Student loan payment help, with Dr. Sonia Lewis

Welcome back. Well, student loan borrowers, don't ignore that email or that letter from your loan servicer. Missing an important deadline could mean an unexpected payment or the wrong repayment plan. So what should you check before making your next move? Well, student loan expert Dr. Sonja Lewis is here with more on the deadlines, repayment options, and what borrowers need to know right now. So Dr. Lewis, good to have you here. Thank you for having me today. Good morning. All right, let's back this up just a little bit. Let's talk about the save plan. It's ending. It's done. What does that mean for people? So the SAFE plan was probably going to be the most affordable plan. It came with loan forgiveness, all the things from the Biden administration, but that plan did not make it through Congress. And so here we are, borrowers, about 8 million of them have to choose a new plan in less than 30 days. There you go. So the clock is literally ticking to get on this. So let's start with this. First things first, if a student loan borrower gets a notice from their servicer, what should they do immediately? Okay. Well, number one, don't ignore it. I know it's It's like the thing people want to do, but the challenge here is that you may have not made a student loan payment in the last five years because of the pandemic pause. So to be super sure of what's going on with your loans, don't wait for a letter, don't wait for an email, you should go to studentaid.gov, log in, reset your password if needed, and you'll see there on your dashboard when is your expected repayment date. Okay. Okay. So you gave us that. I have a feeling we're going to be hearing that website a couple of times through all this. What about this? What can borrowers, you know, how can we find the official deadline? It sounds like you're going to need that website and to go through those steps that you're saying, like that's going to be a very important part of this puzzle. You can check your junk or spam email. It probably lives there and it will tell you, you have 30 days, you have 60 days, but on average, the general masses were in the last 30 30 days before the repayment clock starts for people. Okay. So what I'm getting from this too, is that, you know, people share their experiences online, but, but when it comes to, to you, it sounds like your deadline is not the same as everyone else's that's personal to you. So you can't just go off of what everyone else is saying. So we could have two different borrowers, but in two different boats. And the kicker is some people are going back into repayment, but are going right into default. And that's a big deal because If you're past 270 days late, let's say you were almost in default or were before the pandemic. They put you right back in the same place. It's crazy. 10 million people are in default. Now, numbers wise, on average, it was only prior 3 million people. So an extra 7 million people are about to walk into... 100 points lost on their credit score, wage garnishments, tax return garnishments. Happy holidays. Yeah, it's scary because, you know, people count on their tax return, let's just say. Yeah, that's not coming. So if you see that it says you're in default, you have to get in front of it. And they do have some options to exercise before then. So let's talk about that. Choosing a repayment plan, you know, key things that you need to verify for that, including monthly payments and loan forgiveness. Yes, so when you are looking at a repayment plan, there are two that are on the board. Right now that people should know one is called the RAP plan implemented by this administration and one implemented years ago by Congress is the I B as in ball R plan. Now the big difference to make it really quick is IBR. It ends in about 20 years and the loan forgiveness is not taxable. RAP is in. 30 years, and it is taxable. So you have to decide which one is going to be best for you to go into. But here's the kicker. Borrowers that have had these student loans for years, if possible, should go into IBR because there's something called a tracker that will be restored on studentaid.gov soon. You might log in and say, oh, my God, I only have three years left to go. So you want to be in the plan that gets you forgiven as soon as possible. Okay, that sounds a lot to know. Yeah, it is, but, I mean, that's very helpful. We don't want people to pay an extra 10 years. Absolutely. Absolutely not. Come on. Absolutely not. So there's a lot of confusing and sometimes, you know, misleading information that's out there. So how can borrowers separate fact from fiction? You know, I always tell people if it's not on studentaid.gov, it's probably not true. There are a lot of websites and people kind of click baiting and rage baiting with this. topic of student loans. But the biggest thing is, what did your lender say and what did studentaid.gov say? And you need to be able to take time to read the updates because they all pertain to you if you are in repayment. So let's say someone's just tuning in to the back end of our conversation on this today. They may be feeling overwhelmed, not sure of what to do next. What would you say are the first steps they need to do today? Well, first thing first, take a deep breath because there's nothing that comes from confusion. So you have to be able to understand that when Looking at studentaid.gov, it's telling you what is coming up. So if you're watching this today, we have a lot of time to fix if your loans are in default or if they're going into repayment. And when I say a lot of time, 30 days to me is a lot of time, right? So you can still get in front of it. The next thing is ask questions. If you don't understand the repayment plans, ask your lender, ask your servicer, what would this mean for me? Don't go by your neighbor or your friends. And then lastly, loan forgiveness is still a real option. I know that we're not talking about that a lot with this. administration, but they're actually clearing the same amount of debt, if not more than the Biden administration. They're just not publishing it in the headlines. So still apply for loan forgiveness programs if you're eligible. This is helpful for a lot of people. Yeah. Yes. So thank you so much for coming in and shedding some light on this. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. Of course, the student loan doctor in the house, student loan expert, Dr. Sonia Lewis. It's a pleasure. Thank you so much. Yes, of course. Come back and see us. And for more student loan tips you can follow Dr. Sonia Lewis on social media. The Student Loan Doctor or at doctorpleasehelpme.com. We'll share a link on our website, fox5atlanta.com. Just look under the Good Day section. Dr. Sonia Lewis with us today.