Tampa Student Loan and Bankruptcy Lawyer Blog — October 1, 2020
I showed my sister-in-law her phone. She received five different messages in just one day about her student loans. Two of the messages were from Navient, and Earnest. She didn’t click on them to see what it was, but I’m sure they were solicitations for her to refinance federal loans into a private loan.
Beware of those. Refinancing made sense when interest rates were low and forgiveness options were also low. Less interest, lower payments, loan repaid faster.
Now, however, forgiveness options are everywhere and many of them are working. There are many forgiveness options available, and they work. If you refinance your loans now, you’ll likely have higher interest rates, no income-driven plans, no or limited forbearance and little protections for disability. If you refinance your loans now, you’ll likely have higher interest, no income driven plans, no or limited forbearance, little protections for disability and certainly no forgiveness.
If you are even thinking about doing this, please talk to someone who works in the student debt field- someone to advocate for you (not a loan servicer). This may be the most crucial call of your life.
