Articles Posted in Student loans

Published on:

Christie_1One major piece of litigation supported by a non-profit group has just been filed – so it will be awhile before we have any answers.

This legal complaint, filed on September 9, 2025, by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and several individual plaintiffs against the U.S. Department of Education and its Secretary, Linda McMahon, alleges that the Department is unlawfully withholding access to and benefits from federal student loan income-driven repayment (IDR) plans and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.

Here’s a summary of the key points:

Published on:

Christie_1If you are concerned or have questions about how many months you have in IDR credit from past federal student loan payments or even forbearances under the IDR Recount, you can check online here:  (this applies to those with counts toward PSLF as well).  In our opinion, this is a better avenue for an accurate assessment than trying the ombudsman office right now or your servicer.

Step 1) Log in to studentaid.gov

Step 2) Open another browser tab and go to https://studentaid.gov/app/api/nslds/payment-counter/summary

Published on:

Christie_1We are hearing numerous reports of  surprise billing by student loan servicers especially now that SAVE is no longer an option.  Or the checking account is being hit with a standard repayment amount rather than an IBR payment based upon someone’s income.  If f you have permitted auto billing in the past, you may be surprised by a charge out of the blue for an unexpected amount.

A tip to help avoid this situation is to set up a separate checking account to obtain the .25% auto pay deduction.  This will avoid a surprise payment and a cascade of NSF fees that could result.

To Schedule a Consultation
Published on:

Christie_1Folks are reporting that they are being asked to make a large student loan payment – but they in in a long queue waiting for their Income Driven Plan (IDR) application to be processed.   This is happening because if a payment isn’t being made, the loan defaults to the Standard payment plan (which is usually very high).

You need to request administrative forbearance while the IDR application is pending.  It’s supposed to happen automatically, but often doesn’t.  Don’t wait until your credit score is hit to do this please!

To Schedule a Consultation
Published on:

Christie_1So 7.7 million borrowers are in a SAVE forbearance.  That means no payment, no interest since the courts applied the SAVE injunction last July (2024).

Lots of questions about what borrowers should do now.  We just did an interview with ABC Action News this a.m. that will run tonight.  Here’s the link to that story.

If you can’t afford to make any payment now, then stay on the SAVE forbearance as long as you can.  Servicers are beginning to shift people off SAVE forbearance but it may be another month or two before they can get to you.  It’s incredibly unlikely that someone can just stay on a SAVE forbearance long term.  SAVE has ended.  No doubt about that.

Published on:

Christie_1Those with federal student loans have had a five year reprieve for collections on federal student debt.  We are seeing more delinquencies as people do not not realize they were due to make a payment and for those borrowers who cannot afford to make a payment now.

There may be relief (talk to us about your specific circumstances) but settlement is likely not an option for most.  The Department of Education has very strict limits on settlement of federal student loans:

  1. 100% of current principal and interest (better credit reporting)
Published on:

Christie_1The IDR payment tracker was removed from many if not all borrower’s studentaid.gov sites today.

You can still find your payment count however.  Write your servicer directly for it or use this direct  link after you’ve logged onto StudentAid.gov:  https://studentaid.gov/app/api/nslds/payment-counter/summary​.

This link shows in a computer code format called JSON which you can’t read.  But if you copy it into an AI tool such as ChatGPT, Claude or any of the others, it can be translated into regular English.

Published on:

We are hearing from multiple sources that federal student loan borrowers IDR progress will be removed from the government site next week.  It’s imperative that you screenshot your IDR progress in case you need it down the road.  This is on studentaid.gov and looks like this:

student-aid-IDR-count

Go ahead and view your IDR progress and screenshot every screen with info.  Don’t wait – do it now please!

Screenshot Your IDR Progress Today

Published on:

Christie_1We’re hearing a lot of people are finding out their student loans are delinquent – another today that received a 90 day late and had no idea they were out of deferment.

The dings to your credit are not small — we had a client recently who had four student loan accounts (not unusual at all) and the hit to his credit was 200 points.

You can imagine what a 200 point hit will do especially when it’s unexpected!

Published on:

Christie_1The IDR online application is back up, though a demo revealed there are some big new restrictions on enrollments:

  • No enrollment in SAVE
  • No opportunity to request enrollment in the plan with the lowest monthly payment
Contact Information