Student loans

Published on: December 2, 2020

TE-PSLF — What to do if You Don’t Qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Good news. There’s lots of money left in TEPSLF. 700 million was appropriated and as of September 2020, only about 87.5 million had been discharged under TEPSLF. There is a new form here: https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/public-service-application-for-forgiveness.pdf.

Under the new form, you don’t have to apply for regular PSLF first, be denied, and then apply for TEPSLF. And even more important, as I read the new form, you don’t have to wait until 10 years to determine if your prior “wrong plan payments such as those under the Graduated or Extended Plans” counts or not. That is huge for someone wanting to make life decisions about whether to remain in PSLF a few more months/years for the win — or bail and start perhaps a higher income position in the private world or start their own business!

What is TEPSLF? This is the fund that Congress set up to help those who were in the wrong payment plan so their student loan payment didn’t count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness. It does not fix the FFEL loan versus Direct loan fiasco.

Continue reading →

Published on: November 23, 2020

Are You Returning to Work Solely Due to Your Student Loans? Here’s a Better Way…

By Christie D. Arkovich, P.A.

Join us tomorrow at noon EST/ 11:00 CST for a Facetime Interview between Jamie (Miller and Miller in Wisconsin) and Christie (Arkovich Law in Florida) as we discuss why NO ONE should feel compelled to return to work right now, just to be able to pay their student loans.

There are new avenues to say “Goodbye” to both federal and private student loans in many situations! Things that everyday people and even your average bankruptcy attorney have no idea about! NONE of these things we are doing for clients right now involve a future Act of Congress. None.

“A lot of people, even some of the lawyers who represent consumers, thought for years that you really shouldn’t even try because there’s not a chance you’ll win, but I think everyone is looking at it now with sort of a fresh look,” says John Rao, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center.

Continue reading →

Published on: November 19, 2020

How do You Get Rid of Student Loans – Use the Opportunities that COVID-19 presents now!

By Christie D. Arkovich, P.A.

Are you tired of endlessly paying on your student loans, only to see no headway at all being made?

I wrote this article for our local Cramdown publication for Tampa Bay attorney advocates and bankruptcy attorneys – these are tips that everyone should know about and ask their advocate for assistance with. Don’t rely only on your servicer in other words. Contact us if you’d like to know more about this. These tips are designed to SAVE YOU MONEY and instead COST THEM MONEY. This is kinda long, but the best tips are near the end, so please keep reading, it’ll be the best thing you’ll read all year if you have student loan debt!

The CARES Act signed into law on March 27, 2020 (the “Act”), provided for forbearance and interest waiver for all Direct Loans that are owned by the federal government. Older Federal Family Education Loans (“FFEL”) were not protected by the Act, but the Department of Education encouraged servicers of these federal loans to take similar actions to relieve borrowers of the need to make payments during the pandemic. Those with Perkins loans or private loans also were not protected from interest accrual or the need to make payments and this resulted in a patchwork of forbearances and other temporary payment relief.

Continue reading →

Published on: October 9, 2020

New Course for Accountants, Financial Planners or even Borrowers on “Helping Your Clients Take Their Lives Back From Their Student Loans”

By Christie D. Arkovich, P.A.

Wrapping up another busy week with student loan discharges in bankruptcy and forgiveness under the disability program. Hosted an excellent presentation for Tampa Bay Bankruptcy Bar Association attorneys on the new procedures for small business reorganizations by Amy Denton Harris, a shareholder with Stichter, Riedel, Blain & Postler, P.A. and Guy Van Baalen, an Assistant U.S. Trustee with the Tampa U.S. Trustee’s office.

The highlight of the week was a webinar presentation I did for CPAacademy titled “Helping Your Clients Take Their Lives Back From Their Student Loans“. I’d like to thank the 580 people who signed up even during the busy tax season with extensions expiring in just a few days.

I just have to share a few of the testimonials (all five stars except one four star who would have liked to seen a bit longer presentation!) to encourage you to watch and learn (or reach out to us to finally do something about your student loan debt):

Continue reading →

Published on: October 5, 2020

New Bankruptcy Relief for Student Loans and Homeowners Being Discussed in Congress.

By Christie D. Arkovich, P.A.

I’m usually reluctant to talk much about pending bills recently introduced because so much can happen before a bill becomes a law. Remember that cartoon with the little bill walking from place to place? Wow, that dates me a bit.

But odds are something along these lines will get passed this year in part as COVID 19 relief: Student Borrower Bankruptcy Relief Act of 2019 and Protecting Homeowners in Bankruptcy Act of 2020 – the bill markups are found here.

If you have private student loans, we don’t need to wait for Congress. We frequently can discharge those private, high interest loans right now. If you’ve filed a bankruptcy if the past, we can reopen your case (as long as the bankruptcy pre-dates the loans themselves) and wipe the deck clear of many, if not most, private student loans.

Continue reading →

Published on: September 13, 2020

COVID Relief for Private Student Loan Borrowers is Elusive: But Read to the Bottom – You won’t be Sorry!.

By Christie D. Arkovich, P.A.

This week I received an email from a borrower who believed that she didn’t have to make her private student loan payments due to COVID and the CARES Act.

Not true. While many private lenders have indeed voluntarily agreed to forbearance of two to six months per a recent Wall Street Journal article, “For Student-Loan Borrowers, There is Some Relief – but That Isn’t the Whole Story“. The article emphasized that these are uncertain times for all student loan borrowers, but especially those with private loans.

First, these short forbearances are coming to an end and decisions will need to be made.

Continue reading →

Published on: September 11, 2020

Whatever Happened to the Borrower Defense to Repayment Claims for Attendance at a Fraudulent School?

By Christie D. Arkovich, P.A.

A proposed court settlement between the Trump administration and defrauded borrowers is in jeopardy after the administration revealed its widespread denials of requests for student debt cancellation for those who attended schools who lied to them in order to get them to attend, the Washington Post reported recently.

The settlement required that borrowers who were still awaiting a decision on their Borrower Defense to Repayment (“BDTR”) application after 18 months would get 30 percent of their federal loans discharged for every month that the department is late, and those who are denied reserve the right to an appeal. Not surprisingly, as a result, we have seen mass denials this summer. I personally have seen around ten outright denials – no specifics, just a general denial of failure to state a claim. I have seen two approvals – but these were only for 10% of the principal and waiver of interest during the review period. A drop in the bucket.

This reminds me of the FTC lawsuit against DeVry. They had them dead to rights with written misrepresentations in their marketing material regarding job placement rates. The settlement? Everyone got checks. The problem was the checks were only for around $500. For screwing up someone’s life forever.

Continue reading →

Published on: September 8, 2020

McDaniel v Navient Case: Is this a Game Changer to Discharge Private Student Loan Debt?

By Christie D. Arkovich, P.A.

This recent 10th Circuit case, McDaniel v. Navient, has gotten a lot of press among those in the student loan arena when it paved the way for discharge of 200k of private student loans. But what does it really mean?

First, here is what wasn’t addressed in this case. Navient admitted that 523(a)(8) (a) (i) (government or non-profit lender/guarantor) and (b) (cost of attendance) didn’t apply. In other words, they agreed that the loans were not guaranteed by a non-profit, and were outside the cost of attendance – so neither argument would prevent a discharge.

Instead, Navient hung its hat on the loans being covered under the “educational benefit” under (a) (ii). But Navient lost. The McDaniel case is consistent with the 9th Circuit BAP case In re Kashikar as far as the determination that educational loans do not equate educational benefit under (A)(ii). The 5th Circuit in In re Crocker found the same thing last fall.

Continue reading →