I just found out that I am no longer eligible for any of the income driven repayment plans and my monthly federal loan payment is increasing to $1400 a month and will increase on a yearly basis up to $2400. That is my cheapest option. However, if I refinance with a private lender to a lower interest rate, it will be $2k a month for 15 years and I’ll save like $120k in interest over the life of the loan. Has anyone refinanced their fed loans with a private lender? Should I do it?

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Just wait to see what Biden will do. Student loan payments are frozen until the end of august. If you refinance now, you do not qualify for the frozen payments or the potential forgiveness. Just sit tight.

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I’m curious what is causing you to be ineligible for an IBR plan. As far as I know each of these plans is a set percentage of discretionary income. As discretionary income increases so do your monthly payments. In some instances perhaps monthly payments increase to the point where an IBR plan no longer makes sense but I am not aware of an upper income limit which would cause ineligibility. For example REPAYE is 10% of your discretionary income, for ease of math 10k on 100k, 30k on 300k, etc… things like family size, retirement savings, and other expenses are also taken into account to determine discretionary income.

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Honestly, if you're anything like me, there's something to be said about the mental impact & value of just getting student loans taken care of, and moving on with your life. I refinanced my $170k+ student loans a few months after graduating and paid everything off in 36 months. Granted, I had refinanced thru a private lender, so whether Biden would forgive some undetermined amount of federal loans didn't really impact me. I just bucked up and threw a stupid amount of money from my biglaw salary towards my loans, until New Years Eve one year they were gone 😨

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The "American people" gouged me with an approximately 7% rate on my PLUS loans. They made tens of thousands of dollars off me in interest, especially accrued capitalized interest. The whole system is BS and yes, I have just almost paid mine off after 9 years so I have paid my debt to "society." Saddling young people with mountains of debt is to no one's benefit except greedy Boomers who are shirking their taxes.

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You should keep your fed loans as long as they're paused and not accruing interest, then you should refinance privately when payments actually kick back in.

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Hate to be "dark" but federal loans are forgiven at your death and private loans are not. So, I'm leaving my family in a better position in the event I have a premature death...

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Lol I regularly tell my loved ones I’m worth more dead than alive, and they say “oh that’s not true!” But it is. It definitely is.

Every attorney I work with has refinanced their loans with SoFi or similar type companies.

It’s really your only option, other than doing public interest work for ten years and hoping they become forgiven. Which I hear is a complete toss up if it even happens after putting in your ten years.

That said, I am waiting until the loan payment freeze is lifted. Hoping Biden will forgive some of my debt.

On the other hand, I hear the refinancing companies are offering great deals if you sign up during the freeze. That will likely all go away when the freeze is lifted.

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I know it. I closed on a house 3 weeks ago with a 3.75 rate and I see the 30 year fixed rate is 6.85 now. It’s absolutely insane. I really should get this done immediately.

Hopefully the rates aren’t already jacked way up

I predict that loans will at least freeze through the midterms.

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Also agree

You can't NOT qualify for IDR. If you earn less than you owe, you qualify. Maybe you didn't strip out your spouse (they'll use spouse's income if you don't pay attention), or you did the form wrong, or (surprise) the servicer lied.
As for refinancing - that's a blockhead move. I'm sure people will be pissed, but I never, ever, recommend converting a federal loan into a private loan. Refinancing with a private lender means:
1) No IDR (are you guaranteed to always make good money? What if you don't?)
2) No forgiveness (IDR has forgiveness)
3) No disability discharge (are you sure you'll never have an accident?)
4) No death discharge (private loans can go after your estate - federal die with you)
5) No government protections (pandemic pause, interest freeze, potential forgiveness)
6) limited forbearance time
The only advantage - private loans are way easier to discharge in bankruptcy. I know because I do this for my clients. But are you planning on filing bankruptcy? Probably not.

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The forgiveness is a joke. You pay more than double over the life of the loan and then get hit with a mid 6 figure tax bomb. Far better to refinance to a 10-15 year term with lower interest. Plenty of lenders offer disability discharge. For death discharge you can get life insurance to cover this risk.

I’ve been paying for 6 years already and I don’t think any of it has gone to the principal. It’s so gross to think that all I’ve paid in the last six years will just be dust in the wind.

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SA, this is dumb. First, just because you know 1 person that survived doesn’t mean it works for everyone. Also, where did they buy a $85k house? 😂 that’s unheard of in major cities.

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What makes you no longer eligible?

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A12 is right. I think this is wrong. I would continue to push back. Loan servicers mess stuff up all the time. Mine just sent me a letter with incorrect information as well. Keep talking to them about it and read up on your specific IDR to be able to speak on this.

Refinanced 2 months ago, got that fixed rate at 2.35%. Under IBR you’re gonna pay more than double and then face that additional $200k+ tax bomb. Just refinance and get them knocked out

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Yes! Refinanced my fed loans back in August and consolidated them with one of my private loans. Used Earnest and got around 3%.

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I refinanced with SoFi.

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Refinanced with SoFi. Feels so much better knowing my $ isn't just going to interest.

In addition to PSLF, you should also consider regular PAYE or REPAYE forgiveness. Under the income-based plans, any balance you have is forgiven after 20 or 25 years (depending on the plan). The catch is that normally you have to pay taxes on the amount forgiven (as opposed to PSLF, where you do not have to pay taxes). However, the federal government has suspended the “tax bomb” through the end of 2025, and Biden’s current budget proposal includes a provision to make the change permanent. Just something to keep in mind, because if you’ve already made payments for 6 years, and Biden extends the pause through the end of the year, you could be 13 years from forgiveness when payments restart (again depending on your plan). Could be worth looking into just so you’re aware of any options you could be giving up by refinancing.

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Back in 2018, I refinanced only those federal loans whose interest rates were higher than what I was being offered w a private lender. You may get quotes from private lenders now, but some are predicting the fed loans won’t resume payment before the midterms, so maybe wait until they resume payment to refinance and focus on paying down the principal so when you do have interest, the payments will be smaller either way.

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What made you ineligible?

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The federal loans are 5-7% (or more). People are getting refinanced private loans at 2-3%.

For most people, this is going to mean a difference in 100’s of thousands of dollars.

If you’re okay with paying $200,000 extra in loan repayments, than yes, keeping federal loans is definitely the way to go.

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Refinancing my loans with a private lender was one of the best things I could’ve done for myself financially. In August 2016, I had approximately $173,000 in fed loans and I think I was paying somewhere around $1,450/month. I never did IBR even though I wasn’t making much back then because I wanted to pay my loans off. I refinanced with a bank, got a fixed 2.95% rate on a 10 year plan. My balance today is $81,630 and I will be paid off in August 2026. My payment is $1675/month (so only $200/more than my Fed loan 30 year plan that still had 26 years on it) and I’ve never paid more than a monthly minimum payment because the rate is so low. I’m so happy I didn’t wait almost 6 years for potential relief from Biden. I would have paid tens of thousands in interest and probably still would have had a high balance. That being said, since some sort of loan forgiveness is in the works, maybe it’s worth waiting? But who knows what that looks like, when it will happen, or if you’ll even qualify. I’d probably wait until the payment freeze is lifted, keep saving the money you’re not paying monthly towards your loans, and look into private lenders once the freeze is lifted if there is no talk of forgiveness.

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What is the interest rate?

Idk what happened to my comment, but I saw your response, and the reason I would regret it is if I am paying more in the long run. Having said that, I am definitely pleased with my rate. I didn’t wait to refinance because I had the same fear as you and didn’t want to lose out on such a low rate. Either way I have to pay this debt.

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