The rule was repealed by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who was later sued over the decision. The Biden administration asked a judge late last year to keep the repeal in place while it undertakes a monthslong process to write a new version. It's a move that has surprised some student loan borrower advocates. Read More. For-profit colleges have helped fuel America's student debt problems.
Many for-profits' programs don't lead to higher-paying jobs, leaving some students struggling to pay off their debt. The Department of Education has found that several for-profit schools defrauded their students and, as a result, it has forgiven the debt of thousands of those borrowers -- a move that delivers debt relief but also costs taxpayers money.
Known as "gainful employment," the rule aimed to identify low-performing for-profit colleges and certificate programs at nonprofit colleges -- meaning those whose graduates had high student loan payments relative to their income. Those that fell short of the government's standards would lose access to federal funding. As a result, their students would be blocked from borrowing federal student loans and receiving other types of federal financial aid.
DeVos repealed the rule in , arguing that it failed to account for factors that could affect a graduate's earnings other than program quality. She also criticized the rule for holding for-profit colleges to a higher standard than nonprofit institutions. Biden administration wants to rewrite the rule. This time does not have to be spent working for the same employer. You have to make on-time payments on an income-driven repayment plan to qualify, and you generally must have either Direct Loans or a Direct Consolidation Loan for your monthly payments to count.
However, the U. If you can meet all of the requirements for this program, you can have your remaining loan balance forgiven after qualifying payments. Teacher Loan Forgiveness is offered to teachers who have "been employed as a full-time, highly qualified teacher for five complete and consecutive academic years" at a low-income school or educational service agency. At least one of those years must be after the academic year, and the loans must have been made before the end of the five years you spent in qualifying teaching service.
If you're a licensed registered nurse, an advanced practice registered nurse or a nurse faculty member with qualifying nursing debt, you may be eligible for the Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program. Additional requirements include working full time in an eligible high-need nursing area and a degree from an accredited school.
Upon qualification for this program, you can have 60 percent of your loans forgiven after two years of service. Once you complete the first two years of the program, you can apply for a third year of service and have another 25 percent forgiven. Income-driven repayment plans IDR can lead to forgiveness of your remaining student loan balance after a number of years of reduced payments.
Each of these plans requires you to pay a percentage of your discretionary income for 20 to 25 years before receiving loan forgiveness for the remaining balance. To qualify for income-driven repayment plans, you must have eligible federal student loans and recertify your income every year.
If you're a current service member or veteran, there are plenty of ways to get the government to pay some of your loans. One option is the National Defense Student Loan Discharge benefit, which can help military members get some or all of their Perkins Loans canceled if they qualify for hostile-fire or imminent-danger pay.
If the borrower's military service ended before Aug. If you're a doctor, you may be able to receive some student loan relief by qualifying for a loan forgiveness program. Most loan forgiveness programs for medical professionals require you to work in a high-need area for a few years, but the forgiveness amounts you can qualify for tend to be high.
Biden praises December jobs report: 'Americans are moving up to better jobs'. Education Secretary Cardona says "default should be in-person learning" amid Omicron surge. Several branches of the military, including the U. Army, the U. Navy and the U. Air Force, have loan forgiveness programs for health professionals who serve in the military. Doctors are also eligible for PSLF if they work for a qualifying employer.
There are also quite a few forgiveness programs aimed at lawyers with student loan debt, although some of them are administered through specific law schools and limited to their students. Numerous state-based loan repayment assistance programs also exist, so check which of these options may be available to you. The John R. Justice Student Loan Repayment Program is another option if you're a public defender. Additionally, the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award is granted to individuals who meet and complete the approved terms of national service in the AmeriCorps program.
This award can be put toward your education costs at any approved postsecondary educational institution or GI Bill-approved program. You can also use funds from the award to repay any qualifying student loans. National Debt Relief is an established leader in consumer debt relief, and recently they've added student loan consolidation plans to their list of services. Now students can partner with National Debt Relief to reduce their burden of student loan debt, the way so many others have with personal debt struggles.
National Debt Relief is one of the most reputable debt relief organizations in the country. There is no concern about legitimacy when it comes to National Debt Relief - they are well known and widely respected. To get started with National Debt Relief you simply complete their short online form to have a friendly consultant call with assistance, or call their toll-free customer service number when the time is right for you.
Their consultants are well trained to perform a free student debt analysis and help determine which debt relief program is best geared for your personal situation. The website is easy to navigate and tremendously informative.
The main Student Loan Consolidation page has a detailed description of what kinds of student loans exist, the pitfalls and dangers associated with student loan debt, and a list of all the available debt relief options available. Their toll-free customer service number is clearly posted, and they provide easy access to information sources such as:. There is a ton of useful information here, more than we saw on most of the other student loan consolidation sites we have reviewed. NDR offers a lot of options for both private and federal student loan relief.
For example, there are standard consolidation options in which several student loans can be rolled into one, and then paid off either in equal monthly payments, graduated payments that are low at first and increase over the life of the loan, or extended payments that can lower the monthly amount even further by stretching the loan out to as long as 25 years.
There are also several repayment options that are based on your income, where the amount of your monthly payment is based on a certain percentage of what you earn.
There are other plans too, such as to make payment deferments, claim forbearance for medical or financial hardship, and even public service loan forgiveness. One of the things we liked best about National Debt Relief is that they don't charge any upfront fees and don't collect payment until your student debt consolidation plan is implemented. They also don't charge any ongoing monthly maintenance fees, unlike many other companies out there.
National Debt Relief brings an excellent reputation and a strong range of options to deal with student loan debt. Their website is informative and easy to use, and their consultants are friendly and knowledgeable.
If you're looking for an effective student loan consolidation plan, National Debt Relief should be your first choice. They earn our highest rating. SoFi, which gets its name from the term "Social Finance", does everything possible to make student loan consolidation as straightforward as possible. And they've definitely made a name for themselves among online lenders. SoFi offers many kinds of loans, including personal loans, mortgage loans and refinancing, student loan refinancing, and others.
Be sure to read the information provided by clicking a small link at the bottom of the page, "Eligibility Criteria". There are several factors that may impact your eligibility for student loan refinancing, including your age, your citizenship status, and the state you live in. SoFi's application process is uncomplicated: enter basic personal information, such as your name and address, current loan amounts, and employment status, and you'll quickly find out if you qualify before filling out the complete application.
If you are preapproved and complete the full application, you'll be provided with a list of plans available to you, with details of their payment schedules, terms, and rates. Once you've chosen the consolidation loan that meets your needs, you can easily upload documents from your smartphone or use screenshots on your computer, then sign your paperwork electronically. We really appreciate that SoFi has absolute transparency with their student loan consolidation rates and that they do not charge origination fees or prepayment penalties.
At the time of our review, their interest rates on student consolidation loans were extremely competitive. The maximum amount is the full balance of all of the borrower's qualified education loans. One feature of SoFi that is particularly helpful in today's economy is their unemployment protection program. If you meet certain criteria, such as not having lost your job through any fault of your own, you may have your payments suspended for up to a total of 12 months while you look for new employment.
And, not only does SoFi match you with a Career Specialist to help you find that new job, but they also provide wealth advisors and career support to all members not just the unemployed. We give them excellent marks for their transparent rates, supportive extra services for borrowers, and lack of fees during the application process.
Instead of passing you off to a third-party lender like many of their rivals, Earnest services your consolidation loan themselves. As they put it, "real people are never more than a call or email away". Click on the green "Get Started" or "2 Min: Get My Rate" button to see what your new interest rate could be if you refinance with Earnest. You'll provide your name, email address and citizenship status, as well as the details of your current student loans. To finalize your rate quote, you'll need to choose a password for your account and enter your Social Security Number.
Completing this process will give you a rate estimate. If Earnest isn't able to match your information with your credit history to do a soft pull, you'll be taken to a screen asking you to start a full application.
That will include more specifics about your major and graduation date, current employment and salary, as well as a request to connect the account where your paycheck is deposited. The clearer the financial picture you give Earnest, the more likely you are to be offered the lowest possible rates on your student loan consolidation refinancing. And, if you add a cosigner to your loan, you may also qualify for a lower interest rate. There are some big advantages to using Earnest for a student loan consolidation.
Not only do they consider your credit score, but they also take into account your financial responsibility: if you've been paying your current loans on time, Earnest gives you credit for making good choices already. There are no extra fees, either: not origination, prepayment, or anything else. Plus, Earnest offers a great deal of flexibility you won't find elsewhere. You can customize the payment amount you prefer or the specific number of months you want to have as your repayment term: no one-size-fits-all expectations here.
You may also be eligible for a deferment if you start attending graduate school. Finally, once you've made on-time payments for six months, you can skip a payment once every 12 months though the principal and interest from that skipped payment will be spread out over the ones you have remaining, and that will make your monthly payments higher.
As a student loan consolidation provider, Earnest enjoys a very positive reputation. Clients repeatedly praise Earnest for a smooth process and almost unbelievably low interest rates compared with previous loans and other lenders.
While we found a few complaints about issues with loan servicing and recording of payments, the vast majority of Earnest users are completely satisfied with the experience. It's definitely worth considering if you need to consolidate multiple student loans or even just refinance a single account to a lower rate.
Since , Credible has served as a resource connecting borrowers with lenders, across a wide variety of needs mortgage refinancing, personal loans, and so on. With a single online application that only takes a few minutes, this service can help you consolidate your student loans with up to 10 different lending partners. At the time of our most recent evaluation, Credible's student loan refinancing lenders included:. One of the great things about using Credible to check your eligibility with these multiple lenders, besides saving time, is that all of them are guaranteed to have zero origination fees or prepayment penalties.
Plus, Credible doesn't charge any service fees for using them to consolidate your student loans. The application process is simple and just takes a few minutes to complete. You'll start by entering some basic information about your education, loan amount that you're trying to refinance, and so on.
At that point, your information isn't shared with any of their partner lenders. You'll get a results list of prequalified loan options, and once you select an option you like, you'll be able to see actual rates based on your individual credit profile not estimated rates.
Credible has a handy import tool that lets you bring in your actual loans, so that you can specify which loans you want to refinance. In other words, you may decide that you want to consolidate only your private loans and leave your federal loans as-is - and Credible's tools allow you to do that easily.
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