Dear X,
Congratulations! The Biden-Harris Administration has forgiven your federal student loan(s) listed below with Nelnet in full.This debt relief was processed as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s one-time account adjustment because your student loan(s) have been in repayment of at least 20 or 25 years. An adjustment to your account updated the number of payments that qualify towards income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness. This forgiveness is effective as of 05/15/2020.
Log in to your account for details. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOWHere are some important points on this IDR forgiveness:
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How to Count Your Time Toward Student Loan Forgiveness under the IDR Recount
SAVE limitations?
For those of you facing repayment of federal student loans: some people are asking whether SAVE is restricted to certain years of loans like PAYE. Nope.
SAVE is open to all Direct Loan holders, except Parent PLUS. No disbursement restrictions like PAYE. So, as long as you have Direct Loans, without any Parent PLUS loans consolidated into them, they are eligible. If the Parent Plus code is not picked up by your servicer through a double consolidation, it’s possible that SAVE may apply. But with the new Parent Plus Consolidation Indicator added to the National Student Loan Database we believe that loophole may be closing or has already closed. We have no idea if this Indicator will apply to only new consolidations or if the Department or its servicers will go back and change someone’s SAVE, PAYE, REPAYE or IBR to ICR as Congress intended.
Consolidating Loans — Getting a Huge Payment Increase?
Lots of federal student loan borrowers are in the same boat now. Have you consolidated your loans in an effort to get onto SAVE for the lowest possible payment? But it seems to have backfired because your payment is now enormous?
Here’s some tips that you may want to be aware of:
- A new consolidation will always provide an initial payment based upon the 10 year standard. A client today reported her payment was to be $2,000! She knew not to be concerned however because the SAVE review hadn’t yet occurred. It’s a two step process: first, consolidation, then evaluation for SAVE.
Vote of No Confidence for Double Consolidation
Well folks, it appears that the Department of Education may have just closed the loophole which led to Borrowers double consolidating Parent Plus loans in an effort to get onto the more payment friendly SAVE program rather than the much higher ICR – Income Contingent Plan. By doing a double consolidation, often the code showing an underlying loan to be a Parent Plus loan was removed.
We’ve just learned of a new entry on the NSLDS report: the “Parent Plus Consolidation Indicator.”
Our guess is they’ve done this to close the “glitch”. It will now be readily apparent if any underlying loan within a consolidation contained a PLUS loan.
PSLF Began in 2007
Lots of people are doing the mental gymnastics to determine whether they qualify for a Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) now under the IDR recount for Direct loans. More time will count under this program than ever before such as extended forbearances, extended or even graduated payment plans or even just weird payments made from time to time. Re-dating of all the loans in a Direct consolidation to the earliest date etc. For many, this IDR recount will be a back door to PSLF after having missed the October 31, 2022 deadline to apply for PSLF. Once 120 months are accumulated under PSLF, any remaining balance will be forgiven. It’s 20-25 years for non-public service.
Remember though, any months of employment before October 2007 won’t count toward public service. PSLF was instituted in October 2007 and didn’t even exist before then.
See our YouTube Channel “Student Loan Sidebar” for help!
I just received this from someone who benefitted from our You Tube Channel:
- After finally conquering my fear of addressing my massive student loan debt, I came across several of your videos on YouTube. On numerous occasions I felt as if you had my case right in front of you! The hope I immediately felt was indescribable!
Wow. Love this.
Mailing addresses for Consolidation Applications
If someone needs to consolidate their FFEL or Perkins, or even Direct loans on different timelines for forgiveness, we normally assist by walking someone through this during a phone call or zoom strategy session. That way it is done and immediate. There are times where a paper application is needed however and here are the addresses for this (send certified return receipt or FedEx/UPS with tracking number):
Aidvantage
PO Box 300005
Income Monitoring no longer a Thing for Total and Permanent Disability Discharges of Federal Student Loans
Is Your Airbnb Not Going As Planned?
Lots of folks bought second properties with a plan to do short term rentals through Airbnb or VRO — and now occupancy rates are dwindling, maintenance expenses are increasing, consumer disposable income is declining, and interest rates continue to soar. While not yet an Airbnb bust, it is not the easy market it was back in 2020 and 2021. Bloomberg covers some of the problems in its story this week Airbnb Hosting Isn’t What It Used to Be.
So far Florida’s short term rental market hasn’t been impacted all that much – despite the heat this summer. But if the trends don’t reverse soon, many homebuyers will need to make some hard choices to get out from under the debt in a way that creates as much value as possible and with an intact balance sheet and credit report, before the decision may be made for them.
If this is you and you need help making a plan forward, please reach out to us. Our practice areas make us uniquely able to find solutions – and the earlier the better in our opinion. If times get tougher, it’s best to be one of the first out the door as opposed to getting trampled later.