To demonstrate how those refunds work, Buchanan outlined an example of a borrower who made a lump sum payment of $1,000 in June 2021, bringing their balance down to $8,000, and now wants a refund for that payment. The loan servicer should say, “Great. Your balance as of right now is $8,000. We’re going to send you a check for $1,000 and then your loan balance will increase to $9,000,” Buchanan said.
“Let’s say they choose July 1, 2022... [They will say] ‘Servicer, tell me what their balance was on that date?’ And that’s how much forgiveness you are going to get,” he added.Under this scenario, if you owe $10,000 and requested a $2,000 refund on pandemic-era payments today,that hypothetical date, and bumped up your loan balance to $12,000, only $10,000 of that loan may be forgiven.
“If you need that cash because of expenses, or because you lost your job, then absolutely request it,” he said, noting that is the kind of pandemic-related flexibility the policy was created to address. “But if you’re coming at it and saying, ‘I want to get more loan forgiveness.’ I’m not sure that that’s the right strategy until we get more guidance,” he added.
Be wary of people impersonating the Department of Education, or your loan servicer, or people claiming to give you loan forgiveness for an expedited fee.Every time there’s been an announcement on an extension or discussion on forgiveness, these scam artists are coming out, calling people, leaving voicemails, putting on all these websites that ‘help’ people get into these free programs,” said Tony Aguilar, CEO ofAnd a lot of times they are charging people hundreds of dollars.
Nelnet told me I wasn’t eligible for the pause, so I kept paying. Now they say I’m not eligible for the reimbursement…
There is no such thing as loan 'forgiveness.' It is a loan TRANSFER placed upon many Americans that weren't fortunate enough to go to college.