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?

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.

Thank you!

Thank you Michael and thank you for the article reference, which I found useful for myself too. I did refer him to contact you as well as he had more complicated questions that really need to be answered in a consultation with someone who is a subject expert.

Both strategies could work, but your thought to wait and stay on the SAVE forbearance also makes sense, especially because your friend is working toward PSLF can could benefit from the buyback.

You might also want to check out this article on excluding high income years from IDR calculations.

I have a question which was actually brought up to me by a friend the other day My friend is married and both he and his wife are currently in the SAVE plan. He told me he is looking to go into the IBR plan now as he is in PSLF and wants to continue toward forgiveness. However, his income has decreased since he last filed taxes and he plans on filing married but separately next year due to his high loan balance. He was wondering about two things, first if he could switch to IBR now using alternative proof of income such as paystubs for himself and his wife (rather than the higher prior tax return) and while he would pay more now until the upcoming tax season, he secondly asked if he could then re certify his IBR plan with the updated tax status of married filing separately next year to lower his payments. Personally, I would just wait until tax time to do all this but he had an interesting question I thought I would share for those in similar circumstances. Thank you!

That is a really interesting question Natalie. I’ll start with the easy part: there isn’t a definitive list of eligible employers. I’ve previously written about ways to find eligible employers, but in your circumstance, the only way to know for sure is to apply. I’d also add that waiting for the dust to settle on the merger and making sure things are finalized before applying could make a lot of sense.