Dept. of Education Direct Loans

jd2010 said:   Anyone know more about the leaked obama student loan plans?

Read an article that basically said it cut IBR from 15% to 10% of AGI - ( 150% * Poverty Line) and reduced repayment from 25 years to 20 years.

Also program will be rushed forward from 2014 launch to 2012. Thoughts?

The AP article on CNN.com says "discretionary income," not AGI. Does this imply that if I submit a budget to them listing my mortgage, all my bills, etc., that they'd take those into account before coming up with my new 10%-of-what's-left loan payments?

akiri423 said:   jd2010 said:   Anyone know more about the leaked obama student loan plans?

Read an article that basically said it cut IBR from 15% to 10% of AGI - ( 150% * Poverty Line) and reduced repayment from 25 years to 20 years.

Also program will be rushed forward from 2014 launch to 2012. Thoughts?

The AP article on CNN.com says "discretionary income," not AGI. Does this imply that if I submit a budget to them listing my mortgage, all my bills, etc., that they'd take those into account before coming up with my new 10%-of-what's-left loan payments?

No, they base it off of your family size, and federal poverty guidelines. So take 150% of the poverty level for your family, and subtract that from your wages. Now take 10-15% of what is left and you will have you IBR payment. I believe if your spouse has loans, they split it between the two according to debt amounts.

matrix5k said:   My payment history is all gone.

Yeah, that sucks. I was out of town and didn't record my September payment. Time to do the math by hand so everything matches up. Really dislike the new site layout. Only thing I've liked more was being able to set what payment group gets the extra payment.

greenbed said:   Unfortunately, the proposal moving the start date for revised IBR calculations does not effect current borrowers, only new graduates. The only proposal that effects current borrowers is the .5% intrest rate reduction for direct loan and FFEL consolidation starting in january. Dept of ED Press Release

jd2010 said:   Anyone know more about the leaked obama student loan plans?

Read an article that basically said it cut IBR from 15% to 10% of AGI - ( 150% * Poverty Line) and reduced repayment from 25 years to 20 years.

Also program will be rushed forward from 2014 launch to 2012. Thoughts?

Well thats awesome. Reward new grads now that the economy is about to start recovering, and not the people who graduated between 2008 and now who have had their job prospects pretty much destroyed by the economy.

more immediate relief to many current college students

Obama had intended the IBR changes to impact all borrowers, the final bill only applied to new borrowers. The announcement this week does not change anything in the bill just the start date of the changes. Read this link for info about last year's IBR reform:

http://www.ibrinfo.org/update_31910.vp.html

jd2010 said:   greenbed said:   Unfortunately, the proposal moving the start date for revised IBR calculations does not effect current borrowers, only new graduates. The only proposal that effects current borrowers is the .5% intrest rate reduction for direct loan and FFEL consolidation starting in january. Dept of ED Press Release

jd2010 said:   Anyone know more about the leaked obama student loan plans?

Read an article that basically said it cut IBR from 15% to 10% of AGI - ( 150% * Poverty Line) and reduced repayment from 25 years to 20 years.

Also program will be rushed forward from 2014 launch to 2012. Thoughts?

In the next paragraph it says the following:

Today, the Administration is proposing to offer even more immediate relief to many current college students by giving them the chance to limit loan payments to 10 percent of their discretionary income starting in 2012. In addition, the debt would be forgiven after 20 years instead of 25, as current law allows. For many who struggle to manage their student loan debt—including teachers, nurses, public defenders and others in lower-paying jobs—these proposed changes could reduce their payments by hundreds of dollars each month. Overall, this proposal would provide an estimated 1.6 million borrowers with more manageable monthly payments.

Even though its worded awkwardly, I think the plan was to lower it for everyone already on the plan, not just future borrowers.

My wife had the opposite problem with them. Her loan was on deferment and on Monday they decided to go ahead and pull the payment out of our checking account anyway.

LordB said:   Has the site been down for everyone else all day today?Logged in fine just now www.myedaccount.com

I cannot log in either.

NeoMayhem said:   Just pulled my TransUnion report this morning and it shows my student loan has been closed. Did I just get really lucky, or has this happened to somebody else?Most likely it'll show up again under Nelnet's name

I can login fine to MyEd and see my current student loans, but my Credit Karma shows:
"Your US DEP ED student loan has recently been closed."

Funny thing is that with the student loan closed and my overall debt reduced by ~40%, my CK score is still the same lol

Hmm--I received a paper bill for my Nov. 7 payment but I usually do not receive paper bills. The bill makes no mention of my being enrolled in autopay and says something about enrolling in Kwikpay. I tried to call but can't get through. I logged into the new site and it looks like I am enrolled in Kwikpay but there's no way for me to check the bank acct info. My Oct 7 payment went through via autopay on Oct 12 but I did not receive a paper bill with that payment so unsure why they sent me a paper bill for Nov payment.

If the autopay did not transfer, I'd rather pay this payment via check and enroll in autopay for the next month to ensure I don't actually double pay. I am on IBR and hope for PSLF in 8 more years so I am hoping to pay the minimum I have to.

I too am disappointed the new IBR payments for 10% vs 15% does not apply to those of us who have already graduated and are making payments.

I missed my payment today. When I set up my account on the new website it would only recognize my payment as 10/29, when it was due today (10/28).

Funny how they didn't send out any notice that they were going to make changes. I only realized today when I got home and found a bill in the mail. Also funny how I get the bill the day it is due.

I don't even understand why they want to update the web page. It wasn't that great but at least it worked. Now we have something that doesn't work and isn't even that much better.

EDIT: got 1 e-mail on August 5 saying the website address is changing, but makes no mention of impact to banking info for auto debit.

akiri423 said:   gotsmack said:   I missed my payment today. When I set up my account on the new website it would only recognize my payment as 10/29, when it was due today (10/28).

Funny how they didn't send out any notice that they were going to make changes. I only realized today when I got home and found a bill in the mail. Also funny how I get the bill the day it is due.

I must have gotten enough notices for both of us - every time I logged in prior to the switch, they told me about it. I got at least two emails about the switch before it happened... and then a week AFTER the switch, they even called me.

I haven't logged into the website for at least a year.

I also did NOT receive any calls.

I take back not getting any e-mails, I got 1 e-mail on August 5, but it makes no mention on impact of banking info.

I am completely confused. I had a payment that was supposed to happen yesterday, on the main page now it says I'm past due. When I go to "KwikPay" it shows a link that says "click here to cancel", so it looks like it carried over the fact that I have auto-debit setup. However lower on that page where it says "select bank account", there are none. WTF, I can't begin to tell you how much I hate the government, they FAIL at absolutely everything. I don't even know wtf I need to do now.

litvak1 said:   I am completely confused. I had a payment that was supposed to happen yesterday, on the main page now it says I'm past due. When I go to "KwikPay" it shows a link that says "click here to cancel", so it looks like it carried over the fact that I have auto-debit setup. However lower on that page where it says "select bank account", there are none. WTF, I can't begin to tell you how much I hate the government, they FAIL at absolutely everything. I don't even know wtf I need to do now.

This is exactly what mine says. Says enrolled, but no bank acct info listed and wants me to check box to agree to electronic payments. Huh? Why would I have to agree to that if I am already enrolled?

rmsluv2 said:   im not in auto pay but when I checked my crecit score it had dropped 20 points and said my direct loan acct had been closed. just get a recording when I call and cant figure out the web site. help!!!!! anyone!!!!If you're not on autopay then you have to make payments manually so use their new website to make a payment or mail in a check

My auto payment went through on 10/14 as scheduled. I did not know the changes until I checked this thread. Register my account and add my bank info right the way. Hope it does not create any hassle next month.

Website is now saying that auto-pay will be debited the day AFTER the due date:
Message to borrowers enrolled in Kwikpay (Electronic Debit)
Under Kwikpay, the Direct Loan Servicing Center will now debit your bank account on the first business day after your due date. The Direct Loan Servicing Center will apply the payment to your Direct Loan account with an effective date that is the same as your payment due date. If you access your account via this Web site before both the bank account debit and the Direct Loan account payment application occur, your account may appear to be past due. However, your status will be updated to current as soon as the payment application occurs and will not reflect negatively on your account.

Yes, because that makes a lot of sense. People will not be at all concerned by the past due notice.

I got a strange call today from USDE that the effective date of my payment would be the 7th but the money would be debited on the 8th.

I've gotten three phone calls from them now about this. I really wish they'd leave me alone!

ChosenGSR said:   

Do you have Kwikpay (auto-payments) setup? On the old site using "Pay Now" had no effect on the auto-payment system, it would still debit the next month on the predefined date. I wonder if the pushing out of the due date by over-sized payments is only true when you don't do auto-payments as well.

I use autopay and just sent in an additional 1k. Next payment is showing as May 2012, but I have a feeling they will still pull the minimum at the end of this month.