Given, as you point out, that the new admin is absorbed in other priorities, in your mind what are the factors to consider in deciding whether someone stuck in SAVE should apply for PAYE when it opens in December? Many of us will be facing that decision soon. Perhaps the new Education Dept secretary will have a strong interest in getting everyone back in repayment status and is developing a plan to do so. But, in short, which do you think is preferable, SAVE forbearance or PAYE processing forbearance?

Today, I was getting information about, analyzing and debating PAYE vs. IBR, and I finally decided to re-certify into PAYE. I tried to stay almost until the last minute before making a move. Maybe, as you said, waiting could be good sometimes. I hope I did the right thing!

In my humble opinion, there is a lot of uncertainty, but we need to bear with the situation, stay informed, be patient and keep our spirits positive. I refuse to think that this situation will cause a massive damage, as in a doomsday scenario. I do believe that there has to be a fairly healthy solution for this complicated issue. And I am not making any political statement or so here!. Please, consider me a non-political person!. At least, I would try to be positive and keep my mental health on check.

Thank you!

As you noted, I don’t have a crystal ball, but I’ll give you my two cents. Starting the buyback process and finishing the buyback process are two different things. You can start the buyback process, and then if the one-time adjustment happens while you wait for buyback results, great. If it doesn’t, then you have a more difficult decision to make.

It’s possible that your application might get processed quickly, but its far from a certainty.

As for what the Trump adminstration might do, at this point, I don’t even think they know. They are still figuring out who will be in the cabinet. Handling student loan repayment change requests isn’t very high on their to do list.

I think and hope that many borrowers will be surprised at how little changes from a policy standpoint when the new adminstration takes office.

I think the rep may have been mistaken. For example, I was just chatting with someone who had a PSLF certification processed just this week.

Likewise, I don’t think we are stuck waiting for the courts to make a final decision.

My read of the situation is that the lawsuits were something the Department of Education didn’t expect, it has caused some chaos as they firgure out what to do, they are trying to instruct servicers how to handle the change, and it has cause some massive delays and temporary processing pauses.

Its really hard to make any blanket statements right now because there are so many variables at play.

What I can say is that there are likely to be many changes that happen in the coming months, so waiting to see what happens next is definitely a legitimate plan that many borrowers will be using.

Thank you!

I’m really sorry to hear about the difficult situation you are in. Sadly, there an easy answer in these situations. The cosigner is legally responsible for the debt in the event the borrower doesn’t pay. However, if the loan was modified to new terms without your wife’s consent, there might be something that can be done about it. In that situation, I’d suggest finding a local attorney (because contract law and consumer law can vary from state to state) and bring them a copy of the loan agreement as well as anything else you have pertaining to the loan.