Pheo13 Posted August 16, 2019 Share Posted August 16, 2019 Hello I am a new graduate, starting my job in the emergency room in October. I am curious to see what others have found as the best way to pay off student loans. I used the GradPlus loans for school, and a lot of people from my program have been talking about refinancing their loans. I know if you do this you lose the benefits of federal loans, but is it worth it? I have heard about some people paying $3,000+ a month just to pay off loans in 5 years! I was also wondering if anybody has pursued the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program? I will be working for a not-for-profit, but I have heard that less than 20% of people who apply for the PSLF don't receive it? (possibly from filling out forms wrong or just not qualifying). I know that I would have to work at a not-for-profit for 10 years and make 120 qualified payments, but that sounds do-able. My boyfriend seems to think that working as a Locum Tenens PA is the best way to make a bunch of money to pay off loans. I am not sure how correct he is on this. Just like to see what others have to say. Any input helps. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewconvert Posted August 17, 2019 Share Posted August 17, 2019 (edited) You are a new grad... just go ahead and drop the locum tenens stuff until you are at least not scared of your own shadow. I say that respectfully. Locums is not a place for new grads. Refinancing with a private company will save you money, and if you intend to pay your loans off in less than 10 years it is probably worth exploring. PSLF is a great plan, assuming an administration with an interest in seeing it work is running it. The issue has been that for 10years no one in the DoE cared about it because there was no one who qualified for forgiveness, so there was no infrastructure, or money to develop infrastructure, in place to make the program work. Then people started submitting for forgiveness and all of the problems arose. Many people weren’t working in the correct type of job, or they had consolidated their loans because their servicers wanted to string them along and that reset their payment count, or their servicers just didn’t keep good records. In theory this is being addressed. I’ve made around 20 payments on all my loans, 85% show 20 payments, 10% show 17 payments and 5% show 15 payments.... I started making payments on all of my loans on the same day... they still don’t have their crap together. Your mileage may vary. Edited August 17, 2019 by anewconvert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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