How to Get Student Loan Forgiveness - What you need to know!

More than 11% of borrowers across the nation are delinquent on their student loan monthly payments as of 2017. College can be enormously high-priced and stressful, especially when you add overwhelming student loan debt to the equation. 

Today we will provide you a quick step-by-step guide on how to consolidate your student loans, get approved for the lowest monthly payment and get student loan forgiveness. 

Don’t worry, as complicated and worrisome as student loan debt can be, by the time you finish reading this post – you will be fully equipped on what to do to make your student loans affordable. 

Before we dive into the instructions – let’s first look at the 3 biggest mistakes that students’ make prior to starting the student loan relief process. 

Mistake #1: Getting approved for the wrong student loan repayment plan

There are nine student loan repayment plans currently being offered by the Department of Education. You can visit StudentLoans.Gov to get an estimate on what your new payment could be after consolidating and which plan will give you the maximum amount of loan forgiveness. 

Example:

The Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR), Income–Based Repayment (IBR) and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) plans all offer student loan forgiveness. 

Mistake #2: Forgetting to fill out the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Employment Certification Form:

For anyone with a “public service job” you can qualify for loan forgiveness in 10-years, versus, 20-25 years for everyone else. However, you don’t automatically get approved for the PSLF just because of your job, there are required steps you must first complete. 

It’s mandatory that you fill out, sign and submit the “Public Service Loan Forgiveness Employment Certification Form” to FedLoan Servicing, before your repayment plan starts and then again at the 10-year mark. 

If you forget to submit the employment certification form to FedLoan Servicing, the 120 payments that you just finished paying, will not count towards your PSLF eligibility. You will be in for a rude awakening in 10-years when you find out you’re ineligible for loan forgiveness… all because you never filled out a simple form!

About our guest contributor: GoldenFinancialServices advises students to submit the employment verification form every single year to improve the probability of eligibility for PSLF. By submitting the form once per year -- you’re solidifying proof of eligibility when the 10-year mark arrives! 

How> to Get Student Loan Forgiveness?Golden Financial Services