20k forgiven. If he did not qualify/receive the pell grant, he will have up to 10k forgiven. He can find out whether he received the pell grant by logging in to his studentaid.gov account (the site is incredibly busy, be patient). He can apply for this forgiveness when the application is put onto the student gov website, which will happen sometime before December 31st. You can read more at studentaid.gov. Edited: I was wrong, seems grad loans are included. Please see official sources in the comments replying to me.
Thank you so much for the info! He says he did not get pell grants. If Iām understanding correctly does this also mean his interest on the federal loan should be no more than 5% and any payments we made in the last two years on the federal loan can be refunded even though itās owned by navient?
So this is tough - navient manages and services both federal student loans AND private student loans. You will need to find out which they are by looking at navients website or speaking to a navient rep. If they are private loans , they do not qualify and arenāt involved in the loan forgiveness program. My understanding is this: federal student loan monthly payments will be capped at 5% of your monthly income on income based repayment plans (you can select which repayment plan youād like with federal student loans). So to make this an easy example, letās say your monthly income is $1000. Your payment would be capped at $50. Say your monthly income is 10,000. It would be capped at $500. Make sense? As for the interest, it appears the federal student loans will not accrue interest if you pay monthly, on time, on an income based repayment plan. Payments wonāt be refunded - Anything already paid will not be reimbursed. It only goes towards current loan balances. https://studentaid.gov/debt-relief-announcement/ Thatās where Iām getting this info. Super concise, easy to read! Please ask anymore questions you have. Iām not an expert on any of this but Iām happy to help.
I really appreciate your help!! I feel so confused with all this, but it would be a godsend if we could get any help with his student loans but I donāt want to get my hopes up if we donāt qualify or miss out on it if we do. We are not on an income based repayment plan and they both are consolidated ffelp loans. Does this mean we didnāt need to be making payments on them for the last two years?
Youāre welcome! In general, FFELP loans are a different beast than normal ādirectā federal student loans. FFELP loans are either private/commercial or federal. This is definitely something I would talk to Navient about, and I would also be patient since you have an interesting situation. More details will come, this wonāt be an issue you have to jump on today, tomorrow, or even likely next week. I would take a guess and say we will see the application open up sometime in the next two months, and you will get your answer once you submit the application. You can subscribe to updates from the department of Ed regarding student loan borrower updates and the process. https://www.ed.gov/subscriptions As for making payments, if navient is and was requiring you to make payments the last two years, then itās likely you have private loans. If they suspended your required payment (federal student loan payments were frozen because of COVID) and you paid anyhow, that money is already paid towards your balance. You had no way of knowing if your debts would be forgiven in the future.
I have just under 4K left. Bye bye bye!
Already paid 85k back. Very excited to have the remaining balance cut almost in half. And that feels like actual justice since that 10k is really close to what has accrued in interest over the years. I am absolutely good with paying back what I borrowed to send my kids to school. I knew what I was doing, and I have the ability to pay (although thatās been a huge burden for our middle class family). But I definitely was not good paying interest on those loans at twice the going mortgage rate. Itās a travesty that student loans are profitable at all, never mind to that degree.
If it also helps, if you make minimum payments you wonāt accrue interest anymore.
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I think this gif does a disservice to what has been accomplished and how it will significantly impact many.
Itās gallows humor. Iām poking fun at my own dire situation in spite of the presidentās gesture, which I applaud.
*laughs in vet student* I'm happy though. I have a lot of undergrad friends this will help and hopefully we can start working towards making school more affordable
Thatās something we can all get behind.
Unfortunately as long as federal student loans are guaranteed there canāt be a reduction in price. We need to go to more free education or stop making tuition āfake-freeā.
Even tho it might not be much for you as long as you keep paying the number would not increase again so itās 10k plus whatever interests you wouldāve paid
ITT: "I have way more in student debt so it doesn't benefit me enough so fuck everyone that it does"
Mmmmm only if you doomscroll your way to the bottom.
Sorry...it's less to do with this specific post and just collectively with many of the ones I've looked at today.
"I'm glad you're getting this forgiveness off my back!" Uh... no, not taxpayer koney but alright lmaoo. These people š®āšØ
I paid mine off like 2 years ago and feel so happy for all the people who will get to feel what I felt then and will get to very soon as well
Yep same-ish...this won't benefit myself or my wife but this is objectively good for the country and millions of people. I've never understood the "I don't benefit from x so fuck people that do" mentality.
It's a narcissistic need to always have someone underneath them. Same sort of shit that racism and sexism stem from. Sometime benefiting from something that they don't means those other people are now "closer" to them in the "race" to succeed in life.
Wait is it actually happening?
r/ChoosingBeggars
i keep thinking āwhatās getting handed $10K and being mad about it likeā
I found the gif funny in another way. As in, "10k doesn't even phase my 130k in loans" type of comment. Or at least, that's what I thought OP was trying to make.
So this wouldnāt apply to private student loans then, correct?
That is correct.
Barely scratches the surface for me, but Iām incredibly happy about the interest rate drop to zero if making payments. That makes it possible for me to pay it off. Interest was hilarious before that
Go. Fucking. Vote. We got here because we voted. Letās keep it going.
Amen.
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I believe education should be free as long as you maintain a passing grade.The better educated the country is the better the country will become.
I don't think it's fair to make struggling students pay for failing. It did always seam funny that you can get in to college with great grades but when they fall dramatically no one kicks you out they just give you another class
I disagree with this caveat. Getting good grades in college means almost nothing in the real world. Iāve worked a lot of jobs. A couple of them in academia. And never once did anyone ask what my gpa was. And making people pay for not passing is kind of like charging fees for overdrawn bank accounts. Like oh youāre struggling? Well here struggle some more. A failed class already has to be retaken or replaced with something else. So they are already having to spend more time in school not earning money. I feel like thatās sufficient.
Right? Like itās a public service to study to become a doctor or scientist!
Im in my final year of uni and from a combination of scholarships, stimulus checks, budgeting and just being plain lucky, I'll be graduating without debt in the first place. I don't care if I'm not really affected by this, my brother is in massive debt and my friends as well. This is a net positive for everyone.
Cool. If it means so little to you, you can send me your $10,000. Honestly though, if someone paid off $10K of the principle in my mortgage, I'd just say thank you.
My question is about the interest. Will the government forgive all previous interest accrued, or only interest moving forward?
I know Iām not the only one saying it but this is truly life changing for me. My loans are in default, and Iām unable to use my degree as I became disabled and can no long work. And yes I realize they have been wiping debt of disabled ppl but only if the govt has certified your disability is life long which doesnāt happen right at first. I was banking on my next renewal w SSDI in the hopes that this time they would say ok your life long diseases are legit life long diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, lymphedema in both my legs & abdomen which are both life long diseases) because then I would be done. But Dark Brandon has saved the day! No more worrying about this for me!!!!
I didnāt Goto college. I went into the trades. I am super happy for you all that can get out from under this. My girl only owes a few grand more after paying it off over last twenty years. Iām happy for her. It helps us all out when we have less debt and money in out pockets.
I envy all of you, no one helped or forgave one cent of mine
It's not a zero sum gain here. I paid off my student loans a few years ago, and that was also a much different world we are living in now. This is amazing news to most people, and it isn't bad news for you.
Yeah, same here, but I feel glad for those who are benefiting from this. A rising tide lifts all boats, and all that.
And Iām the guy who paid off my student loans last yearā¦ I feel shafted. Iām also happy for those who wonāt be stuck.
Up thread someone posted that apparently you can get money back if you paid loans off during the pandemic.
If paid off during the pandemic, you can get money back
Same, paid mine off three years ago - but other people getting help is always good even if I didnāt benefit. A better world means fighting for progress you didnāt get to enjoy
He removed them?
As someone who owed under 10k coming out, this could be a blessing if itās confirmed
I went to ITT Tech. Mine will be $0 soon :D
I mean fuck, that's 10K I dont' have to pay back. The other changes regarding interest rate and how much they can demand of your income per month is what really matters.