Question regarding Loan Consolidation

[MexicanDr]

I am currently an RN in the process of applying to PA/NP School. I have a previous degree before nursing so I have some student loans (Federal). I want to consolidate them as this will work best for me, but I understand that after doing 120 payments (10 years) I could qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program since I will be and have been working in a medically underserved area.



My question is: What option/Lender do I chose under the Direct Loan Consolidation Program to be able to apply or be eligible for PSLF? Has any of you done this using the www.studentloans.gov website?

Which would you feel is the best payment plan when you are planning to have your loans forgiven after the 120 payments?


This is the bottom Lenders to consolidate the loans.



Servicer Name Servicer Address Servicer Phone Servicer Website FedLoan Servicing (PHEAA) FedLoan Servicing
P.O. Box 69184
Harrisburg, PA 17106-9184 USA 1-800-699-2908 MyFedLoan.org/manage-account/consolidation/index.shtml Nelnet PO Box 82658
Lincoln, NE 68501-2658 USA 1-866-426-6765 Nelnet.com Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc. Consolidation Department
P.O. Box 8956
Madison, WI 53708-8956 USA 1-800-236-4300 MyGreatLakes.org Sallie Mae Attn: ED Loan Consolidation
PO Box 6180
Indianapolis, IN 46206-6180 USA 1-800-722-1300 SallieMae.com/FederalLoans

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[RangerBob]

When you apply for a consolidation loan there's a little box on the application where you mark that you intend to take advantage of PSLF--this will consolidate your loans with FedLoan, which is the servicer that will start tracking your payments now. Of course, payments made to other servicers still count towards PSLF (unless you consolidate--when you do that you start all over on the loans being consolidated since you now have a new loan). I just went through this when consolidated some of my pre-Direct Loan loans so they'd be eligible for PSLF--though in all honesty I think the odds are PSLF staying around, especially in its current form, are exceedingly low. But I won't be done with residency until 2017 (so I was going to do IBR regardless up until then) and hopefully at that point we will know of PSLF will be staying around.

I also want to clarify that working in a medically underserved area does not qualify you for PSLF--that's the criteria for the National Health Corps programs (at least I think it's called the National Health Corps). PSLF refers to working for a public service/non-profit agency, such as a county hospital, VA hospital, or a non-profit hospital (though for non-profits you have to be very careful--at least for physicians you are often not employed by the non-profit hospital but by a for-profit physician's group contracted by the hospital, so you need to pay attention to who will actually sign your paycheck.)

The best repayment plan depends on your circumstances. But you can technically enter repayment on those federal loans you have while you're in NP/PA school, during which your income will be $0, so you could apply for income-based repayment or pay-as-you-earn (IBR/PAYE), which would give you $0 payments and count towards PSLF. As long as you reapply for the program on-time each year it doesn't cost you anything while in school, but in theory (assuming the government doesn't change any eligibility criteria) those years spent "repaying" the loan(s) while in PA/NP school count towards PSLF.