Loan Deferment

[Thirteen]

Every semester, I have to prove I'm doing what I was doing the previous semester for my grad program. It's always a pain, and quickly becomes "Well, the school said..." vs. "Well, your loan company said..." WHATEVER. I do *MY* job, why can't two groups talk without my translation services?

*grumble*

-A

[HouseofWool]

Ugh - I am so glad to be done with that portion of my life!

[oceanchild]

If it makes you feel any better, this is what happened when I withdrew from grad school last week:

1. Email program admin person (Karen).

2. Karen fwds email to program admission person (Nikki).

3. Nikki says talk to Bursar's office.

4. Bursar's office says talk to registrar.

5. Registrar says talk to program (person I've never met).

6. Program person says talk to Karen.

I finally gave up and brought the form to the registrar, and then it took them a day to confirm with the program that I really could withdraw.

If someone who works for the federal government thinks your bureaucracy is bad, you know you have a problem.

[scarlett09]

wildfin and oceanchild, I feel your pain. I had to fill out forms at the registrar's office to get my loan holder to put me on deferrment this semester. It was the first time ever that I had to do that (usually the school just communicated my registration status to the loan holder and then I got notice saying my loans would be deferred for a semester). The good news is that after I filled out that form, I got a notice from the loan holder that everything (undergrad and grad) is deferred through May 2011, which is when I expect to graduate. Yay! No more trying to figure out how to change my deferrment status every semester!

But I'm waiting ever-so-patiently for that refund check. The joys of being a full-time grad student.

[HouseofWool]

If someone who works for the federal government thinks your bureaucracy is bad, you know you have a problem.

[scrub-jay]

I've always had better luck calling the loan agency, explaining that I needed an in-school deferrment. They took the school information (of course the school hadn't informed them of everything) and they made the calls to the school to verify that I was indeed in-school and qualified for the deferrment. I received a letter 5 days letter from the loan agency saying that my deferrment had been processed and was in-effect.

I usually try to avoid going through the school processes, way more trouble! Good luck!!

[MarissaNicole]

I'm not looking forward to handling this for DH when he starts residency... I've heard its a pain because they often want to talk to the loan holder but a resident does have much time to take care of these things! I've also heard horror stories about having to do it every several months when there were several different lenders! Thank goodness DH's loans are all through the same lender!

[bokelley]

I'm not looking forward to handling this for DH when he starts residency... I've heard its a pain because they often want to talk to the loan holder but a resident does have much time to take care of these things! I've also heard horror stories about having to do it every several months when there were several different lenders! Thank goodness DH's loans are all through the same lender!

Oh great, this gives me something to look forward too

I'm not looking forward to handling this for DH when he starts residency... I've heard its a pain because they often want to talk to the loan holder but a resident does have much time to take care of these things! I've also heard horror stories about having to do it every several months when there were several different lenders! Thank goodness DH's loans are all through the same lender!

Well, the Obama administration wants moms to go back to school, but they forgot that some of those moms have husbands with tons of loans that the government will now not defer! DH was not able to get an economic hardship deferrment during this year of his residency because the current government took away that program. Now, we either have to go into forebearance (interest capitalizes upon interest), or we go into repayment. Neither of those are any good for us. So be very careful when you're in residency to read the fine print very carefully. (Hey, I mean no disrespect to our President, but it just sucks for us, in case you were wondering)

I'm not looking forward to handling this for DH when he starts residency... I've heard its a pain because they often want to talk to the loan holder but a resident does have much time to take care of these things! I've also heard horror stories about having to do it every several months when there were several different lenders! Thank goodness DH's loans are all through the same lender!

We only defer his one combined 30 year loan. This post is actually reminding me that I need to get on this again. We did it last year, I printed off the deferment forms from our lender website, filled everything out, DH signed it, and then he had to take it to his program director to certify and fill out her portion to verify he is in a residency program. We only have to do it once a year and they also confirmed we can keep deferring as long as he is in training - so throughout fellowship for the next 2 years. I never had to talk to anyone on the phone nor did they know I basically handled it all except his signature.

[Thirteen]

I finally won!
Yesterday, after submitting two forms and proof of enrollment AND STILL NOT GETTING MY REQUEST processed, I camped out on the phone for 40 minutes and said "I'll wait" while people scrambled to figure out where they had gone wrong. (Mind you, this has been a 1 1/2 month long process, with no results).

The lady, Sheila, tells me she'll do it herself that moment AND SHE DID. Sheila, you've restored my faith in the system and customer service.
Now, why did it take one person 5 minutes to fix this error when I battled for 45 days with no success?

Grrr.

[MarissaNicole]

Well, the Obama administration wants moms to go back to school, but they forgot that some of those moms have husbands with tons of loans that the government will now not defer! DH was not able to get an economic hardship deferrment during this year of his residency because the current government took away that program. Now, we either have to go into forebearance (interest capitalizes upon interest), or we go into repayment. Neither of those are any good for us. So be very careful when you're in residency to read the fine print very carefully. (Hey, I mean no disrespect to our President, but it just sucks for us, in case you were wondering)

Yes I do know all about this because I was fretting about it last year when DH told me that he was interested in a 7+ year residency.

These new loan policies were actually signed into effect by Bush (not like it makes a difference) but they were meant to help people who take out large loans and will never make large paychecks... they took away the income based deferrment and now offer IBR (income based repayment). It sucks for people like us but it will help those like social workers who take on big loans to never be well compensated.

We have already decided we are going to forbear (after our three years of deferrment) and then pay what we can... this way we will not be obligated to pay (in case we cannot afford to) but we will still be able to pay off interest or whatever we can afford to contribute.

The whole situation is horrible if you ask me. There are tons of people going into law school right now who will acquire $100k+ in debt and most likely be unable to get a job when they graduate....(but I guess these people will be able to take advantage of the IBR)

[MarissaNicole]

Yay Wildifin!

This requirement is truly annyoing, there must be a better way for the gov't to keep track of it. I'm slowly, and in small increments paying my loans off so at least I don't have to keep up with this correspondence.

Glad you got that settled finally.

When we had student loans before (mine), we actually chose to pay off the student loan balance instead of credit card debt, even though the CC rate was worse, because Sallie Mae's customer service was THAT BAD.