Comments on: Student Loan IBR Income Based Repayment Plans

By: To Troy

To Troy — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 05:00:13 +0000

Troy, that’s only true if you know for sure you will be on IBR for the entire period (i.e., that you know for sure you won’t be paying your loan off within 20 years). I don’t know about you, but 10 or 20 years is a long ways away, and letting your loan principal grow into oblivion w/ negative amortization will make your decision for you. It would be prudent to at least pay the interest of the loan if at all possible, unless you are in public service and know for sure you are staying there.

By: Troy

Troy — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:00:06 +0000

file for a consolidation with direct loans. you can do it online or by paper and mail.

By: Troy

Troy — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 23:59:15 +0000

you can pay more than you have to if you choose, but it really isnt worth it as every dollar you pay to IBR will only be about .40 in tax when it is forgiven. Would you rather pay a dollar today or .40 in forty years. Your beter off letting the time value of moeny work for you.

By: Troy

Troy — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 23:55:15 +0000

It has yet to be determined if the 10 year forgiveness for public service will be taxable or not. As Professor of law at Georgetown, Philip Shrag points out, because the IBR is a consolidation of loans made after school there is a chance that the IRS will consider the forgiven debt as taxable income. May not want to give out advice not to plan for the taxation, as it could mean a bankruptcy filing after 10 years of paying 15% of your income.

By: ann

ann — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:36:40 +0000

Hi, All! I was checking into some payment plan options online when I ran into this site. Yay (=. I have a question. If my payment under the IBR plan or even the ICR plan comes to $0.00, but I am able to send something in as payment, would that disqualify me from this plan?

By: Riley

Riley — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:34:01 +0000

How do I change from a Sallie Mae loan to a direct. I work for a state governemnt government, but have loans with Sallie rather than Direct Loans.

By: zapeta

zapeta — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:48:38 +0000

The great news is that if the policies that President Obama advocated in the State of the Union address are passed, IBR payments will be limited to 10% of income over 150% of the poverty level. IBR payments are currently 15% of income over 150% of the poverty level. This will reduce payments by a third! In addition, he proposed that loans will be forgiven after 20 years instead of 25. I’m hoping these proposals pass soon!

By: IPS

IPS — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:31:18 +0000

I should have done more research before leaving my question. I found another site with LOTS of detailed IBR info and calculators.

By: IPS

IPS — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:18:53 +0000

So… I think an IBR plan may help my husband and I manage our loan payments better. But, do we come up with a combined adjusted gross income (we both work) and and combined number for the loan payments? My student loan pmnt is pretty low, his is quite high; do we add those two amounts together?

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:10:11 +0000

This will definitely help me. I have a VERY high balance with chase for consolidated loans with a 30 yr plan. My payment will be reduced by almost 50%.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:02:49 +0000

just wanna say thanks for the post! going to forward it to my mom (although I am 26…..) she always wants to “take a look” at things. Im a single mom of two boys under age 4, going to school fulltime for nursing, attempting to work on top of it and take care of my kids and myself properly. I was losing hours at work because of summer season ending and was in a panic as what to do. I had not considered the option that I had qualified for more then I took out on my loans. but I was hesitant, because I didn’t want to end up paying 200 a month once i had to start repaying my loan. That is when I discovered the IBR. Which is perfect for me because I can not work, have the money cover my expenses, have more time to study and spend with my boys, and less stress on me. no matter how high my income goes, the repayment amount is affordable.
ANYWAY!!! lol… mind if i put this as a link on my blog?

By: zapeta

zapeta — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:58:01 +0000

Ugh, that’s stupid. They make you choose a plan when you graduate, that shouldn’t count as a switch! I wonder if it makes a difference if you’re in the Direct Loan program or if you have a private loan company that holds your loans, or if that’s a rule for all loans.

By: Stephanie PTY

Stephanie PTY — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:30:15 +0000

I could have a $0 payment under IBR for two of my loans, but I can’t switch to it because you can only change your payment plan once per year, and I “changed” my payment plan by signing up for a certain one when I graduated in February. $165 per month on those loans for me!

By: zapeta

zapeta — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:49:56 +0000

Since IBR was created by the law (the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007) it would be around unless the law is changed. Given the high numbers of students with ever-increasing student loan debt at graduation and the current job situation I wouldn’t expect it to change anytime soon but there are never any guarantees. Even if the loan forgiveness disappears, IBR can be one option to allow borrowers to make payments that they can afford.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:27:49 +0000

I question if the IBR will be around in 25 years? This isn’t a permanent change, right? I would just be concerned that someone would be making minimum payments, having the loan grow and then find out in 10 or 20 years that the forgiveness actually won’t happen and they have a bigger loan to deal with. I have worked my loans down to $75,000 dollars from $100,000. I only pay 1.625% on them but I still make extra payments because nothing in life is guaranteed and I will feel a lot better once I have paid it off. I also feel some obligation to pay the full amount. It was a great honor to be allowed to borrow this money and get an education that I would not have had access to otherwise and I feel that it’s my responsibility to pay the full amount as soon as possible so that someone else can follow in my footsteps and borrow the money and better themselves.