Oh, Sallie Mae!!
The entirety of my remaining $76k student loan debt is held by one Miss Sallie Mae. I have crazy low interest rates at 2.35% and 1.88%, but I saw that I could get a .25% reduction in the bulk of my loans by signing up for automatic debit. Sure!! Why not? I pay early every month anyway. Of course nothing with these companies can go smoothly, right?
I'd already paid my loans (early) this month, as usual, with my account reflecting that my next payment isn't due until mid-September. Lo and behold, when I received my automatic debit sign-up paperwork it said that they would be debiting my account AGAIN this month. That's adorable, but no, Sallie Mae- you will not get a double payment. I fired off an email earlier today and will be spending some quality time on the phone with them tomorrow if they don't respond.
I guess it's my fault for being greedy on the interest rate reduction! Either way, it looks like I'll be getting a 2% reduction rate in October on ~$31K of my loans, which means I'll have an interest rate of .35% (or .10% if they can get their act together on the automatic debit). Yes, you read that right! That reduction will be for making payments on time for 48 months. I am really thankful that my interest rates are so low!!! Makes it much easier to dig out from underneath it.
I'd already paid my loans (early) this month, as usual, with my account reflecting that my next payment isn't due until mid-September. Lo and behold, when I received my automatic debit sign-up paperwork it said that they would be debiting my account AGAIN this month. That's adorable, but no, Sallie Mae- you will not get a double payment. I fired off an email earlier today and will be spending some quality time on the phone with them tomorrow if they don't respond.
I guess it's my fault for being greedy on the interest rate reduction! Either way, it looks like I'll be getting a 2% reduction rate in October on ~$31K of my loans, which means I'll have an interest rate of .35% (or .10% if they can get their act together on the automatic debit). Yes, you read that right! That reduction will be for making payments on time for 48 months. I am really thankful that my interest rates are so low!!! Makes it much easier to dig out from underneath it.
Comments
You mentioned that you prefer doing part time work instead of sticking to one job so this program may not be of interest but I thought I'd let you know about it. If you work for a non-profit you pay for ten years and anything after that is forgiven.
I enjoy your blog!
http://www.ibrinfo.org/
Income-Based Repayment (IBR) is a way to make your federal student loan payments more manageable. And if you're a teacher or work in government or at a nonprofit (501(c)(3)) organization, you might qualify for a new type of public service loan forgiveness (PSLF) after 10 years of eligible payments and employment.