Have federal loans?

This information is for anybody who has a federal loan

You can decrease your payment or even have your loan forgiven after a certain period of time

Beginning July 1, NACAC members may be eligible for Income-Based Repayment (IBR). IBR caps monthly federal loan payments at an affordable level based on income and family size, and forgives any debt and interest that remains after 25 years. If you owe more on your federal student loans than you earn in a year, you can probably benefit from IBR. The lower your income, the lower your monthly payment will be: in some cases, as low as $0. IBR is available for almost all federal loans – past, present, or future – made by any lender, whether for college or graduate school.  

If you work in a nonprofit (including higher education institutions) or other public service job (including public education), you could have your remaining student loan debt forgiven after just 10 years of Income-Based Repayment, or certain other payments. Your loans have to be in the federal Direct Loan Program to qualify, but the 10 years don’t have to be consecutive. You just need to make a total of 120 payments while working full-time for a public or nonprofit employer, starting on or after October 1, 2007. NACAC will soon release a brief on details of loan forgiveness.

Federal Student Aid provides detail of IBR online and in a fact sheet.

Project on Student Debt has additional information online, including a calculator to estimate monthly payments and an IBR video.

*Source: www.nacacnet.org