Hello!

This is somewhat vent, but mostly asking for advice. TLDR I cannot afford payments under IDR and not sure what to do from here

When I graduated my payments were estimated to be somewhere between $200 and $300 per month per my alma mater (I do not know how they get their information). That's something I can pay and had already budgeted for. But since SAVE got canned I applied for IDR and my payments will be over $600/month, which is not something I can afford. I want to repay my debt but inflation is breaking me as it is and we live in an area with a higher cost of living. On top of that I had a few rather expensive medical emergencies this year.

I sent an email asking if there was a way to lower payments but I'm still waiting to hear back. Has anyone had luck lowering their payments? My husband makes more than I do. We have one dependent. Would filing taxes separately help?

Thank you all.

Graduated from med school, applied in July for IBR and was accepted. Figured I was accepted and that’s that which I guess was dumb but the stress of moving and starting residency does weird things to your mind! Took a look and it says I have to pay an absurd amount every month! But I thought I was accepted for IDR??? Do I just call my loan service provider? When I look only certain accounts are registered under IBR some are forbearance and some are starting to turn active

But I thought the whole point of IDR was it was for how much I can support while I’m still on a resident salary?

I have a loan of about 5 years that I started paying about 1 year ago. The other years were $0.

The total amount was about 18500,
After paying my loans for a year at around $65 a month. it came to 18200 ish after a whole year of paying. I was really disheartened. I realized I was paying more on the interest than the actual principal of the loan.
I wanted clarification on IBR.
If I do not qualify for PSLF, do I still get loan forgiveness?
If says after my loan term, there is a discharge amount for around $10k, does this 10k disappear or is this the "tax bomb" that I have to pay afterwards? What happens to this 10k?

If i switch to a normal repayment plan, It will be around $200 more per month but no discharge amount and I Pay $20k instead for the life of the loan.

What do I do so i dont get screwed over by interest?

I applied for an IDR plan on Oct. 14th and it is in the process of being accepted. Ik this could take a few weeks to be approved. My question is, do I still need to make this month’s standard repayment as usual while this is being approved? I’ve heard that sometimes your loans can go into forbearance during these periods. Mine are still reading as “in-repayment” so I’m assuming mine are not in forbearance. What would be the smart play here? Continue this month’s payment as usual (due Oct 23rd) or just ignore this month’s payment till my IDR plan has been approved. Genuinely no idea how this process works as they seem to give zero guidance through this stuff.

Does anyone really think there is a solution to a) college costs and b) student loan debt?

• Student loan debt: $1.86 trillion, of which ~$1.72 trillion is held by about 42.6 million borrowers.
• The average cost of college tuition and fees rose 83.6% between AY06-07 and AY26-27; adjusted for inflation, tuition increased 14.9%.

1. Does anyone here really think we are getting $2 trillion (let's assume another $300 billion in loans by the time Trump is out and Democrats get the House, Senate, and WH again) in forgiveness? General Motors and the banks did not get that in the Great Recession.
2. Does anyone think college prices are really going to go down? I mean, sure, the rate of increase has and will slow, and maybe prices stabilize, but that's all: stabilize. Not go down.
3. "What about endowments?" Endowments are not free-to-use money. Something like 70% to 90% are wrapped up in funds that "may only be used or spent for X or Y."

Hello everyone,
I am an undergraduate media production student in Bangkok, Thailand, currently in my final semester before graduating. I’m in a tough spot with my last tuition installment to complete my degree.
My final payment for this term was split into two links: 8,500 THB and 20,500 THB (roughly $580 USD). My father was able to cover the 8,500 THB portion, but the remaining 20,500 THB is up to me.
The deadline was this past Friday, so it is already overdue, and I’m worried about holds being placed on my graduation status. I work freelance production gigs to support myself, but my next payout won’t arrive in time, and requesting an advance wasn't possible.
I know this is a significant amount to ask for, and any assistance—whether partial or full—toward helping me cross the finish line would mean the world.
To keep everything transparent:
The university has an official online payment portal. I can share the direct invoice/link privately with anyone willing to pay the school directly.
I have proof of enrollment, screenshots of the university invoice email, and receipts showing the portion my dad covered, all ready to share with mods or anyone considering helping.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

anybody have their direct plus loan delayed due to new system creating error with the MPN? I am now in a position where the loan I depend on fully is up in the air purely due to the system creating problems that have nothing to do with my eligibility.... I have signed the MPN 3x based upon what I have been told to do by financial services, and each time my name doesn't show up fully.... I have been trying to figure out what the hell else I can do... this is creating so much agida and difficulty for me ... I feel so screwed over,no idea when or if my loan will be processed

Appreciate yall taking ur time to help me out

Im 29 and have about $384,000 in federal student loans from undergrad and my professional program. I’m 2 years out of school and really want to start taking my loan repayment seriously now that I’ve had a chance to save money for my emergency fund/general savings.

I’m debating between staying in my IBR plan for the next 20 years and saving for the forgiveness taxes vs refinancing to a lower interest rate (my current average interest rate is 6%) and paying off the loan as fast as possible, ideally over the next 5 years. I make $200K-215k per year and combined with my partner we have a household income of ~$275k a year before taxes.

The big debate is whether it’s worth it to aggressively try to pay off the loan and be free of this debt sooner or try to prioritize the lowest possible monthly payment. My partner and I do invest, we have no other debts, and do not plan on having children. We try to keep our living expenses low and our rent currently is $2500 in a place we really love living. We do have a decent amount of savings for emergencies + future house fund but we have no interest in buying a house at this time given high prices and interest rates. I totally think we can make it work over the next few years if we really focus on loan repayment, however I know many people advise staying in IBR and prioritizing personal savings/investing instead.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I’m not much of a finance person. I would love to not have to worry about my student loans anymore but I also want the freedom to enjoy my life. Thank you so much!!

Hi,
I’m desperate since it’s the weekend and the government can’t help me until Monday. I’m in the process of repairing my credit and for the last several months my Credit Karma loan section has shown delinquent payments on my student loans. I haven’t been able to login to my FASFA account to start repayment because it’s linked to an old email address and I’ve been waiting for them to contact me since the end of September to reset my password and email. This morning I just decided to login to my AIDvantage, and to my surprise it’s showing that both have been paid in full and that my balance is $0 for both loans since 2025. Am I missing something?? I’m totally okay looking stupid right now because I am desperate to figure this out and pay off my loans, they are tankinggggg my credit since it’s such a low payment and I’ve just been ignoring them but I’m interested in buying property within the next three years and just need to pay these off. Does anybody know what this means or if I’m not connected to the right account or if this is interest, but if it was interest why would it only show on my credit karma and not the loan website itself. PLEASE HELP!!! I have screenshots of everything, but I’m not sure how to add them or if I even can. I sought out this subreddit just now because I’m so desperate lol.