Give your students a heads up to start preparing for student loan payments resuming 60 days from June 30

[jo-jo]

Thank you for this. We’ve had some frustrating moments where there were comments made by family about those lazy “children” choosing to not pay their loans.

I’m not happy with the whole idea of government paying toward student loans, but if I had a loan for anything ……car, house, credit card…. And they said you don’t need to make a payment now and no interest, I’d be putting that money toward a bill that was charging interest. That’s being smart. The problem is, are people doing that or saying “ hey, we have extra money, let’s buy a new……”?

 

[LuvOrlando]

There should still be a media blitz on this to reach young adults, there is a lot riding on this:

https://studentaid.gov/help-center/answers/article/how-to-find-my-loan-servicer

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Mine has continued to pay hers the whole time they were suspended- she figured she was working and making money so she might as well pay them down.

Same but then I stopped due to some unexpected bills but I did get a large portion paid off

 

[Hubalorian]

I’m not happy with the whole idea of government paying toward student loans, but if I had a loan for anything ……car, house, credit card…. And they said you don’t need to make a payment now and no interest, I’d be putting that money toward a bill that was charging interest. That’s being smart. The problem is, are people doing that or saying “ hey, we have extra money, let’s buy a new……”?

I wonder if you're okay with the government helping businesses in a very similar way….. not all businesses will benefit from helping some…… not very capitalistic either considering a new business should be there to take their place when one fails……

 

[jo-jo]

I wonder if you're okay with the government helping businesses in a very similar way….. not all businesses will benefit from helping some…… not very capitalistic either considering a new business should be there to take their place when one fails……

You like the too big to fail type stuff? I don’t understand how businesses can get help when the ceo or whomever is getting 8 million a year salary.

of course I can’t understand what people do with mega salaries year after year.

now I’m a cheap person at heart. In almost 45 years of marriage, we’ve only had one loan….a mortgage.

 

[Hubalorian]

You like the too big to fail type stuff? I don’t understand how businesses can get help when the ceo or whomever is getting 8 million a year salary.

of course I can’t understand what people do with mega salaries year after year.

now I’m a cheap person at heart. In almost 45 years of marriage, we’ve only had one loan….a mortgage.

I’m actually fine with anyone receiving help when they need it but I have problems when people pick and choose who or what gets the help.

 

[Sanchez]

I’m actually fine with anyone receiving help when they need it but I have problems when people pick and choose who or what gets the help.

I think that one can intelligently and rationally prioritize personal positions on these things. You can be for some things and against some things. Are you advocating a position where either everyone receives help or no one receives help?

 

[Hubalorian]

I think that one can intelligently and rationally prioritize personal positions on these things. You can be for some things and against some things. Are you advocating a position where either everyone receives help or no one receives help?

My stance I guess is that the government does owe the citizens quite a bit given we pay quite a bit in taxes. As a tax paying citizen how that money is spent should be aligned with my values or the majorities values (within constitutional limits). The government absolutely should help people and prioritize how to do so. However I am against general statements without data to support how government aid is being spent.

Just for the record, I work for a public agency and could substantially more money privately but that wouldn’t solve the issues I am working to address.

 

[LuvOrlando]

So it seems Nerdwallet is directing a bit of attention to this very important issue. I really hope all the other financial institutions dig into the subject with useful articles and discussion so we have ample information and financial options to select from as a massive number of potential customers enter the market. Best case scenario is the banks who are currently staring for sources of revenue turn their eyes here for inventive products to offer consumers in exchange for a steady revenue stream.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/who-is-my-loan-servicer

If I remember correctly, I was able to find reviews of the various entities into which these loans flowed from the source. Some loan servicers had tons of scathing reviews and others fared better in customer reviews so look carefully. As I understand it, those with the most complaints regarding damaging handling of payments etc. which hurt people, in some cases damaging credit with inexplicable delays in posting to the account and often preventing the forgiveness the customers were due, were recently removed/reorganized etc with the hope people will have better experiences. I really hope there will be some third party reviewer put in place to arbitrate or handle these complaints in the future as the process is streamlined, time will tell.

 

[clori]

My daughter who graduated in 21 (Bachelors) and 22 (master's) is fully aware of when she needs to start paying. She does not need anyone to tell her. Her job has been paying a bit each month since she started right after her BS so she has a decent start.

 

[wvjules]

My daughter who graduated in 21 (Bachelors) and 22 (master's) is fully aware of when she needs to start paying. She does not need anyone to tell her. Her job has been paying a bit each month since she started right after her BS so she has a decent start.

Cool for your daughter. Some others may need a reminder.

 

[easyas123]

My daughter who graduated in 21 (Bachelors) and 22 (master's) is fully aware of when she needs to start paying. She does not need anyone to tell her

Which is the responsible way to be aware of her obligations, she's an example of WHAT to do as an adult who is managing her business.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Here is a student loan repayment calculator.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/student-loan-calculator

Now would be a good time to talk to different loan servicers to get a feel for all the different options so everyone picks the best possible option for themselves. I would expect more options to show up over time so keep looking, it would be odd for financial institutions to not compete for such a large market.

In my experience, in general, fixed loans for the longest possible term are nearly always preferential regardless of why the loan is sought. As long as such a loan has no repayment penalty, a borrower can make this sort of loan function just like a shorter term loan by simply adding more principal payments when desired. This way you pay more when you can afford it while enjoying the fact that there is no obligation to keep up at that pace if a sudden financial emergency pops up, reducing the chances of you missing payments. Fixed rates allow people to budget with a set amount, if rates go down in the future you can refinance at your own discretion.

Variable is what the financial institutions prefer because if interest rates climb up they don't miss out & simply transfer the increase in interest to the borrower. They appear appealing because the payments look lower at first glance, but the borrower's exposure to potential volatility in the rates can be very damaging to people, especially those without a lot of wiggle room. What happens is, if interest rates go up they squeeze people, and then those people usually struggle to stay ahead, which means their credit score generally takes a dip, which makes it tough to quality for an alternative loan so they get stuck, really stuck.

Overall, just look carefully and read ALL the fine print to make the best selection for you, whatever that might be.

Oh, and take the time to look for reviews of the different lenders, some have appalling complaints against them.

BE VERY CAREFUL, PREDATORY LOAN PRACTICES ARE A VERY REAL THING.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

In almost 45 years of marriage, we’ve only had one loan….a mortgage.

Sometimes tidbits like this really matter in the conversation. We are all influenced by our experiences.

You know what loans I've had? Student loans and a mortgage. I'm guessing if you've had 45 years of marriage you're at very different age bracket than me. Am I really all that different from you on an individual level? Or is it just that I went to school went loans were the only way to go and either you didn't go to college (not my first assumption) OR you went to college when college was so dirt cheap loans weren't really a thing back then.

FWIW all my stimulus money I got went towards my private loans I had (that didn't qualify anyhow under the pause) as well as we continued to pay our Federal loans which have been long paid off now (end of 2021). I hope that assuages your opinion of me

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Which is the responsible way to be aware of her obligations, she's an example of WHAT to do as an adult who is managing her business.

I agree although I can see why it can get confusing after a while combine that with how the pandemic has affected a lot of people.

My Federal loan switched I want to say 3 times but even I'm not completely positive. I know for sure 2 because it was under Navient for a very long time until they stopped doing loans then it was switched to Aidvantage although I paid it completely off before they become my actual servicer.

I had 3 private loans (1 of them was an endowment loan paid off long long ago). The remaining 2 private loans were sold several times over the course of the time I had them, one time they just switched names from Younomics to UAS. Wells Fargo held one of them for a very long time but then Wells Fargo got out of the biz so it switched to aww heck I'm forgetting now.

Of course I would have gotten notices and did on all this stuff but suffice to say just like any normal person things get shuffled, lost, buried, or confused on so yeah a responsible adult knows these things but things can also get messy too.

I know for my husband his Federal loan was Navient then went to Mohela or was it Mohela first then Navient...yeah IDK.

 

[easyas123]

My Federal loan switched I want to say 3 times

Yes, that happens. It also happens w/ mortgages and other loans not associated w/ student loans.

My point was, if one is responsible enough to take out a loan then one ought to be responsible to keep track of it, and keep up with the status of it as time goes on. Can it be a new or daunting process if one hasn't gone thru it before and/or isn't familiar with the process? sure! That's why it behooves them even more so to be aware of their responsibilities with this debt. Not being aware, not knowing, head in sand is no way to go thru life. Can individual people get caught up with a snafu now and again? Yes, but in general the group of people with these loans can't just claim " no one told us" or "but we didn't know" or "I wasn't paying attention, I thought someone would tell me" isn't going to cut it in life in general in my opinion.
Of course, others will have different opinions.
And of course, there will be young folks who get fouled up somehow with this, and if they do perhaps going forward they should make it a habit to be more aware of the responsibilities that they took on.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Yes, that happens. It also happens w/ mortgages and other loans not associated w/ student loans.

My point was, if one is responsible enough to take out a loan then one ought to be responsible to keep track of it, and keep up with the status of it as time goes on. Can it be a new or daunting process if one hasn't gone thru it before and/or isn't familiar with the process? sure! That's why it behooves them even more so to be aware of their responsibilities with this debt. Not being aware, not knowing, head in sand is no way to go thru life. Can individual people get caught up with a snafu now and again? Yes, but in general the group of people with these loans can't just claim " no one told us" or "but we didn't know" or "I wasn't paying attention, I thought someone would tell me" isn't going to cut it in life in general in my opinion.
Of course, others will have different opinions.
And of course, there will be young folks who get fouled up somehow with this, and if they do perhaps going forward they should make it a habit to be more aware of the responsibilities that they took on.

Def. happens with mortgages and whatnot. I almost thought to mention that but figured people would think of that as well when they comment their opinions although guessing some people do forget that student loans aren't really all that different from other loans such as mortgages, HELOC, personal loans, car loans, etc.

It's not just young people. I know that's the image that people think of but it's full fledged adults too who have loans (many of them with staggering amounts as they went for high dollar degrees).

As far as the rest of your comment that's why I put in about the pandemic. In truth those who were in college when the pandemic started, with the pause, with all the craziness who never experienced paying the loan in the first place I'm a tad more understanding there. I'm absolutely a type of person that is about personal responsibility but I do think we tend to forget or block out what life had been like and what it could be like for people who either made only some payments or didn't make any.

Recently our DISer friends were talking about the things we did during the pandemic from 1 way aisles to the baking bread crazy to the sea shanty taking the nation by storm (no pun intended lol). So yeah I don't think it's the right thing to do to completely make yourself oblivious to your responsibilities but I get it a wee bit more here. And even the student loan servicers have been one of the main voices to say "we're not ready" "you're going to crash our systems" in regards to any talks about a looming deadline for repayment periods to begin.

 

[jo-jo]

Sometimes tidbits like this really matter in the conversation. We are all influenced by our experiences.

You know what loans I've had? Student loans and a mortgage. I'm guessing if you've had 45 years of marriage you're at very different age bracket than me. Am I really all that different from you on an individual level? Or is it just that I went to school went loans were the only way to go and either you didn't go to college (not my first assumption) OR you went to college when college was so dirt cheap loans weren't really a thing back then.

FWIW all my stimulus money I got went towards my private loans I had (that didn't qualify anyhow under the pause) as well as we continued to pay our Federal loans which have been long paid off now (end of 2021). I hope that assuages your opinion of me

Well first of all , I got married in first grade. Very progressive.

No, I didn't go to college, no money at all. I mean at all. For my HS graduation, my mother offered to buy a bucket of KFC. I turned it down. That would be too much of a splurge. I could share how poor were you stories all day long. Which of course colors my view of kids "needing " the new iphone 57 even though they have the Iphone 56. I have no idea what the number is.

But my DH did go for years (PhD), no loans for him either.

But I have no issues of people getting loans for any reason. But if you apply for a loan, I expect one is planning to pay off that loan. Of course there are always exceptions, third year of loan, you are hit with some major medical issue, etc.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Well first of all , I got married in first grade. Very progressive.

No, I didn't go to college, no money at all. I mean at all. For my HS graduation, my mother offered to buy a bucket of KFC. I turned it down. That would be too much of a splurge. I could share how poor were you stories all day long. Which of course colors my view of kids "needing " the new iphone 57 even though they have the Iphone 56. I have no idea what the number is.

But my DH did go for years (PhD), no loans for him either.

But I have no issues of people getting loans for any reason. But if you apply for a loan, I expect one is planning to pay off that loan. Of course there are always exceptions, third year of loan, you are hit with some major medical issue, etc.

I also didn't have much money but the only way I could go to college (for which I paid for myself because my mom couldn't afford anything to do so) was loans and as I have been vocal about in the past FAFSA assumes parental involvement in paying for college and thus figures your student aid on that regardless of whether they actually are.

I fully took on the responsibility of paying for them myself and always have. But if you haven't had student loans that started around the Great Recession it may be harder to understand the situation people are in. It has gotten progressively worse over the years but that time period where the Great Recession happened to now has been a prolonged mess and now we've had more than 3 years of a pause due to a global pandemic that forever changed the world.

And like I just mentioned in another comment the biggest proponent for extending the pauses multiple times over were the servicers because they were adamant they were not ready for a resumption of payments en masse and were concerned their systems were fail.

As far as the number of years in your marriage well I've got 10 years of marriage married at age 24 almost 25, if you've been married for 35 years longer than me my assumption is there's at least a decent age difference between you and I. The college loan landscape was radically different years ago so even if you had gone to college your expenses and your experience with loans would have been very different. People who say they could get by with a summer job and go to college with no loans are speaking about a bygone era that has long been forgotten.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Some more info
https://educationdata.org/student-loan-debt-statistics