Getting Recertification Notices on your Federal Student Loans? Here is What to Do!

Servicers (mostly Mohela at this time) are saying that borrowers should submit their recertification paperwork on time (You can upload it and/or mail it in), but it will not be processed until the injunction is lifted.

If you don’t recertify on time, you will get booted to the standard repayment plan, but you can’t recertify on time because they are not processing the paperwork! UGH!

Here is how to avoid that.

You must submit income information on time – if you don’t, you will fall out of your IDR and a 10 year standard payment will be due.  If you don’t make that payment, the missed payments will start to report on your credit after Oct 1 when the On Ramp program expires.  Collection efforts will also restart in October.

In the meantime, you are probably receiving notices that your bill is going up quite a bit (that’s because it is being calculated on the standard repayment plan as a default).

We hope they will just extend the recertification deadline yet again to avoid this additional headache for borrowers. But if not, we suggest calling your servicer and informing them that you have completed your recertification paperwork on time as requested, and that you would like to be placed on a processing forbearance to avoid being put on a standard repayment plan.  You will not receive IDR credit during this time – and we expect the SAVE litigation to be resolved by next summer.  It’s unknown what will happen with that.

If you would like for us to review your loans and see what can be done, please reach out to us for a strategy session.  Servicers are often incorrect when telling you what to do and what you may be eligible for.  Test that yourself by calling them.  You’ll likely get a few different answers.

You can reach us with the link below, calling 813-258-2808 or email us at info@christiearkovich.com.