Parent Plus Loan repayment options after pandemic forbearance - keeping payments manageable

They base it on just ur income if ur the only one who signed. My wife took out PPLs for our son and I make 3x what she makes but they only look at her income for the IDR plans. You need to apply for Income-Contingent Repayment but there's a catch - u have to consolidate the PPLs into a Direct Consolidation Loan first before u can do ICR. Regular Parent Plus Loans don't qualify for IDR plans except ICR and only after consolidation.

Parent Plus Loan repayment can be complicated, especially after the pandemic forbearance. Let me break this down for you: 1. Standard repayment: Without any special plans, your loans will be placed on a 10-year repayment schedule. The payment is calculated by taking the total loan amount plus accrued interest and dividing it into 120 equal payments. With $51,000 in loans at varying interest rates, you're looking at approximately $540-600/month depending on the weighted average interest rate. 2. Income-driven options: Parent Plus loans are eligible for Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR), but ONLY after you consolidate them into a Direct Consolidation Loan first. Under ICR, your payment would be 20% of your discretionary income (income minus 100% of poverty guideline for your family size) or what you'd pay on a 12-year plan, whichever is less. 3. Income consideration: Only YOUR income matters if you're the only borrower - your husband's income doesn't factor in unless you file taxes jointly. If you file separately, you could potentially have lower payments. 4. Extended repayment: You can request extended repayment of up to 25 years, which lowers monthly payments but increases total interest paid. I suggest starting at studentaid.gov to look at consolidation and then applying for ICR. With your income level, ICR should make payments more manageable.

If you file taxes jointly, then yes, they will consider both incomes for ICR calculations - which would likely result in higher payments since your household income is higher. Filing separately would isolate just your income for the calculation, potentially lowering your payment significantly, but there are other tax implications to consider. One thing to note: when you consolidate, your new interest rate will be the weighted average of your current loans, rounded up to the nearest 1/8th percent. So if you have loans at 5.3%, 6.2%, and 7.1%, your consolidated rate would be somewhere around 6.25-6.375% depending on the loan balances. Also worth mentioning - if you're struggling to get information or resolution through the StudentAid.gov website, you might want to try Claimyr (claimyr.com). They have a service that connects you directly to a FAFSA/Federal Student Aid agent by phone with minimal wait time. There's a video demo at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ that shows how it works. I used it last year when I had issues with my son's Parent Plus loan consolidation and couldn't get through on the regular phone lines.

lol don't even bother with regular repayment on Parent Plus. Complete waste of $$$$. My brother paid like 25k in JUST INTEREST before he figured out the ICR thing. They don't tell parents about it cuz they want u to overpay!!!

I JUST WENT THROUGH THIS WHOLE NIGHTMARE!!! The parent plus loan system is DESIGNED to confuse parents and make maximum money off us. I have $73k in parent plus loans from my son's education and was in forbearance the entire pandemic. First thing - DONT TRUST THE LOAN SERVICERS TO GIVE YOU CORRECT INFO! I was told THREE different things by Nelnet representatives about what my options were. One told me I qualified for PSLF (I don't), one said I couldn't do income-driven repayment at all (WRONG), and the third finally got it right. If you want ICR, you MUST consolidate first. When you consolidate, they take the weighted average interest rate and round UP to the nearest 1/8th percent. IT'S A SCAM but what choice do we have? After consolidation, apply for ICR immediately. If you file jointly, they WILL count your husband's income. If you file separately, they only count yours, BUT you lose a bunch of tax benefits so do the math first!!! The whole system is rigged against parents. I'm still mad about it.

I've been repaying Parent Plus loans for my two kids for about 5 years now. Here's what I did that really helped: 1. Consolidated all the loans (had about $67k total) 2. Applied for Income-Contingent Repayment 3. Set up autopay for a 0.25% interest rate reduction 4. Made sure to recertify my income every year (they'll put you on standard repayment if you forget!) With my income around $35k, my payments started at about $220/month on ICR, which was manageable compared to the $715/month on standard repayment. The downside is I'll be paying these for 25 years and will likely have some forgiven (which will be taxable income at that point, but that's a problem for future me). Oh, and don't forget - you can deduct up to $2,500 in student loan interest on your taxes, even for Parent Plus loans, as long as the student was your dependent when you took out the loans. That helps a little with the tax hit.

My wife and I went thru this last year when our youngest graduated. We had plus loans for 3 kids totaling over $100k 😱 We file jointly so both our incomes were considered for ICR which would have been like $800/month. We ended up doing a 25-yr extended plan instead since the monthly payment was lower (about $650). Yes we pay more interest but the monthly payment fits our budget better. Look at ALL your options before deciding.

one more thing nobody mentioned - if ur working for government or non-profit u might qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness on Parent Plus Loans but only after consolidation and only on ICR. Its complicated but worth it if u qualify,

Based on the information you've shared, here's what I recommend: 1. First, consolidate your Parent Plus Loans through studentaid.gov into a Direct Consolidation Loan 2. Immediately apply for Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) 3. Consider whether filing taxes separately from your spouse would benefit you (run the numbers both ways) 4. Set up autopay for the 0.25% interest rate reduction 5. Mark your calendar to recertify your income annually With part-time income of $28k, your ICR payment could be significantly lower than the standard payment, possibly in the $200-300/month range if you file taxes separately. If you file jointly, it would be higher based on combined income. Remember that you'll need to recertify your income every year, and if your income increases, so will your payments. The loans would be eligible for forgiveness after 25 years of payments, though the forgiven amount would be taxable income. Do you know which loan servicer you have? That can sometimes affect the quality of service and information you receive.