This is as much me venting about my situation as it is to inform others about availability of this program. We were not aware of it (or anyone at my wife's work) and just by accident noticed it on Citibank's student loan website.
The program gives you $5k or $17.5k towards your student loan if you are teaching in Title I (low income neighborhood school).
One of the requirements is that you must not have an outstanding balance on or before October 1st 1998. My wife mailed her form to Citibank and got denied because her first student loan was disbursed on September 24th, 1998... Missed the cutoff date by 7 days She would have qualified for 17.5k (well only 6k since that is all we still owe) since she is a special ed teacher.
Anyway. I don't know how many people are aware of this program (nobody I talked to was) so hopefully this helps someone else out there to get their loan paid off.
To enter a coupon code in your post please enter the following info:
Coupon Code:
Coupon Offer:
Merchant:
Expires (optional):
Restrictions (optional):
saving...
Quick Summary is created and edited by users like you... Add FAQ's, Links and other Relevant Information by clicking the edit button in the lower right hand corner of this message.
tripleB said:$17.5k isnt a lot of money but I think if you combine this with Income Based Repayment and loan forgiveness it might be worth it. Yeah, you're right... 17,500 for filling out a couple forms that might take an hour. Anything less than $20,000/hr is a waste of time.
Either you dumb as hell, or my sarcasm meter is broken.
JTFH said:tripleB said:$17.5k isnt a lot of money but I think if you combine this with Income Based Repayment and loan forgiveness it might be worth it. Yeah, you're right... 17,500 for filling out a couple forms that might take an hour. Anything less than $20,000/hr is a waste of time.
Either you dumb as hell, or my sarcasm meter is broken.
Considering you need a college degree to be a teacher, and the similar college degree can get a job starting out with 50% higher salary than a teacher, if money is an issue then take a different job. It's hardly worth being a teacher for 5 years to get 17.5k. Thats $3.5k per year. You should be able to get at least $10k more per year working any other job.
I think BBB might have meant "17.5k isn't enough to work in a Title I neighborhood". But for someone who is already working in such an area this is a bonus long overdue and deserving.
tripleB said:$17.5k isnt a lot of money but I think if you combine this with Income Based Repayment and loan forgiveness it might be worth it.
As far as loan forgiveness goes you are most likely better off not doing IBR. You have to make payments for 25 years on IBR for foriveness. Working for a non-profit like a school if you make 10 years of normal payments you will have the rest of your debt forgiven. Not to mention you have to have a high debt (at least 60K) to get your loans extended out to 25 years. Also the amount forgiven after 25 years of IBR is taxable. That is not the case with the 10 year non-IRB plan.
My wife managed to have $5k forgiven off of the loans for her master's through this program. We worked together to double check the forms each time and it was an absolute nightmare! The request was rejected by the lender five different times and then finally went through on the sixth attempt. Any little error or deviation on the forms, even if the error is on their own form itself, would get it rejected. Let's see, we were rejected for listing the school name by it's proper name, but not adding the type of school after it's name. The school only goes by a single name, but rather than listing it as "such and such elementary" then it was rejected. One rejection was for the signing authority being too low (it was the vice principle in charge of the site all year). The next time it was rejected by being signed by too high of an authority (wife works at the district office now so had the forms signed by the assistant superintendent of schools as the head of human resources). Major pain, but we prevailed and $5k came off her balance. The funny thing was that they never sent a single notification to us when we were successful. I just happened to logon one day after making a few more payments and saw a $5k credit applied to the balance.
Standard government operating procedure: 1) Tell the applicant "you've got the wrong place, we don't do that here" 2) Give the applicant insufficient information to find next point of contact "you want the 24th st . . mumble mumble" 3) Read newspaper, do nails, surf web 4) Wait for applicant to come back 5) Say "Ooooh, you should have said that in the first place . . we do that here. You need speak more clearly" 6) Tell the applicant his paperwork is messed up 7) Tell the applicant that while he was finishing up his paperwork which takes a manual the size of a tax code to fill out that it's exactly 5:01 PM and he has to come back tomorrow 8) Open late 9) Get coffee 10) Tell the applicant he has to pay on a completely different floor and then bring back the receipt 11) Point out an insignificant mistake on the applicant's form and say "I'm gonna do you a favor and fill it in for you this time" 12) Accept paperwork
All this must be done while speaking with a condescending attitude as if filling out the paperwork were something people do on a daily basis (like citizenship applications are a one time thing pfft)
Is anyone aware if there is something similar for those with federal loans who teach at a community college? Most of what I've seen only applies to K-12.
tripleB said:Considering you need a college degree to be a teacher, and the similar college degree can get a job starting out with 50% higher salary than a teacher, if money is an issue then take a different job. It's hardly worth being a teacher for 5 years to get 17.5k. Thats $3.5k per year. You should be able to get at least $10k more per year working any other job. Wrong across the board there, BBB. Similar college degree that starts 50% higher? Doesn't exist. What job pays a guaranteed 10k higher? Doesn't exist.
The fact is teaching is one of the safest professions around. Teaching, along with nursing, is one of the only growth jobs right now... Teaching jobs will be the last one on the political chopping block also. Many of my CS and engineering friends have been laid off. My raises stopped when the mess started. My teacher girlfriend continues getting raises.
Not to mention she works 8:00-3:15, has loads of vacation and doesn't have to work summers! And for your own education, teacher salaries vary drastically state to state. I've seen the same teaching position starting at 100% more than another 30 miles away. In some states teachers have some of the highest starting salaries of any profession.
On top of all that, 5-17.7k is a pretty sweet kick. Nuff said.
midgetslapper said:Standard government operating procedure: 1) Tell the applicant "you've got the wrong place, we don't do that here" 2) Give the applicant insufficient information to find next point of contact "you want the 24th st . . mumble mumble" 3) Read newspaper, do nails, surf web 4) Wait for applicant to come back 5) Say "Ooooh, you should have said that in the first place . . we do that here. You need speak more clearly" 6) Tell the applicant his paperwork is messed up 7) Tell the applicant that while he was finishing up his paperwork which takes a manual the size of a tax code to fill out that it's exactly 5:01 PM and he has to come back tomorrow 8) Open late 9) Get coffee 10) Tell the applicant he has to pay on a completely different floor and then bring back the receipt 11) Point out an insignificant mistake on the applicant's form and say "I'm gonna do you a favor and fill it in for you this time" 12) Accept paperwork
All this must be done while speaking with a condescending attitude as if filling out the paperwork were something people do on a daily basis (like citizenship applications are a one time thing pfft)
Were you in the Army? I can relate to this completely after getting the runaround from DOD civilians.
my daughter is a new teacher this year working in a Title I and she has $20,000 in loans, I will make sure she knows about this next year (you have to work a year first as far as I can tell) thanks OP!!!
elizedge said:my daughter is a new teacher this year working in a Title I and she has $20,000 in loans, I will make sure she knows about this next year (you have to work a year first as far as I can tell) thanks OP!!!
But if she has $20k in loans, wont she only have $10k left after the 5 years required to be eligible? Assuming she has to pay the loans down as she is working for those 5 years.
Ugh. My wife was a special ed teacher in a low income district for 10 years. She definitely could have taken advantage of the whole 17,500 if it were around earlier.
My wife had $5k of her Master's Loan forgiven, went through on the first try, very painless. Then she left the Title I district for a better one. Has worked out well so far.
tripleB said:elizedge said:my daughter is a new teacher this year working in a Title I and she has $20,000 in loans, I will make sure she knows about this next year (you have to work a year first as far as I can tell) thanks OP!!!
But if she has $20k in loans, wont she only have $10k left after the 5 years required to be eligible? Assuming she has to pay the loans down as she is working for those 5 years.
yes, but still better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick
I did this earlier this year- filled out 1 form, got it signed by an assistant principal at my school, and mailed it off. My "award" was $17,500, which leaves me with only $1000 balance to pay. The degree I earned with the loan has already raised my salary $7000 annually.
tripleB said:elizedge said:my daughter is a new teacher this year working in a Title I and she has $20,000 in loans, I will make sure she knows about this next year (you have to work a year first as far as I can tell) thanks OP!!!
But if she has $20k in loans, wont she only have $10k left after the 5 years required to be eligible? Assuming she has to pay the loans down as she is working for those 5 years. FYI there is some paperwork you can send in once you are working in a title I school to say you are planning to take the credit. The lender then won't require you to pay down the loan below the amount of the credit.
Disclaimer: By providing links to other sites, FatWallet.com does not guarantee, approve or endorse the information or products available at these sites, nor does a link indicate any association with or endorsement by the linked site to FatWallet.com.
She would have qualified for 17.5k (well only 6k since that is all we still owe) since she is a special ed teacher.
