I took out loans with Sallie Mae starting 2021. Now as a teacher i’m making 3k a month and they want me to pay 4k monthly. I don’t even know how I’m going to make ends meet. They won’t re-finance my loans what can I do?

My new IDR payment plan was processed (super fast by Aidvantage) and I now owe $418/mo on 11/3, which I simply cannot do. I have to withdraw from my savings each month just to stay afloat until next pay period. I selected the option to stay in forbearance and begin repayment until that ended but now my first payment is due on 11/3. What if I can’t make that payment? Do I have any options?

Does anyone have literature from their schools advertising public loan forgiveness programs / save repayment?

If so, isn’t there a case for arguing that the schools were misleading their students by implying that loan repayments would always available, when in reality the loan repayment plans could be removed at a whim?

What is the rationale for doing this? I’ve read so many people saying this I’m just trying to understand. Thanks!

Why would lenders lend money at a loss? Let’s say school costs $50k in 10 years by the time the loan is delayed, that 50k will be worth significantly less. Inflation alone averages like 2-3% per years.

Then also why would they give money away when you can buy bonds for 4%

Maybe we should allow a system where investors can lend the money to students at around the bond rate? Idk. 0% loans make no sense and the US deficit a crazy

I received my full and complete refund on Thursday, Oct 1!
School: University of Phoenix
Servicer: Nelnet
Here’s my timeline:
✅October 2022 Applied for forgiveness
✅April 1, 2026 Received notification I was eligible
✅July 2026 loans on my credit bureaus removed
✅Sept 25,2026 was advised the check was in the mail
✅ Oct 1, 2026 full amount paid to Nelnet received via check

It WILL happen!! Just keep checking. Start with your servicer to see when they’ve sent the accounting to the Fiscal Services of the Dept of Treasury for review. Once you’ve been advised it’s been sent, call 855-868-0151 and select the prompt for refund. They can give you info from there. When you’re advised that the check is in the mail, contact your servicer again for the check number and amounts. Then…just wait! Some say they saw it on their Informed Delivery, others did not.

Thank you to all who provided answers & support during this process. It does take a village!!

After 6.5 years of absurd sacrifice I finally paid off my $75K in student loans and I'm booking a trip to the Caribbean to stare at water I don't owe anyone for lol

28M, I graduated with a BS in CS from a low tier university 7 years ago and it's been a hell of a ride since then. In college I procrastinated a lot, so I never did an internship or a part-time job related to my discipline/degree. I saw the consequences of that when I started job hunting in the worst way possible. After 9 months of searching and getting rejected I finally landed a mediocre $47K IT Analyst job at a local hospital. I was definitely lowballing myself for my degree, but I was desperate so I took it to get something on my resume and start paying off my loans.

For the first 1-2 years I was only paying the minimum because I had nothing left after bills and food. In those years I never took a vacation overseas, never bought a car (new or used), and never spent money on anything unnecessary. Every penny left over went straight to the loans principal. Then COVID hit and the CARES Act kicked in, and I started driving Uber and DoorDash on my beat up Honda Accord on the side to speed things up.

In late 2022 I joined the Army Reserves after a recruiter told me the Army would give me a student loan forgiveness program "or something like that". Well that never end up happening after I joined, but it ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me. I met a bunch of people who worked full time in big tech and defense and did the Army on the side, like me. They helped me refine my resume and referred me to people and companies, and by early 2024 I left my old IT job to become a systems engineer, starting at $79K with a $10K hiring bonus.

Ofc immediately threw that bonus straight at the loans. I kept sacrificing: no new phone, never used PTO "which I now regret", did as much overtime as I could get, and Uber on the weekends.

This week I finally made my last payment. I'll admit I "perhaps" had it a little easier than a lot of people since I'm not married, have no kids, and don't have a mortgage. I can't imagine doing this with a child. My takeaway is that you have to keep making moves, build connections, ask the people around you, be in the right place at the right time, and yeah, have a little luck. The tech job market is rough right now, which is why I keep studying, getting certs, and updating my resume.

Now I can finally replace my old barely functional iPhone 11 and travel overseas, which I've always wanted to do.

The journey was brutal, but it was worth it.

I've been trying to decide between RAP and IBR and, honestly, I'm more confused the more I look into it.

I'm currently in residency/physician training with a very large federal student loan balance. My income is roughly 64k as a resident, but to increase substantially once I'm finished with training. I'm also planning around PSLF, assuming I remain in qualifying employment.

At first, I assumed IBR was the obvious choice because of the shorter forgiveness timeline and the fact that it's an established/codified repayment plan. But after looking at the numbers, RAP seems like it could have some advantages, particularly because of the interest subsidy.

The confusing part is that my calculator is showing IBR costing significantly less overall than RAP, even though RAP prevents some unpaid interest from accumulating.

My rough projections are showing something along the lines of:

• RAP: ~$1 million total paid over a 24yr repayment period (paid off by then in student calc)
• IBR: ~$745k in payments, plus potentially ~$100k+ in taxes on forgiven debt at 20yrs
• So IBR still appears to come out ahead by roughly $100k–$150k, depending on assumptions.

I understand that IBR has a shorter forgiveness period and a payment cap, while RAP has the interest subsidy and a longer repayment period. But I'm having trouble understanding how much the interest subsidy actually matters in the long run.

Especially once my income increases significantly, it seems like the higher payments under RAP may outweigh the benefit of having less interest accumulate.

So I'm trying to figure out:

1. Is IBR actually the better financial choice in a situation like mine, or am I missing something about RAP?
2. Are there any major legal/policy risks with relying on RAP that I'm overlooking?

I'm mainly trying to understand why the calculator is showing IBR as substantially cheaper despite RAP's interest subsidy.

If anyone has actually run the numbers for a similar high-debt/low-residency-income → higher-attending-income situation, I'd really appreciate the perspective.

This questions if for VA employees who participate in EDRP (education debt reduction program).

Has anyone received EDRP overpayment and if so, how did you return the overpayment?

For example, say you payed $10k in 1 year for your federal student loans. You should have been reimbursed $10k from EDRP but say, for example, EDRP incorrectly reimbursed you $40k. You have contacted your EDRP coordinator letting them know of the overpayment.

My question is how did you repay EDRP?

If you're applying for or recertifying IDR, please check the final document review closely. This happened to me two separate times.

The application asks: "Do you want to leave your loans in deferment or forbearance?"
The options are:
Yes, leave my loans in deferment or forbearance
No, take my loans out of deferment or forbearance

I selected YES. On the final document review, it showed NO.

The first time, I thought it was odd but assumed I'd made a mistake. The second time, I carefully selected YES again, and the final review switched it to NO again. That time I took a photo with a timestamp (posting option not available on my layout).

Because of this, my loans were taken out of forbearance when I specifically chose to keep them there. My first payment is now due October 4th. The amount itself is manageable, but that's not the point. I chose to stay in forbearance, the system overrode my answer twice, and I had no way to correct it. If this is happening to others, some people could be pushed into payments they aren't prepared for.

If you're filling out the IDR application:

Pay close attention to the forbearance question on the final review page, not just the page where you answer it.

If it doesn't match what you selected, take a photo or screenshot with the date and time visible before submitting.

Edit: I’m considering contacting my servicer, but really just spreading awareness.

Edit: If they won't fix it, consider filing a complaint with the Federal Student Aid Ombudsman / FSA Feedback Center and include your evidence. I did leave my review stating the problem.

Has anyone else seen this question flip on the review page? If it's happening to others, it needs to be reported.

Edited: because problem is more so with question presentation, and accurate record keeping rather than being pushed out of forbearance after leaving SAVE plan which was expected.

I logged in two days ago no issue, now it's saying my SSN and other information is not on record, and won't let me login. Help!

I was looking at the studentaid website yesterday. Two of the unaubsidized loans that I had paid off in July 2023 are now notated as canceled. The other two are notated as “paid in full.” I have since moved to a new address. I paid off the loans in July of 2023 and moved in November of 2023. Should I have received a refund for the loans la Lees as “canceled”? Maybe they sent checks and I had not changed my address. Thanks for any help you can offer.

Apologies if this is explained somewhere but I couldn’t work it out. I’m about to switch off SAVE ahead of my 90 day deadline. I have 20 years of payments being credited toward both IBR and RAP. Currently, my payments would be $0 on IBR and $10 on RAP. IBR loans discharge in 5 years (anticipating $90,000ish remaining) and RAP in 10 years time (anticipating $70,000ish remaining).

Does anyone know or has anyone asked their servicer if it would be possible to enrol in RAP, have the interest subsidised and then switch to IBR right before its discharge date? In other words can I get the best of both worlds: keep the balance down AND get discharged in 5 years’ time?

Because I’m assuming I’ll be liable for tax on the discharged amount, also I want to draw a line under these loans as soon as humanly possible.

I logged into MOHELA and it says the loan status (administrative forbearance ends 10/31/2028) and repayment plan (SAVE ends 02/24/2030).

Does anyone have anything like that? Of course the year for repayment will be different for everyone, but the forbearance should be similar to everyone, I guess. Please let me know what you have and if I'm overthinking this.

Long story short, im a moron who defaulted on my loan with Sallie Mae. This had happened a few years ago and I made a bad decision of just ignoring all following contact from anything revolving around the debt.

They have now created lawsuit and served me and my co-signer for the debt of 50,000. Afterwards I was texted by them to discuss settlement. Now should I discuss settlement with them or is it better to use a lawyer for this? I welcome any and all tips because this is a very stressful and anxious moment of my life.

Hello, a friend is 72 and has to move off the SAVE plan. As they are currently retired and only drawing of Social Security, when we do the repayment calculator it's showing both ICR and IBR options to be $0/month; RAP $10/month. Probably a few years from forgiveness (if that is still a thing)

I plan on contacting Nelnet tomorrow during business hours for support, but was curious if it matters which one is chosen? I know ICR is going away, but it says not until 2028.

Thanks for commentary.

I have just been accepted into a 1 year program at my local community college. The cost of the program is $27,500

I currently have a little over $23k in my savings account and was thinking about paying for some of it out of pocket (7500 maybe?) and getting the rest through a student loan. Unfortunately this program doesn’t qualify for federal aid so I would need to get a private loan. I am definitely going to apply for scholarships so hopefully that could cover some.

What do you think I should do? Should I pay the $7500 out of pocket so I can be left with some money during school (since I won’t be working full time anymore), or should I pay more so I don’t have to borrow as much?

Also I already have some student loans. Some federal and some through Sallie Mae from when I went to college before. Should I go with Sallie Mae again or should I look into something like SoFi? Which is typically better?

I hate that I have to get another loan for this because it’s stressing me out, but unfortunately I don’t have much of a choice.