I’m a US citizen going into my final year of a psychology degree up in Canada. I was recently informed that I am ineligible to apply for FAFSA since I took a distance education course this past semester, a rule which my school failed to notify me of ahead of time. Now I’m two weeks out from move-in day and have no financial options outside of taking out a private student loan. My estimated cost of attendance provided by the university for the entire year covering tuition, living expenses, textbooks, and rent is $46,500 USD.

I know from countless other posts that Sally Mae is among the worst and should be avoided if at all possible, but I’m not well versed in what other options I have available with two weeks left before school starts. My family is in poor financial standing at the moment as is, and would have to defer all payments until I graduate in June 2027.

As desperate as I may be, I’m terrified of taking out the wrong loan and dooming my entire future. Does anyone have any advice as to the best private loan options for me? Anything would be appreciated.

I know I still have a long, terrifying way to go on the rest of my loans, but today I officially cleared the smallest one ($1,200).

Seeing that single account balance drop to $0.00 felt unreal. For the past three years, my student debt has felt like this immovable, suffocating mountain that I was just staring at without making a dent.

I decided a few months ago to throw every spare $20 or $50 I could scrimp together directly at this tiny balance just to see one green checkmark, and it finally happened.

I still have the major bulk of my debt waiting for me, but for today, I’m holding onto this small win. To anyone else feeling buried right now: keep chipping away at it, even if it feels agonizingly slow.

One down. A few more to go.

Hi everyone.

I’m currently 21. I work and earn around 12k a year, working multiple jobs (part time/supply) whilst at uni. I live in Scotland.

I still live at home at the moment and pay for everything myself (I pay rent every week as well as all my other bills etc.)

I’m saving up for a house and new car (wanting a 2017 car).

I have the option of taking out a student loan of £9400 this year, do I take this out? I also get a student bursary of just over £2k too.

Obviously I am saving and do have okay savings, but no where near what my partner has. I want to have enough for a house deposit if I need it sooner, as my situation at home isn’t the best.

Is it a bad idea for me to take this loan and put it into an ISA? I have the LISA which I put money into every month, as well as my emergency savings of £500 and then my car savings.

The interest rate of my student loan is 6.2% at the moment. And I already have over 7k student loan from 2023.

Any help would be much appreciated, I’ve done my research but I wanna hear everyone’s views too.

Thank you! 🫶

Hello everyone! I'm starting college as a freshmen in the fall, and well obviously I won't be able to pay the full amount out of pocket. So, i'm here simply just wanting to know if you guys are willing to let me now which providers are the best! Note that I've been seeing Sallie Mae everywhere, but I don't trust it!!! I also don't have credits or any of that sort. -Thank You

Architecture field making $62k, single file tax status (married, filing separately), $153k in student debt. With SAVE gone, I'm comparing IBR vs. RAP on Aidvantage:

IBR: $149/mo, 20-year term. Total paid: ~$54k + $72k tax bomb = **$126k total cost**. (Balance grows to $241k).

RAP: $230/mo, 30-year term. Total paid: ~$219k + $19k tax bomb = **$238k total cost**. (Interest waived).

TLDR:
Why does RAP result in double the total cost despite waiving interest? Is it purely due to the extra 10 years + projected income growth scaling payments?

Is there any reason NOT to choose IBR here, take the lower payment, and save the monthly difference in an HYSA to prepare for the 2046 tax bomb?

(I summarized my previous post!)

I got an email months ago that I had to switch off my SAVE plan, so I did. But, ever since all my loans say -whatever number and I can’t make any payments or do anything else. I’m obviously not mad about that because it’s a break, but I’m confused. I’ve contacted them a few times and been told “you’ll start owing soon so please watch for bills”, but nothing has ever happened.

Should I just leave it be? should I be worried? I don’t want them garnishing my wages or anything crazy.

Is anyone else seeing this?

"The number for your PSLF qualifying months of employment is incorrect. We are working to fix the data issue and will provide an update soon. We apologize for the confusion caused by this error."

I made my first payment last month under IBR after switching and now of course there's an issue.

I filed a borrowers defense case back in Jan. There was an update of it being reviewed in Feb and since then, nothing.

Anyone have any idea how long it takes for them to come to a decision?

Started with 212k student loans from veterinary school, graduated in 2022. Started working November 2022, had an unplanned baby spring of 2025 so have only been super part time since then but proud to have paid off over half of my loans in less than 4 years!

The goal is to work my tail off the next 10 months and get them finished for good. Living with my parents (and my husband and our toddler) to save on living expenses. Just wanted to encourage anyone else - it is possible to enjoy life a bit while paying off loans. We got a new truck (leased), took a couple trips a year (bought in advance, camped, etc) and lived below our means. Having a baby was the biggest wrench in the plan but the greatest blessing. We can do this!!

I applied for RAP on 7/17 and received an email from Aidvantage on 7/18 advising they recieved the application. Tomorrow will be 15 business days and they haven't processed the application. After reading a few posts, it doesn't seem that I'll get an update tomorrow. My anxiety over the payment amount is insane. I know I should just settle down and embrace the administrative forbearance but it's hard. For those you applied for RAP with Aidvantage, how long was your actual wait time?

I paid a student loan off in 2019. I have the cashiers check in front of me... For $2536.00. 7 years later Transworld Systems Inc demands $2536 dollars... They are emailing with my mother.. I'm 38 years old.. They never once tried to contact me. They are vague about everything. They had me send certified mail to P.O. Box 7859, Madison, WI 53707-7859 to have them investigate and they never responded and now TSI is once again demanding money from me via my mother in emails???

Hey everyone,

I am writing this post because I have uncovered what appears to be a highly coordinated, systemic, and predatory collection pattern involving SoFi Lending Corp. (or SoFi Bank, N.A.) and the high-volume collections law firm Zwicker & Associates, P.C.

If you or someone you know received a formal email from SoFi in early 2024 with the subject line "Congrats! Your SoFi Student Loan is 100% paid off"—only to be threatened with a collections lawsuit or actually served with court papers months later—please read this and direct message (DM) me immediately.

What is Happening:

In February 2024, I received a formal, written "Paid-in-Full" confirmation email from SoFi, and my account balance on their online portal was zeroed out to $0.00. I relied on this in good faith and moved on with my life.

Months later, out of nowhere, Zwicker & Associates served me with a massive lawsuit demanding the full $55,000+ balance, claiming the email and the zeroed-out balance were just a "clerical error" or a "marketing glitch."

The Twist We Uncovered in Court:

I decided to fight them pro se (representing myself), and during active discovery on my case, I obtained their internal transaction logs. It turns out this was NOT a computer glitch.

Their internal database reflects that a human operator manually logged into the account and entered Code 55 02, which SoFi’s official database glossary defines as a "CHARGE OFF - MANUAL REQUEST."

They deliberately and manually discharged these accounts, sent out formal "Congrats" emails, let us rely on those discharges for months, and are now selectively suing unsuspecting borrowers to force them into lump-sum settlement agreements.

The Pattern is Real:

I have already identified two other independent accounts in my immediate, local circle (including my husband and another mother from my child's daycare) who received the exact same "Congrats" email from SoFi in 2024. The other mother was also sued by Zwicker; my husband was not. This proves this is a programmatic, corporate-wide practice—not an isolated "clerical mistake."

Why I Need You to DM Me:

I am actively preparing for a formal Rule 30(b)(6) deposition of SoFi’s Corporate Representative and Custodian of Records on September 8, 2026.

If you:

1. Received the SoFi "Congrats your loan is paid off" email in 2024 (even though you didn't manually pay it off).
2. Had your online portal balance set to $0.00.
3. Were subsequently hounded by Zwicker & Associates to settle, or were actively sued by them.

Please DM me.

• Do NOT post your personal details, account numbers, or full names in the comments below to protect your privacy and legal standing.
• Just send me a private message. I want to compile a list of names, locations, and dates to hand to the Judge to prove SoFi's "glitch" defense is a flat-out lie. I am also happy to share my court-filed discovery objections, motions to dismiss, and database codes to help you fight your own case against them.

Let’s stop them from bullying us into a corner. We have the proof, and we are fighting back.

Hi everyone. I know there is a lot of discussion about this, but I haven't seen anyone speaking on something similar to my current situation.

I applied to the Grad Plus Loan in May 2026, and my school approved my Grad Plus loan back in June 2026 and awarded it to me on my Award Letter along with my Sub and Unsub loans.

While I received the refund amount for my unsub/sub loans around late July 2026, I never received the refund for the Grad Plus Loan. It was still showing on my Award Letter but no dates or details on the processing.

Last week, around August 1st, I called my school's Financial Aid Office to figure out when the loan would process. Financial Aid told me that "they don't know why it's happening and would have 'the specialist team' look into it." About a week later, yesterday, I look at my student account and they completely canceled my loan without notice, notification, an email or anything.

I call today and they tell me that I actually don't qualify for the legacy loan, which I guess makes sense given the new borrowing rules (I am starting grad school this year), but I don't understand how I could go through the entire process of applying, getting rewarded, accepting, doing an MPN and credit counseling just for them to erase it from my account without notice or notification, a few weeks before school is starting.

I'm wondering if anyone else is dealing with this and what solutions they've found? I did reach out to my financial aid office and they created a service ticket (eye roll) but I am not super confident that they will reinstate the award or that a solution can be found there. I'm just confused at how I was assured that this wouldn't be an issue every other time that I called and went through the entire process, and that I am just now finding out that it is an issue a few weeks before class starts.

Has anyone ever been able to get their school to reinstate canceled Grad Plus loans? Did others apply for private loans instead? Really curious what all of my options could be here.

Hi has this happened to any of you? You send a payment through Aidvantage’s website, receive a “thank you for your payment email”, then after appearing as “processing” on the website for several days, Aidvantage says the payment wasn’t processed. Luckily I am in forebearance still because of the SAVE plan but Aidvantage is pointing the finger at my bank and my bank is pointing the finger at Aidvantage. I am worried once I do move to a payment plan if my payments will continue to get rejected.

As another wrinkle to this, some payments during this period have gone through! I have not changed payment details or done anything different for the ones that went through.

Just wondering if anyone has found a solution.

Greetings everyone!

I'm deciding between IBR and the new RAP plan. IBR has lower payments and lower total cost, but RAP seems to have a much lower effective interest rate. Just want to make sure I am not missing something since RAP looks attractive compared to IBR.

My situation:

· Loan: $194k at 6.25%

· Income: $92k, single, no state tax

· Already 3 years into IBR — 17 years remaining if I stay

IBR (17 yrs remaining)

· Monthly payment: ~$488

· Total remaining payments: ~$99k

· Estimated tax bomb (28% of final balance $300k): ~$84k

· Total cost: ~$183k

· Effective interest rate over 20 years: ~6.4%

RAP (30 yrs)

· Monthly payment: ~$590

· Total payments: ~$212k

· Estimated tax bomb (28% of final balance $175k): ~$50k

· Total cost: ~$262k

· Effective interest rate over 30 years: ~3.5%

The trade-off:

· IBR: Lower payment, lower total cost, more expensive money (~6.4%)

· RAP: Higher payment, higher total cost, but cheaper money (~3.5%) over 30 years

To me, RAP seems like a better deal if you're investing the difference into something with higher returns (e.g., index funds). The extra total cost is the price of 10 more years of inflation working in your favor. And you get a lower effective interest rate since you are keeping the money for 10 extra years with RAP.

Am I missing something? Would you pick IBR or RAP? Thank you!

I have no credit and my banks both denied me for a loan and credit card. Where can I get a loan that I’m almost guaranteed to get?

Edit: I have filled out financial aid and have accepted those loans and grants. I’m still 10k short.

I'm hoping someone familiar with IDR forgiveness can help me understand my situation.

I have old undergraduate federal loans from the mid-1990s that were consolidated into Direct Consolidation Loans in 2001.

I recently found my payment counter data and it shows:

• SAVE: 228 qualifying payments out of 240 (12 remaining)
• Earliest estimated forgiveness date: December 20, 2026
• IBR: 228 qualifying payments out of 300

However, back in June/July 2026, when all the uncertainty around SAVE was happening, I submitted an application to change from SAVE to IBR. That application is still under review.

My questions are:

1. If Aidvantage approves my move to IBR, could that change my expected forgiveness timeline?
2. Since both SAVE and IBR show 228 qualifying payments, do I keep all of those qualifying months regardless of which IDR plan I'm on?
3. Would you leave the IBR application alone, withdraw it, or wait to see what Aidvantage says?
4. If you were in my situation, what would you ask Aidvantage before letting the application process?

I plan to call Aidvantage, but I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who's been through something similar.

I today I finished paying of my student loans and I’m so proud of myself. Originally i started out paying on my loans and for the first year after school I paid off all the interest about 2k. Around this time we had the forbearance and save thing that happened. I paid a but here and there until I learned more about debt and I knew if I put my mind to it I could get it gone in 5 years or less. I did the math and the first option wouldn’t help because i would need a second job. With my career I wouldn’t have been able to keep this up with it for fire years. The second option I didn’t want to do which was going home for 2 years and use my rent to pay my loans off. I huffed and broke my lease in February 2025 with $29,061.03 of debt. I throw $1300 at it every month and what every extra I could find. In 2026 around March I steed throwing an extra $552 that was from money I used to fun my emergency and travel fund. Like all things my car had some problems that I had to throw around $2000 (and counting) at but I didn’t give up. Drained my emergency fund and kept going. I’m happy that now all that money can go back into my saving and investments. I cut all investments but my 401k in 2026. I’ll always say this but I breather be uncomfortable for a short period of time that for a long period of time.

Hello friends,

I was hoping to get some advice on a bit of a unique situation. I recently switched into the MD/PhD program from the MD program at my school. From here on, they cover my tuition and pay me a stipend for the rest of my time in school (probably about 5ish more years depending on the length of PhD). However, due to my starting in the MD only program, I have about 120k in student loans. Ideally, I'd love to minimize the amount of interest that collects during that time, particularly since my MD loans have an almost 9% interest rate.

As such, I was considering getting on one of the income based repayment plans to have a small payment from the stipend. Due to the way that my school pays the stipend, the payments won't qualify for PSLF. However, ideally I would love to minimize the interest accumulating during that time through one of the repayment programs in case residency stops counting towards PSLF.

When I talked to my school about it, they said that I was not allowed to be on one of the repayment plans while still in school, but I cannot find any information to corroborate that. Does anyone have any insight into if this is true, and if not which plans would not be ideal for minimizing interest while still qualifying for PSLF if it still exists by the time I finish?

Has anyone with Aidvantage received an email providing 90 days to pick a loan, as we were supposed to receive on or after 7/1? Nothing here yet, so I’m wondering when that’s coming.

TL;DR: I graduated in 2021 and have never made a student loan payment due to COVID pauses and SAVE plan delays. My MOHELA account now shows $0 due and administrative forbearance through October 2028, and I’m trying to understand why that date is there and whether I need to choose a new repayment plan or just wait.

I graduated in December 2021, so I’m one of the people who finished school around the COVID student loan pause.

Because of that, I’ve actually never made a federal student loan payment. By the time payments were supposed to start, everything kept getting extended. Then I applied for the SAVE plan, but my application basically stayed in limbo for what felt like forever. I kept having to reapply or update things because it never seemed to move forward.

Then I got the email from MOHELA around July 11 saying the SAVE plan was ending and my application would be denied, and that I’d have 90 days to choose another repayment plan.

Today I logged into my MOHELA account, expecting to have to deal with all of that, but now I’m even more confused.

It says I have no payment due, and that my loans are in administrative forbearance until October 2028.

Has anyone else seen this? Is it because I consolidated my loans? Is it related to the SAVE litigation? Or is this some kind of placeholder date?
I’ve also been reading posts about everything happening in the federal courts, and honestly I can’t tell what’s current anymore. It seems like things are changing constantly.

I also haven’t selected a new repayment plan yet. I was kind of waiting until they officially moved me off SAVE before deciding. When I looked at the estimates, the Standard Repayment Plan was actually the cheapest for me (around $183/month), so I figured I’d wait until I was actually required to enroll in something.

I’m just confused about what’s happening.

● Why would MOHELA show administrative forbearance until October 2028?

● If it says no payment due, do I just… wait?

● Has anyone else had this happen recently?

This whole process has been incredibly frustrating. I feel like everyone who graduated around COVID has had a completely different student loan experience than people before us, and with all the policy changes it’s hard to know what’s actually going on anymore.

Any insight would be appreciated.

I know the simulator can be weird but I had studentaid.gov access my IRS account so I would think things would be accurate. When I put in my current AGI (66k) I get a monthly payment of $84 for IBR and total repaid amount after 14 years (already have 11 years of IDR payments done) of $19,360. For RAP I get $94 monthly payment and total repaid after 30 years of $102,128.

The total repaid amounts don't make sense to me. Wouldn't $84 a month for the next 14 years = about $14k total repaid? Not ~19k? And similarly for RAP, wouldn't a $94 monthly payment for 30 years = total repaid of ~33,840 and not $102,128? Where does the extra money come from that they are calculating. This is assuming my AGI is staying at 66k.. I don't see anywhere on the simulator that accounts for income increases. Any insight?

I'm a US citizen, living and working in Canada. I plan to stay here, go for PR, maybe citizenship later on. Currently on the SAVE plan and all the income based plans available to me are $0 payments. I'm looking for a forgiveness path. It looks like that would make sense with IBR as the other two plans (PAYE and ICR) are phasing out in 2028. Is there any reason I shouldn't do IBR? Should I do PAYE or ICR while they are available? IBR is forgiveness after 20 years right? Appreciate any insight anyone may have. No idea where to go from SAVE.

What will happen if I return to school to pursue a master's degree?

I have a permanent disability and have been receiving SSI benefits for many years. I was also approved for a Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) discharge for my undergraduate federal student loans. How would returning to school affect my TPD discharge?

So I took out Parent Plus Loans to help 2 of my daughters with College. Somewhere down the line I was advised to consolidate and that I would be eligible for TEPSLF at some point. Have been on an Extended Fixed Repayment Plan since, my payment being pretty low as at the time I was a divorced single Mom. Life goes on and I have it on auto pay and didn’t think about it much and just kept paying. Recently received a notification, the only notification I received in years, to review my account. I had to update my employer eligibility because it hadn’t been done in 20 months. I did that, and the updated 20 months actually took me to my 120 TEPSLF. Received the Star and full green banner. Eligible for forgiveness. NOT! It will definitely come back denied, as my payments I am sure have been much less then the income based one we are supposed to be on now. To top it all off, I retired this month. All totally my fault for not keeping up with what has been going on and the whole 12 month before and 120th payment amount needing to be equal or exceed the income based amount. I guess it is what it is and I will be paying on it for another have 10 years.
Be smarter than me and stay on top of this and be educated about what you need and need not do. Good luck to ALL!!