General financial aid questions

[axm028400]

I am a fourth year medical student about to start residency and while considering my loan repayment options have ran into some questions:
1. How solid is IBR and the PSFL program? Say I start paying into them and eight years down the road, can these programs be taken away, or are they guaranteed once you start paying into them? I'd just heard that many people who are doing the IBR don't really have a means of documenting that their payments are being put towards the PSLF program and that there is no real office to confirm that these payments are counting. It would be awful if I made all of these payments and then 10 years down the road no one is able to confirm that I am done with these payments!
2. Is it better to put some of your loans into forbearance and more aggressively pay into the loans with higher interest rates in lieu of PSLF/IBR (I have a lot of grad plus loans with interest rates pushing 8%, yikes!)
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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[Monsterdaddy]

I am a fourth year medical student about to start residency and while considering my loan repayment options have ran into some questions:
1. How solid is IBR and the PSFL program? Say I start paying into them and eight years down the road, can these programs be taken away, or are they guaranteed once you start paying into them? I'd just heard that many people who are doing the IBR don't really have a means of documenting that their payments are being put towards the PSLF program and that there is no real office to confirm that these payments are counting. It would be awful if I made all of these payments and then 10 years down the road no one is able to confirm that I am done with these payments!
2. Is it better to put some of your loans into forbearance and more aggressively pay into the loans with higher interest rates in lieu of PSLF/IBR (I have a lot of grad plus loans with interest rates pushing 8%, yikes!)
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

1) What Congress giveth, they can taketh away. But in most cases, they will have grandfather clauses. IBR is real as of today, PSLF will become reality in 2017 when we have the first applications for forgiveness.

It shouldn't be hard to keep documentation of your employment. Pay stubs, offer letters, contacting HR, etc.

2) No, no, no... unless you change your mind and stop working for public service orgs.

There is one downside to IBR and waiting for PSLF, your credit may be negatively affected by the high loan balances.