What To Do If You’ve Been Contacted By A Scammer
If you’ve gotten a suspicious phone call, voicemail or even a letter that you think is a scam, you don’t necessarily have to take immediate action if you didn’t respond or give out any personal information.
“You absolutely do not have to do anything, if you didn’t give them any information, you should be OK,” said Haile.
You can, however, report it. One option is to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission notifying it of the potential scam. Another is to call your state attorney general.
Last, you may also want to check your credit score out of an abundance of caution, said Evans.
Forgiveness With Revised Pay As You Earn
Revised Pay As You Earn works much the same way as Pay As You Earn. Under this plan, your payments will be capped at 10% of your discretionary income. Undergraduate loans are forgiven after 20 years, while graduate school loans are forgiven after 25 years.
Unlike IBR and PAYE which require you to end up with a lower payment than on the standard plan, theres no such requirement for REPAYE; anyone with eligible loans can apply, even if they end up paying more with an income-based payment. As a result, you could end up with high monthly payments on REPAYE if you suddenly start making a lot more money.
Pros And Cons Of Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
While student loan forgiveness programs sound incredible at first glance–and for many individuals say they can be life-changing–they do warrant consideration over the pros and cons.;
Relying on a student loan forgiveness program for your nursing education may not always be the best route for you, depending on your individual situation.;
Don’t Miss: How Long For Sba Loan Approval
Loan Forgiveness Programs For Lawyers
There are also quite a few forgiveness programs aimed at lawyers with student loan debt, although some of them are administered through specific law schools and are limited to their students. Numerous state-based loan repayment assistance programs also exist, so check which state options may be available to you.
On a national level, students can consider the Attorney Student Loan Repayment Program, which could forgive up to $6,000 of student loan debt each year and up to $60,000 in total. The John R. Justice Student Loan Repayment Program is another option if youre a public defender. Approved applicants can qualify for up to $4,000 per year in student loan assistance, with a maximum forgiveness amount of $60,000.
Pay More Than The Minimum
If you want to ditch your loans as fast as possible, consider paying more than the minimum each month. Youll need to notify your loan servicer and specify that you want your overpayment to go toward the principal of your loan balances and not toward your next payment, but youll save money over time as you pay less and less interest each month.
You May Like: Can You Use Fha Loan If You Already Own House
Student Loan Forgiveness For Teachers
There are many federal, state, and local programs that provide student loan forgiveness for teachers. Keep in mind, though, that some programs only provide partial forgiveness.
Programs that offer student loan forgiveness for teachers include:
- PSLF: As government or nonprofit employees, many teachers can qualify for PSLF after making 120 monthly payments in an income-driven repayment plan.
- Federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program: You may qualify for up to $17,500 in federal loan forgiveness after teaching full-time for five consecutive years in a low-income school or agency.
- Perkins Loans Teacher Cancellation: Up to 100% of your federal Perkins loans can be forgiven if you teach for five years in a school serving low-income families; serve as a special ed teacher; or teach a high-need subject like math, science, or a foreign language.
- TEACH Grant program: You can get up to $4,000 in TEACH grants per year to help pay for your teaching degree. That money doesnt have to be repaid if you fulfill your obligation to teach at least four years in a high-need field or in schools that serve low-income families.
- State-based teacher loan forgiveness: In the hopes of attracting and retaining young teachers, a number of states operate their own forgiveness programs for teachers.
Whats A Qualifying Employer
- A qualifying employer means that you work for:
- A government organization at any level
- A not-for-profit organization that is tax-exempt under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code
- Other types of not-for-profit organizations that are not tax-exempt under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code
- AmeriCorps or Peace Corps serving as a full-time volunteer
It is very important to note for this type of loan forgiveness that the owner of the healthcare system must be a not-for-profit organization. At times, a hospital will be not-for-profit or serve an underprivileged population but will be owned by a larger for-profit corporation.;
Recommended Reading: How To Transfer Car Loan To Another Person
What Is Student Loan Forgiveness
Student loan forgiveness is when the balance on your college debt is set to zero, regardless of how much you have left. No further payments are expected from you by the loan provider.
As a general rule of thumb, most people who receive student loan forgiveness have federal Direct Loans. But student loan forgiveness programs are a possibility for certain private loans as well.
If youre buried under a mountain of student loan debt, you could qualify for student loan forgiveness. Check out the complete list of student loan repayment options below to see what is the best option for you.
Students To Service Program
If youre in your last year of medical service, you could qualify for significant loan assistance from the Students to Service Program. This student loan forgiveness program provides up to $120,000. To qualify, youll commit to working as a primary health care provider at an approved site for three years.
Also Check: What Is The Commitment Fee On Mortgage Loan
Private Loan Bankruptcy Discharges
You dont want to pursue a bankruptcy discharge unless you dont have any other options, because filing for bankruptcy brings about all sorts of other financial problems, and because its no longer guaranteed to erase your private student loan debt entirely.
In fact, its pretty hard to get rid of private student loans by filing for bankruptcy, because it requires proving to a court that your loans are placing such an undue hardship on you that theyre literally making it impossible for you to afford basic necessities.
Youll have to provide documentation clearly explaining that the costs of your loans are so expensive that they are dont leave enough money for you to pay for food, shelter, clothing and healthcare for yourself and your family.
However, if you can prove that in court, to a judge, then he or she will have the option of wiping out your debt completely via a Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Discharge, and youll walk away from the bankruptcy without any more student loan debt.
I dont want to make it sound like this is easy, so again, let me restate that this should be one of your last potential options, and should only be pursued if you truly have no way to ever pay back your loans, either because you make so little, or owe so much.
Choosing The Best Path Forward
When it comes to private forgiveness benefits, theres no easy way to decide which process to pursue, and whether or not the eventual forgiveness benefit will be worth the added cost to your taxes.
But one thing is pretty clear at least to me. If you spend enough time researching the issues, running the numbers, and considering your options, you can arrive at the right answer, and then start working on dealing with your loans in the best possible way.
However, if youre not the type of person whos good at figuring this stuff out, then you may want to hire the assistance of an absolute expert in the industry to come in and do it all for you, especially if youve got a huge amount of debt on the line.
Heres a quick breakdown that may help you decide whether to go it alone and take care of everything yourself, or to pay someone else to handle it all for you.
Don’t Miss: Which Credit Union Is Best For Home Loan
Why You Can Trust Bankrate
Founded in 1976, Bankrate has a long track record of helping people make smart financial choices. Weve maintained this reputation for over four decades by demystifying the financial decision-making process and giving people confidence in which actions to take next.
Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that were putting your interests first. All of our content is authored by highly qualified professionals and edited by subject matter experts, who ensure everything we publish is objective, accurate and trustworthy.
Our loans reporters and editors focus on the points consumers care about most the different types of lending options, the best rates, the best lenders, how to pay off debt and more so you can feel confident when investing your money.
What Are My Responsibilities
Once you have been approved for the B.C. Loan Forgiveness Program, there are things you must do to maintain eligibility:
- One year after your program registration date , you must submit via StudentAid BC online account, mail or courier a signed letter from your employer documenting your hours of in-person service in an eligible occupation at a publicly-funded facility in British Columbia either in an eligible under served community or working with children. The letter must include the following:
- Letterhead and name of the facility where you are employed;
- Your name, occupation and community;
- Dated within 30 days of your 12 month anniversary date;
- Signature of your employer; and,
- The number of in-person service hours provided during the 12-month period prior to the anniversary date.
- Maintain your current mailing and email address information with StudentAid BC.
Note: If your verified in-person hours of service is less than 400 and greater than 99 hours, your benefits under the program for that year will be prorated as indicated below.
| Total Annual Hours of In-Person Service | Annual Percentage of BC Student Loan Debt Forgiveness |
|---|---|
| 0 to 99 |
Also Check: How To Get 150k Business Loan
Are Student Loans Written Off At 65 Or A Certain Age
In America, neither federal nor private student loans are not written off at 65 or at a certain age.
Other countries like England, Ireland, Scotland, etc., write off student loans after 25 years of payment or when you’re 65.
If you’re near 65 or older and you’re struggling with your student loans, bankruptcy may be an option.
Click here to schedule a free call to discuss filing student loan bankruptcy
Include Payments In Your Budget
Build your student debt payments into your budget and make payments that are larger than the minimum payments. You can also speak with your financial institution about setting up automatic payments.
When planning your budget and automatic payments, make sure you know when your payments are due. Remember that if you have more than one loan or line of credit, you may have more than one payment due date.
Don’t Miss: What Is Fha And Conventional Loan
Student Loan Forgiveness Programs For Doctors
Editorial Note: The content of this article is based on the authors opinions and recommendations alone. It may not have been previewed, commissioned or otherwise endorsed by any of our network partners.
The median student loan debt for medical school graduates in 2019 was $200,000, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Even if youre on your way to a six-figure income, your residency income will likely be far less. Fortunately, there are student loan forgiveness programs for doctors and other medical professionals that could pay off part or even all of your loans.
If youre looking to cure yourself of medical school debt, turn to these programs for assistance.
Intro To Loan Forgiveness
Whether youre thinking about entering the healthcare field or youve already graduated from your degree program, you may be wondering how youll handle student loan debt. If you have earned a scholarship, youre part of the way there. But many students dont know that there are different ways to pay off a loan or even that you may be able to reduce or eliminate what you have to pay back. This comprehensive guide breaks down the types of federal student loan repayment plans and how to qualify for loan forgiveness, with a special focus on healthcare professions.
In this Article
Recommended Reading: When Do I Pay Back Student Loan
If You Don’t Know Who Owns The Loan
The following three loan categories are not necessarily ED-owned. Commercial lenders sometimes own FFEL and HEAL loans, and schools sometimes own Perkins loans. That being said, on March 30, 2021, the Department of Education expanded its pauseon federal student loan interest and collections to include all defaulted loans in the Federal Family Education Loan Program.
If you don’t see that 0% interest rate on your account, contact your student loan servicer and ask who owns your loans. If you don’t want to call or email them, you might be able to find the information yourself by logging into your account and looking for your loan details. Let’s say your servicer is Navient, one of the biggest student loan servicers. Within your Navient account, you can click on “loan details” to see a list of all your loans. This list won’t show you who owns your loans, though. To get that information, you’ll need to pick one of your loans from the drop-down box.
Best-case scenario, your servicer discovers it has made a mistake and cuts your rate. You should always act as your advocate. Student loan servicers have a poor reputation for acting in borrowers’ best interests. To be fair, why should they? You aren’t their customer; the government or the investors who own your loans are their customers. They’re basically acting as debt collectors for whoever owns your loans; that’s how they earn money.
Do The Math Before Committing To A Loan Forgiveness Program
As you take a look at each of these loan forgiveness programs for doctors, remember to weigh salary considerations against any amount youd receive in student loan assistance. Opting for a job with a $75,000 salary to earn $25,000 in loan forgiveness wouldnt be as lucrative as going after a job with a $200,000 salary and no loan forgiveness, for instance.
Unless youre driven to work in a high-need area or with an underserved population, you might not benefit from sacrificing a high salary for the sake of qualifying for loan forgiveness. Consider your career goals, and your wants and needs in a job.
Also Check: What Size Mortgage Loan Can I Qualify For
Federal Perkins Loan Cancellation
If you took out a federal Perkins loan to pay for school, you could qualify for loan cancellation in a variety of ways. The Perkins loan cancellation and discharge program typically forgives a certain percentage of student loan debt after every year of service. Over time, you could get up to 100% of your Perkins loan canceled.
The Student Loan Forgiveness Act
In March 2012, the Student Loan Forgiveness Act was introduced by Representative Hansen Clarke , which proposed some excellent ideas for improving federal student loan debt relief, as well as presenting an excellent opportunity to receive debt relief for private student loans.
Here are the major tenets of the bill:
- Consolidation Options for Private Student Loans The bill proposed that some private student loans would be eligible for consolidation with federal student loans. Though the bill includes a large range of restrictions, just the idea that any private student loans would be allowed to get consolidated with federal loans would be a paradigm shift for the industry, and a welcome one at that.
- Improved Forgiveness for Federal Student Loans
- Interest Rate Protection for Federal Student Loans
Unfortunately, this bill hasnt been passed and it doesnt seem likely that it will receive any additional support any time soon either.
The student loans and financial services lobby is extremely powerful, wielding a great deal of influence over Congress via massive campaign contributions for those representatives that toe the industry line, and they dont want this bill to get passed.
Don’t Miss: How To Apply For Direct Loan
Choosing To Default On Your Loans
You dont want to go this route either, and for a variety of reasons.
Private student loans are similar to other forms of unsecured debt, like credit card debt, medical debt and any other loan that dont include collateral, but they differ in one important way: defaulting on them opens you up to an array of legal liabilities.
If you Default on Private Student Loan Debt, your lender has whats called a cause of action against you for breach of contract. That means they can sue you for failing to pay back your student loan, and if they win a judgment against you in court, theyll be able to garnish your wages, have a levy placed on your financial accounts or even get a lien attached to your property.
You do not want this to happen!
Defaulting on your loan is not a realistic way to get private student loan help. In fact, in all but the absolute worst situations, defaulting on your loans simply makes your financial problems worse.
Long before you consider defaulting, be sure to look into the other options for getting help with your private student loans.
Try a loan consolidation or loan modification program, or even consider filing for bankruptcy, because default is not going to go down easy, and its not a process that you want to explore unless its absolutely necessary.
