Do You Qualify for Loan Forgiveness?

I've been a college graduate as of summer of last year, and I am fully aware of my student loans and the pressure they place on me, mentally, and my family, financially.


I and most (if not all) my friends are in similar boats: Sallie Mae is knocking down the door and demanding their money back. Normally I, and many other people, talk about Sallie Mae as if she were a person. But, for today, I'll try to remain as professional as possible. (Yeah...we'll see how long this lasts). Sallie's real name is SLMA .

Student Loan Marketing Association (SLMA). It was established in '72 with federal backing but has since severed ties with the government and is a stand-alone corporation since '04.

Realistically what I owe Sallie has no comparison to what I owe the government. I remember receiving the bill along with my diploma and congratulatory letter.

"Holy cow! Look at all those zeros!"

I quickly called my financial aid adviser and asked, "Is it too late to return this for a refund? ...I see. How about I take a partial refund?" Our conversation didn't last very long.

Any who, fast forward to last week. A friend shoots me a text from work and says that a coworker of hers just had her student loans forgiven. My immediate response was, "Riiiiight..."but I text her back sounding interested because I really wanted to know more. She sent me the website to look up the information. It was of course a dud. Figures. I began to do a little research of my own. I found several articles on the topic due to Obama Student Loan Forgiveness. I'm reading the posts and finding out that this Pay As You Earn (PAYE) plan that he's implementing is very similar to the plan that's already available. The difference is the amount of money the payments will be (it's going from 15% of your income that's over the poverty level, to 10% of your income that's over the poverty level) and the amount of time you have to pay it back (before it was 25 years, now it's 20 and your loan will be forgiven). Another option is to serve your country...In a government job, of course. Pay faithfully and on time over the next ten years, and your student loans will magically vanish into thin air. Other options include military and non-profit work.

This sheds some new light on the situation, I hope it does the same for you.

Want more info? Click here, here, or here.
Another option is to log in at Studentloans.gov and look into: IBR/Pay As You Earn/ICR Repayment Plan Request


Until next time,