Your Questions About Direct Loan Servicing

Nagesh answers:

Please do not associate our firm ‘Wentworth Financial Services’ with ‘Wentworth Direct Finance’ we are in no way associate with them. I urge you not to use any loan broker who charges an upfront fee to source you a loan, then quotes low APR’s without performing a full loan application with you. This is nonsense.

We offer a loan service free of charge, we first try and match with the high street as they offer the best rates for good/v.good creditors for the fair to poor then we have a panel of lenders we deal with. So for unsecured personal loans visit our site at http://www.wentworthfs.co.uk/loans

Nagesh answers:

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program does not mean you work “for free” at those agencies. You get paid just like anyone else. To be eligible and maintain eligibility, you must work full time for a qualified employer, and you must make 120 sequential, monthly payments of the full monthly payment amount— on time. After those 120 payments are made, any loan balance remaining will be forgiven. You can change jobs as many times as you want. As long as the job qualifies as public service and is full-time, payments made while working there count towards your 120 required payments. Full-time does not always mean 40 hours per week. Partial payments do not get counted. Paying way more than the required monthly payment still only counts as 1 payment. Check out the phone numbers and websites at the bottom of my post.
Because certain types of loans do not qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, UNTIL you consolidate them, you may need to consolidate your loans. Then, all balances within the consolidated loan ARE ELIGIBLE for repayment under the P. S. L. Forgiveness Program. There is one exception: WARNING: Any consolidated loans that have balances from PLUS Loans made to YOUR PARENTS within them— DO NOT QUALIFY FOR the P. S. L. Forgiveness Program. Other than that, this is the best time to consolidate. When you consolidate, your variable interest rate is changed to a fixed interest rate. Since Interest rates are very low right now, it is a great time to lock in a low fixed rate. You are not quite ready to consolidate yet, since you’re not done with school.
Employment at many different employers will qualify you for P.S.L. Forgiveness Program. Of course, working for federal, state, or local government run agencies will qualify, but full time employment with any “NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION that has been designated AS TAX-EXEMPT by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) under Section 501(c)(3). . .” is qualified employment. (Source: http://www.studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/charts/public-service#what-is-the-public)
Luckily, after you graduate and consolidate your loans AND you are working at a public service job and want to take advantage of this program, there is a form to file, and they will make sure your employer qualifies and help keep track of # of payments made, and # of payments remaining before Forgiveness. You fill out a new form any time you change jobs, etc. WARNING: You must be employed at a qualified job when you apply for the program, when you have made your last payment and apply for forgiveness, AND when your Forgiveness is approved and granted to you. So, don’t think you can make your 120 payments and quit immediately! But, there is plenty of time before that!
I have put the links (from studentaid.ed.gov) below. They explain everything. The technical terms in bold, red font will have their definition appear when you hover over with the mouse. Also, there is a glossary on right side of the page. On the right side of the page, there are links to FAQ’s. They even have calculators to estimate your monthly payment amounts. You can put in various numbers and play around with them.
What you are asking is a complicated, involved decision. These “official” sources, or ones like them, are the ONLY sources for reliable info. Get an appointment with a Financial Aid advisor. You can also call some of these student loan agencies for facts or advice. Don’t trust info from strangers on the internet. All info in my post is quoted from one of the government websites below. If you see a Financial Aid advisor or call one of the numbers below, be prepared to write some notes down.
Call Federal Student Aid Information Center: 1-800-4-FED-AID.
Call Direct Loan Consolidation Center : 1-800-557-7392.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program: http://www.studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/charts/public-service#what-does-it-mean
Direct Loan Consolidation Center: www.loanconsolidation.ed.gov
Income-Based Repayment (IBR): http://www.studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/understand/plans/income-based
Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR): http://www.studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/understand/plans/income-contingent
To find out how much you owe AND who is servicing your loan, go to this link and click on Financial Aid Review: http://www.nslds.ed.gov/nslds_SA/

Nagesh answers:

Astrive is a private loan lender who also services their loans. That means they generally do not sell you loan to another company. In the past, banks would sell their loans to other companies because the interest rate they charge is not worth the due diligence of collecting payments.

Astrive seems to have high fees, high interest and requires a credit check,which would explain why they do not sell their loans. Before settling on this lender, I would shop around. The Federal Student Aid Program through the government’s Direct Loans and Sallie Mae do not check credit and offer more flexible repayment terms. Plus, you do not need a co-signer, which Aspire seems to push alot in their literature.

Check around before signing with this company, I think you can get a better deal!

Nagesh answers:

Rehab is typically a one shot deal. I have only seen those get a 2nd rehab deal when a mistake was made by the servicer, not the borrower.

However, you can consolidate your defaulted loans out of default.

The direct loan servicing center does this on behalf of the US Dept of Ed. Call Direct Loans at 1-800-848-0979

Nagesh answers:

Contact the lender to set up a payment arrangement. If it’s a federal student loan, your financial aid counselor at the school can help you, or you can contact the Direct Loan Servicing Center at 800-848-0979 or www.direct.ed.gov. It would be a good idea to go to the website first to review the different payment options.

If you can afford to do so, it a good idea to start paying your loans off while you are in school. You’ll be that much further ahead when you graduate. In addition, if the loan is unsubsidized, it begins accruing interest from the day it is disbursed. If you defer the loan while you are in school, that interest will keep adding up and will be added to the principal of your loan when you graduate, creating a higher balance for you to pay off. In effect, you’d be paying interest on the interest. So paying your loans now can save you that additional expense.