Intern now: are y'all doing IBR? and when to consolidate?

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tyman123

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Since graduation this summer, I haven't really been in touch with my loan company. I was told to consolidate my loans in September. Are you guys all doing this?
And is pretty much everyone doing IBR in hopes of 10 year loan forgiveness?
 
Also are you guys putting down $0 as your adjustable gross income? I'm making intern year salary... but that's starting now... made 0 last year as MS4.
 
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You would put down your previous year salary, so $0. I would be cautious of consolidation depending on the interest rates of your loans. IBR is great in the fact that it lowers the amount you have to pay. There are multiple people who use IBR and are not planning on pairing it with PSLF (if they won't be working at a 501(c)3). When you transition out, you have to still work for a non-profit for the PSLF to work. If you have high amounts of student loans, with high interest, it might make sense to pair with PSLF. We won't see the first person's loans forgiven until 2017 though. I wouldn't bank on that being a guarantee, but it is the best option for some.
 
I did not file tax returns last year however. Can I still put down 0? Also, how do you pair with PSLF... Is this done with your loan provider on the phone or something?

I was told to consolidate in September to get it in before my grace period ends in Nov.
 
tyman123 said:
I did not file tax returns last year however. Can I still put down 0? Also, how do you pair with PSLF... Is this done with your loan provider on the phone or something?

I was told to consolidate in September to get it in before my grace period ends in Nov.
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This is what I'm doing. I'm actually waiting for the final statement to come for approval. Once I have IBR, I will start the PSLF process which I believe has to be filed yearly.

I put $0 as my AGI, but since I was a new applicant to IBR I was asked to give income verification. So, I sent an explanation with the necessary paperwork that I was a student last year and this year will be making half my intern salary.

Edit: I would get the ball rolling sooner than later, because there is a long time that passes. I filed on July 15 and my income verification was received a week after that. It's now 9/5 and I still don't have the final paperwork. It does take a long time for them to approve you and get the loan status of all your loans from your servicers.
 
Anyone else consolidating now? And any other opinions?
 
Please note that only Direct Loans in IBR are eligible for PSLF. So if you have old loans in IBR they are not eligible for PSLF. To get around this do direct loan consolidation and only from the date the new consolidated loan enters IBR do you qualify for PSLF. So those that have been in IBR but the loans were not Direct Loans your clock will have to restart. If you have a mix of Direct loans and old loans consolidate only the old loans. This is because if you consolidate your Direct loans and old loans into a single Direct Consolidation Loan then you resent your 120-payment clock. When you do consolidation application you can select which loans to consolidate.

This is from PSLF site: http://studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/charts/public-service
--------------------
Only loans you received under the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program are eligible for PSLF. Loans you received under the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program, the Federal Perkins Loan (Perkins Loan) Program, or any other student loan program are not eligible for PSLF.

If you have FFEL Program or Perkins Loan Program loans, you may consolidate them into a Direct Consolidation Loan to take advantage of PSLF. However, only payments you make on the new Direct Consolidation Loan will count toward the required 120 qualifying payments for PSLF. Payments made on your FFEL Program or Perkins Loan Program loans before you consolidated them, even if they were made under a qualifying repayment plan, do not count as qualifying PSLF payments. In addition, if you made qualifying payments on a Direct Loan and then consolidate it into a Direct Consolidation Loan, you must make 120 qualifying payments on the Direct Consolidation Loan.
--------------------------
 
Igor4sugry said:
Please note that only Direct Loans in IBR are eligible for PSLF. So if you have old loans in IBR they are not eligible for PSLF. To get around this do direct loan consolidation and only from the date the new consolidated loan enters IBR do you qualify for PSLF. So those that have been in IBR but the loans were not Direct Loans your clock will have to restart. If you have a mix of Direct loans and old loans consolidate only the old loans. This is because if you consolidate your Direct loans and old loans into a single Direct Consolidation Loan then you resent your 120-payment clock. When you do consolidation application you can select which loans to consolidate.

This is from PSLF site: http://studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/charts/public-service
--------------------
Only loans you received under the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program are eligible for PSLF. Loans you received under the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program, the Federal Perkins Loan (Perkins Loan) Program, or any other student loan program are not eligible for PSLF.

If you have FFEL Program or Perkins Loan Program loans, you may consolidate them into a Direct Consolidation Loan to take advantage of PSLF. However, only payments you make on the new Direct Consolidation Loan will count toward the required 120 qualifying payments for PSLF. Payments made on your FFEL Program or Perkins Loan Program loans before you consolidated them, even if they were made under a qualifying repayment plan, do not count as qualifying PSLF payments. In addition, if you made qualifying payments on a Direct Loan and then consolidate it into a Direct Consolidation Loan, you must make 120 qualifying payments on the Direct Consolidation Loan.
--------------------------
Click to expand...
This is good information. I had old loans and thus consolidated (well am in the process) and am waiting for my statement (which is supposedly in the mail).
 
Medikit said:
The real advantage of IBR is Loan Forgiveness:

http://www.ibrinfo.org/can.vp.html
Click to expand...
IBR without PSLF will not be helpful with loan forgiveness. Yes- you get the loans forgiven after 25 years just being in IBR, but do you really want to stomach the IBR payments for all those years you are out in practice? No- they will be too large and there won't be anything left to forgive. If you have multiple years left in training and can squeeze some small IBR payments and get 5+ years of the 10 required for PSLF, I say it is worth it. Those <5 years of high IBR payments can make sense if interest rates and loan amounts are high.
 
Bacchus said:
This is what I'm doing. I'm actually waiting for the final statement to come for approval. Once I have IBR, I will start the PSLF process which I believe has to be filed yearly.

I put $0 as my AGI, but since I was a new applicant to IBR I was asked to give income verification. So, I sent an explanation with the necessary paperwork that I was a student last year and this year will be making half my intern salary.

Edit: I would get the ball rolling sooner than later, because there is a long time that passes. I filed on July 15 and my income verification was received a week after that. It's now 9/5 and I still don't have the final paperwork. It does take a long time for them to approve you and get the loan status of all your loans from your servicers.
Click to expand...


what did you file? I'm about to consolidate and put down $0 for my AGI. I don't want to put this down and have it delayed and get screwed. Should I just put my annual salary in there
 
tyman123 said:
what did you file? I'm about to consolidate and put down $0 for my AGI. I don't want to put this down and have it delayed and get screwed. Should I just put my annual salary in there
Click to expand...
I did the application online. I put my AGI as $0, which is true. Since I'm a new filer they asked me to send in the income verification PDF provided. I did, and sent a letter detailing I didn't mind beginning to make payments and gave them a photocopy of my check. They did take it at face value, however, and did not half it for this year.

From beginning to end, this will take ~3 months. I filed on July 15, finally got a list of all the loans to be consolidated on Monday, and now have to wait 15 days. If they don't hear from me in 15 days they will disseminate my payments to my loan organizations and then I'll begin making payments ~2 months after that.

The part that stinks is my grace period was shortened so I may technically get bills before they pay off my lenders so now I have to sit around on ~3500 worth of money I could put in a Roth or use to pay off my car loan in case I have to make a loan payment at the original terms before the consolidation takes effect.
 
I guess since I'm consolidating this late and I've already started making income, will I even be able to put down $0 as my AGI. Is AGI based on previous year or current income?

I don't want to put down zero incorrectly, and have there be unnecessary delays in consolidation, since my grace period ends in November.
 
You report your 2012 AGI, which for most of us is $0. But then there's a question that asks if that reflects your current situation, so you'd say "no" and submit current documentation of income. Lots of people also add that they are only employed for 6 out of 12 months, and sometimes the lender will then base your IBR/PAYE payments off of that half year's worth of income, rather than the full year.
 
When I enter 2012 AGI, which is 0, it then asks me to enter current income information (which I am making as a PGY-1). When I do so, it says "this is inconsistent with the AGI you entered, do you want to use new amount as you AGI?"

Hmmm. I almost feel like I HAVE to enter half year's salary at this point. Any way around this?
 
tyman123 said:
When I enter 2012 AGI, which is 0, it then asks me to enter current income information (which I am making as a PGY-1). When I do so, it says "this is inconsistent with the AGI you entered, do you want to use new amount as you AGI?"

Hmmm. I almost feel like I HAVE to enter half year's salary at this point. Any way around this?
Click to expand...

You could lie. Otherwise, no.
 
tyman123 said:
When I enter 2012 AGI, which is 0, it then asks me to enter current income information (which I am making as a PGY-1). When I do so, it says "this is inconsistent with the AGI you entered, do you want to use new amount as you AGI?"

Hmmm. I almost feel like I HAVE to enter half year's salary at this point. Any way around this?
Click to expand...
FWIW, they're estimating my payments on a full year's salary. For $52499 its ~440-450 bucks a month. Just budget for it.
 
What's everyone else been doing who's consolidating right around now with respect to this AGI issue?
 
I was advised by a service representative to put $0 for my AGI. For my income I don't recall what I put because I can't access that portion of the application. I would just call them and ask them what to do if you're unsure. In the end I had to submit income verification anyway.
 
Bacchus said:
I did the application online. I put my AGI as $0, which is true. Since I'm a new filer they asked me to send in the income verification PDF provided. I did, and sent a letter detailing I didn't mind beginning to make payments and gave them a photocopy of my check. They did take it at face value, however, and did not half it for this year.

From beginning to end, this will take ~3 months. I filed on July 15, finally got a list of all the loans to be consolidated on Monday, and now have to wait 15 days. If they don't hear from me in 15 days they will disseminate my payments to my loan organizations and then I'll begin making payments ~2 months after that.

The part that stinks is my grace period was shortened so I may technically get bills before they pay off my lenders so now I have to sit around on ~3500 worth of money I could put in a Roth or use to pay off my car loan in case I have to make a loan payment at the original terms before the consolidation takes effect.
Click to expand...

Uh oh! Am I going to be in trouble? I want to consolidate one a Student Health Loan into my Direct loans, and then start IBRing all of them together. I was holding off on consolidation of the Student Health Loan since it has a nice deferment period up until June 2014. However, if it really takes this long to get everything consolidated, and IBR takes even longer to set up, am I going to hit my January and have to start making payments even before my consolidation occurs (if I started with consolidation process today)?
 
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