Student Loan Consolidation
WE WORK AROUND THE CLOCK TO IMPROVE YOUR CREDIT
CONSOLIDATION AID
It may make sense to consolidate all of your loans into one loan so that you can make a single payment towards all your debt. Our team will analyze your student loans to see if this action makes sense for you and your student loan goals. When student loans are consolidated, subsidized student loans will be consolidated into one loan, and unsubsidized student loans will be consolidated into a separate loan. The subsidized student loan will have one interest rate and the unsubsidized student loans will have one interest rate.
INCOME DRIVEN REPAYMENT PROGRAMS
An income-driven repayment plan sets your monthly student loan payment at an amount that is intended to be affordable based on your income and family size. We can help you get four incomedriven repayment plans if you qualify. These programs include Revised Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan, Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan, Income-Based Repayment Plan, and IncomeContingent Repayment Plan. Depending on your situation you could have a payment as low as zero dollars a month.
SCHOOL CLOSURE DISCHARGE
You may be eligible for a 100 percent discharge of your William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program loans, Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans, or Federal Perkins Loans if you were unable to complete your program because your school closed and if you were enrolled when your school closed, you were on an approved leave of absence when your school closed, your school closed within 120 days after you withdrew, you did not get a certificate of completion or diploma, and or be enrolled in a qualifying school. Borrowers may be eligible for forgiveness of the federal student loans used to attend a school if that school misled them or engaged in other misconduct in violation of certain laws.
PUBLIC SERVICE LOAN FORGIVENESS
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program forgives the remaining balance on your Direct Loans after you have made 120 (10 years) qualifying payments under a qualifying repayment plan while working full-time for a qualifying employer. A qualifying employer could be government organizations at any level (federal, state, local, or tribal) and not-for-profit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The 120 qualifying payments do not need to be consecutive but must be made in full and on-time (no later than 15 days after the due date). The payments must have been made on or after October 1, 2007. The forgiveness is not retroactive and does not consider payments made before this date. You must be in a qualifying payment such as PAYE, IBR , ICR, REPAYE, (STANDARD/ GRADUATED DO NOT QUALIFY) for this type of forgiveness to eventually take effect.
TOTAL AND PERMANENT DISABILITY DISCHARGE
A TPD discharge relieves you from having to repay a William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program loan, Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loan, and/or Federal Perkins Loan (Perkins Loan) Program loan or complete a TEACH Grant service obligation on the basis of your total and permanent disability. To qualify for a TPD discharge, you must complete and submit a TPD discharge application, along with documentation showing that you meet requirements for being considered totally and permanently disabled, to Nelnet, the servicer that assists the U.S. Department of Education with the TPD discharge process. A qualified physician must sign off that you are 100% totally and permanently disabled. There will be a 3-year monitoring period. You cannot work and bring in taxable income and cannot go back to school again funded by federal grants or education loans.
TEACHER LOAN FORGIVENESS
This program is great for teachers that have worked 5 consecutive years at a qualifying Title 1 School (does not have to be the same school for those 5 years). Teachers must not have had an outstanding balance on Direct Loans or Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans as of Oct. 1, 1998, or on the date that you obtained a Direct Loan or FFEL Program loan after Oct. 1, 1998. Teachers must have been employed as a fulltime, highly qualified teacher for five complete and consecutive academic years, and at least one of those years must have been after the 1997–98 academic year. Teachers must have been employed at an elementary school, secondary school, or educational service agency that serves low-income students. The loan(s) for which you are seeking forgiveness must have been made before the end of your five academic years of qualifying teaching service. Potential forgiveness is up to $17,500.
STUDENT LOAN REHABILITATION
One option for getting your loan out of default is loan rehabilitation. To rehabilitate a defaulted Direct Loan or FFEL Program loan, you must agree in writing to make nine voluntary, reasonable, and affordable monthly payments (as determined by borrower’s income and expenses) within 20 days of the due date, and make all 9 payments during a period of 10 consecutive months. Under a loan rehabilitation agreement, your loan holder will determine a reasonable monthly payment amount that is equal to 15 percent of your annual discretionary income, divided by 12. Depending on your income, your monthly payment under a loan rehabilitation agreement could be as low as $5. Payments must be made in installments to demonstrate your credit worthiness. You can only successfully complete a rehab program once in the lifetime of the current loan that you owe. Be very careful not to default on a rehabilitated student loan as you will not qualify for another rehabilitation program which could lead to wage garnishments and/or tax offset.
WAGE GARNISHMENT AID
If you have defaulted on your student loans and are currently getting your wages garnished, we may be able to help stop this action after a certain period of time. Your loan holder can order your employer to withhold up to 20 percent of your disposable pay to collect your defaulted debt without taking you to court. This withholding (“garnishment”) continues until your defaulted loan is paid in full or removed from default. Wage garnishments can also be factored into your debt to income ratios when buying a home.
TAX OFFSET AID
The Department of Education could request that the U.S. Department of the Treasury withhold money from your federal income tax refunds. This could mean that when you file your taxes the difference that is owed on your student loans could be taken from you. We can assist if this is the case for you.
