Author name: Brian Del Terzo

As if dealing with student loans wasn\’t tough enough, now getting them forgiven is a hassle. A new report found that borrowers trying to qualify for forgiveness have had to put up with a plethora of loan servicer errors, confusing rules, and poor communication. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal watchdog group, reported that consumer student loan complaints about the program, which was created to relieve federal student loan debt for government, nonprofit or public-sector workers if they make 120 qualifying payments, are on the rise. The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program has been under scrutiny ever since a lawsuit was filed against the Department of Education by borrowers who were initially told they were eligible to have their debt forgiven, only to be later informed that the decision from the federal loan servicer wasn\’t binding and could be rescinded at any time. That came as a shock to the more than half a million borrowers who had been approved for the program — especially in light of the fact that this October was supposed to be when forgiveness would start taking effect for the first set of public service workers who applied back in 2007 when PSLF was first introduced. Even those who have received confirmation that their jobs are eligible to have had an unusually hard time meeting the program\’s definition of qualifying payments. The New York Times provided examples of borrowers who thought they\’d made a certain number of qualifying payments that counted toward their 120 total, only to find out that the loan servicer had considered any excess amount paid as an advance on the following month\’s bill — which made it seem like the borrowers had nothing due some months and therefore didn\’t get credit for making a payment. (Tip: That\’s why it\’s always important to put in writing how you want any excess payments applied to your loan.) To help ensure those who are working toward PSLF don\’t get an unpleasant surprise later, the CFPB released tips to help public-service borrowers with their due diligence, including: Making sure your loan actually qualifies. Only borrowers who have federal Direct Loans can enroll in PSLF. Making sure your repayment plan qualifies. Only loans that are under the standard repayment or income-driven repayment plans qualify. That means if you have a graduated or extended repayment plan, you likely can\’t get PSLF. Certifying that you work in public service. Although it\’s not mandatory, the CFPB recommends filling out the Department of Education\’sEmployment Certification for Public Service form every year — and definitely whenever you change jobs — to have on record that you work for a qualifying employer and are on track with your payments. Authored by Julia Chang on June 23, 2017, for LearnVe$t Still, confused? Contact us HERE, and check out the CFPB\’sPSLF guides for those who work in specific public service jobs, including the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, the armed services, or as first responders.

Student loan debt has soared to $1 Trillion in the United States. With the cost of higher education rising every year, student loans are the only way many students can afford college. If you are one of the nearly 40 million people with student loans & need help, seek out the federal debt relief programs. Here are some questions to ask yourself. Do you need direction in figuring out the best way to tackle your student loan debt? Do you need to take out student loans but aren’t sure which ones would be the best for your situation?Are you afraid to get into the student loan debt trap & want to find other ways to pay for your or your child’s education? Are you thinking of taking out a Plus loan to help your child through college but you aren’t sure how much you can afford? Are there more affordable options to paying down your student loan debt? If you are trying to deal with Federal and/or private student loans or planning to take them out in the future, Cornerstone Student Loan Services wants to hear from you! * credit to www.suzeorman.com/the-suze-orman-show/be-a-guest-on-the-suze-orman-show/topics/the-student-loan-zone/

PRIVATE VS. FEDERAL STUDENT LOA For most families, student loans are a big part of financing a college education. While student loans are quite easy to get, they aren’t as easy to understand. There are so many payment plans, variable interest rates, consolidation, and other options that muddy the waters. One common source of confusion is the difference between private and federal student loans. While they might seem to be very similar, the differences go far beyond the source of the funding. Federal student loans are advantageous in every conceivable way. Understanding the differences between private and federal student loans can save you thousands of dollars. Consider these differences: The government funds federal student loans. Banks fund private student loans. That’s the first difference. Taxpayers and the federal government support federal student loans. Private student loans are a moneymaking tool for banks. This alone is a clue about which type of loan is preferable. 2. Federal student loans will normally have a fixed interest rate. The interest rate is determined before the loan is made, and the student will pay that rate over the lifetime of the loan. These interest rates are quite low. The same can’t be said of private loans. Private loans will normally have higher interest rates. The interest rate on private loans can frequently rise to over 10%. Private loans can also have variable interest rates that fluctuate with the market. These factors associated with private loans can end up being very expensive. 3. Some federal student loans won’t start accruing interest until after graduation. Federal student loans are interest-free until graduation, while other federal loans and all private loans start charging interest as soon as the check is cashed. Four years of accrued interest really adds up. This is a huge advantage of subsidized Stafford Loans. You can usually deduct interest from federal loans on your tax return. This normally isn’t true for private loans. While this typically isn’t a lot of money, every little bit helps. 4. Federal student loans aren’t required to be repaid until after graduation. Most private loans require that repayment start immediately. It can be interest only or a regular loan payment depending on the terms of the loan. Life as a college student is usually financially challenging. Imagine having to make a loan payment, too. 5. Some private loans will penalize you for paying ahead on your loan. Banks want all the interest they can get, so many won’t allow you to pay ahead. All federal loans permit early repayment. A pre-payment penalty isn’t something you want with your loan. 6. Federal loans have better features than most private loans. These features include things like forbearance, deferment, and consolidation. Federal loans also have options that can retire at least part of your student loan debt, like volunteering for the Peace Corp. 7. Federal student loans are retired at death. If you die before your student loan is paid off, the debt is retired. This isn’t the case with private student loans, and that’s part of the reason that most private student loans require a co-signer. Federal student loans can also be canceled if you suffer a serious disability. As you can see, private student loans are costly and less flexible. Federal student loans are a sensible choice because they are much more affordable. Federal loans exist to help you go to college, whereas private student loans exist to make money for the bank. The differences between federal and private student loans are considerable. Exhaust all other financing options before getting any student loans. Only use private student loans as a last resort for financing your education. Federal student loan offerings are much more attractive in every possible way.

The college years can be among the most fun years of your life, even with all that hard work and studying, the all-nighters, and the exam anxiety. But if you’ve taken out student loans to help you get through the college years financially—and many students have—your future financial burden may be weighing heavily on you as graduation approaches. It’s natural to have concerns about how you’ll pay off your student loan debt. As you approach your graduation date, there’s often so much uncertainty about the future. You don’t know yet where you’ll be working, how much you’ll be making, or even how long it might take you to find a job and find your place in the career you’ve chosen. The financial burden of student loans can add substantially to the stress of all this uncertainty. You aren’t alone. Most students who graduate with a mound of student debt have gone through the same fears and anxieties. While it may prove challenging to make those monthly payments after you graduate, there are options available to you that can help ease the burden. If you have any federal student loans, one of these options is the Obama Student Loan Forgiveness Program. Federal Student Loan Forgiveness: Obama Student Loan Forgiveness Program In 2010, President Barack Obama began tackling the issue of student loan reform with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act. President Obama’s national goal: “by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” When people talk about the Obama Student Loan Forgiveness Program, they’re usually talking about these student loan reform initiatives implemented by President Obama. Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Options While there are actually five types of repayment plans under the Obama student loans program, three of them offer student loan forgiveness: Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan. Available to students enrolling in college in 2014 or later, the IBR plan limits payments to no more than ten percent of your discretionary income—that is, the portion of your income that’s above what’s required for you to meet your basic living expenses, such as food and housing. Under the Income-Based plan, the remaining balance of eligible loans is forgiven after 20 years. For public service workers, student loan forgiveness occurs after ten years. Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Repayment Plan. The Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan is available to students who enrolled in college too early to take advantage of the income-based repayment plan. Currently, the PAYE repayment plan is only available to borrowers who were new borrowers on or after October 2007. Under an executive order signed by President Obama, the PAYE plan will be expanded to all federal student loan borrowers, regardless of when they obtained their loans. Implementation of this expansion is expected late in 2015. Monthly payments under the Pay As You Earn plan are no more than ten percent of your disposable income, and after 20 years, any remaining loan amounts are forgiven. Public service workers have their loans forgiven after ten years. Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) Plan. Under this plan, your payments are calculated based on your income, family size, and loan balance. Since the payments are recalculated every year, they are adjusted to account for changes in these factors. The plan uses a formula which compares a payment of 20 percent of your monthly discretionary income to the payment you’d make in a 12-year standard repayment plan, multiplied by what’s known as an income percentage factor, which takes into account your income and your marital status. Under the Income-Contingent Repayment Plan, you’ll pay the lesser of these two payment amounts. As with the other two repayment plans, the Income-Contingent Repayment plan also offers loan forgiveness. Any remaining student loans are forgiven after 25 years (ten for public service workers). Federal Student Loan Forgiveness and Public Service Workers Each of these repayment plan options offers public service workers a shorter period of loan payments before their student loans are forgiven. Under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program, college graduates who enter public service jobs full-time (in any position) have their student loans forgiven after ten years of loan payments. The PSLF program is underutilized because many people don’t realize they qualify. The range of occupations that qualify as public service positions are quite broad and include teachers, nurses, law enforcement and emergency workers, members of the Armed Forces, and those who work for a not-for-profit organization with a 501(c)(3) designation. A full list of eligible public services can be found here. If you feel mired under a mound of federal student debt, help yourself let go of some of that stress: look into the repayment options available under the Obama Student Loan Forgiveness Program and see which option will help you get a handle on your student debt.

In 2015, FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) switched from using a four-digit PIN to a more secure Federal Student Loan (FSA) ID. If you haven\’t already, you\’d be well advised to create your FSA ID for immediate access to Federal Student Aid’s online systems. It also serves as a legal, electronic signature for your aid application. The new ID does not require users to provide sensitive information (like a Social Security Number or date of birth) when signing in, providing better protection of personal information. Your FSA ID identifies you as someone who has the right to access your own personal information on ED websites such as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) at fafsa.gov. At this site you can: Electronically sign your (or your child\’s) FAFSA. Import your tax information from the Internal Revenue Service. Prefill data in this year´s FAFSA if you filed a FAFSA last year. That\’s called filling out a Renewal FAFSA. Make online corrections to an existing FAFSA. View or print an online copy of your Student Aid Report (SAR). Depending on where you use the FSA ID to log in, you will have access to a variety of new resources. My Federal Student Aid at StudentAid.gov/login or the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS®) at www.nslds.ed.gov View a history of any federal student aid that you have received. Look up your loan servicer\’s contact information. Agreement to Serve (ATS) at www.teach-ats.ed.gov Sign your ATS for the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program. The most widely used purpose is found through StudentLoans.gov where you can apply for an income-driven repayment plan or a consolidation loan of existing federal student loan debt obligations and: Complete entrance counseling, the Financial Awareness Counseling Tool, or exit counseling. Electronically sign a master promissory note (MPN). Complete PLUS loan requests. Estimate your student loan payments using the Repayment Estimator. So even if you aren\’t looking for new student loans, you\’ll want to get set up right away. And sooner rather than later because it isn\’t always as easy to set up as it should be. Some families in the past have reported challenges when trying to create their FSA ID, explains Mary Nucciarone, director of financial aid at the University of Notre Dame. Doing so earlier can help iron out any glitches you might encounter before you need to file. It’s also important that parents and students create their own IDs for their own exclusive use—and not on behalf of a family member. That way, you’re less likely to lose access to that information and get locked out of your account. Then, when it is time to fill out the FAFSA, make sure you’re looking at the 2017–2018 school year, cautions Rachelle Feldman, associate provost and director of scholarships and student aid at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Since there can often be FAFSA forms from multiple years on the web, some families mistakenly fill out the wrong one, slowing down the financial aid process. So like with any document, read carefully.

It can be quite difficult for students to put themselves through college because of the costly tuition fees. Most students will take out private or public loans to help pay for their studies. However, the drawback to these loans is that it can often take many years to repay the debt. On top of that, most loan companies charge an interest fee on the total amount borrowed. If payments aren\’t made on time, additional fees are also added to the bill. But don\’t panic! There are many students who manage to repay their student loans in a relatively short amount of time. You can do it as well! Try these tips to get those student loans paid off: Pay on time. When a payment is missed, a fee is added to the next payment. This can add up to a significant amount. Make it a habit to pay as early as possible. Whenever you have extra money, pay some towards the loan. 2. Stay in. The simple act of staying in and avoiding partying with friends can have a huge impact on your finances. Sure, it won\’t be as much fun, but there are a lot of other activities you can do that aren’t as costly as going out. 3. Work hard. Even if you remove all unnecessary expenses from your budget, it may still be a struggle to repay those loans. What about increasing your income with an extra job or two? Chances are you won\’t be able to get the highest paying job as soon as you graduate, but you may be able to secure several part-time jobs or some freelance work. In order to repay your student loans in short order, be willing to put in the effort and work hard. It will be worth it in the end. Check out these ideas to get you started: Gardening, Mowing lawns, Baby sitting, Dog walking, Apartment sitting, Freelance writing, Freelance photography Waiter/Waitress. Selling subscriptions. Yard-sales, Creating Websites 4. Consider living with a roommate. It might be a less than ideal situation for you, but it can be worth the amount that you save on rent if you get a roommate. The money you save can be used to repay your student loans. \\ 5. Create a payment plan. It\’s important to focus on paying a certain extra amount each month on the loan. Every little bit extra that you pay toward the principal shortens the time it will take you to pay off the loan. Use a spreadsheet to calculate a percentage of your income that you would like to use to repay your loan. There are countless tricks and tips that you can implement to get rid of that pesky student loan. Remember, debt can be crippling. The number one goal is to remove all debt from your life, so it doesn’t hold you back. If you can focus your energy on repaying your student loan, it will be gone in no time at all. Then, you’ll be able to use that money that you used to send off to your student loan lenders for a house or other investment.

Student loan borrowers affected by the changes proposed for 2015 should still be research repayment options and choose the plan that best fits their budget. President Barack Obama announced some big news this week that stands to help many student loan borrowers. Most people met the president’s proposed changes with excitement, even though it seemed like many didn’t exactly understand what the changes were or, even more importantly, how the changes apply to them. So, let’s answer some big questions about the president’s executive action. 1. Will these updates help me? If you have federal student loans, maybe. With his executive action, the president expanded the existing Pay As You Earn program available to federal student loan borrowers. Currently, this plan caps monthly payments at 10 percent of a borrower\’s disposable income and forgives the balance after 20 years of payments. Those aspects of this plan won’t change. What will change is the number of borrowers who can take advantage of this option. Currently, only newer borrowers are eligible for this plan. However, starting in 2015, borrowers who took out loans before October 2007 or stopped borrowing by October 2011 will now be eligible. Government officials estimate this number to be 5 million people. 2. How much could I save? Now, most federal loan borrowers are eligible for income-based repayment – a different repayment plan that has the same premise as Pay As You Earn. Unlike Pay As You Earn, IBR caps payments at 15 percent of one’s disposable income and forgives the balance after 25 years of payments. Those differences could mean a lot, both in the monthly payment amount and in the total amount paid over time. For instance, consider a borrower who owes $55,000 at a 3.41 percent interest rate, has an income of about $35,000 per year, and is not married, and has no other dependents. The smaller payments would probably make a real difference in your budget, but note that you will pay more in total over time than you would under standard repayment. The exception would be if you worked in public service, in which case forgiveness would happen after 10 years, with a total of only $20,000 paid during that time. So before you speed-dial your loan holder, run this calculator to see how to Pay As You Earn would affect you. If your payment amount is more than what you pay now, then you probably won’t be eligible. Even if you are, check out the projected forgiveness column in the calculator to see if at your current income you have any chance for balance forgiveness and how much. If not, you may be better off paying your current payment amount, especially if you anticipate a salary increase over the next few years, to avoid paying all that extra interest. Keep in mind that any forgiven amount will be taxed as income. Also, remember that if you work in public service, the forgiveness occurs after 10 years of payments. In that instance, it’s not taxed. 3. Didn’t the president mention loan refinancing too? He did but in relation to a bill that Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., introduced last month called the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act. This legislation would allow federal and private student loan borrowers with older, higher-interest loans to consolidate them within the direct loan program at today’s lower fixed interest rates. That bill still has to pass both the Senate and the House, something that may not happen because Republicans are opposed to paying for the bill with a gradual increase in tax rates for those in the higher income brackets. The president made it very clear that he fully supports this bill. 4. What else should I know? There is still a long way to go before the president’s executive action takes effect. December 2015 is the target implementation date.The President’s overall plan includes quite a few other ideas that will make a difference to student loan borrowers, like improving financial incentives for federal student loan servicers to help borrowers stay out of default, making it easier for the active-duty military to receive benefits under the Service Members Civil Relief Act and increasing communication partnerships with entities such as the IRS and tax companies to ensure consumers are aware of their higher education rights and benefits. We’ll update you accordingly as we learn more about these ideas. * credit to www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/2014/06/11/4-must-know-facts-about-obamas-new-student-loan-plan