My wife and I, apparently living under a rock, found out that her student loans may be eligible for student loan forgiveness since she works (and has always worked) for a non-profit since she graduated college. Wow! Yay! This is amazing!
Well, I look into it. Turns out, it is after 10 years. When she started payments, she had the option of repaying in 10, 15, 20, or 30 years. (May have been different options—I’m not sure). We went with the 10 year plan, because why would you carry an unsecured loan at 6% longer than you need to? Oh. Right. That whole forgiveness thing. Damnit.
I look into it, and it looks like if you refinance, you lose your option for forgiveness. But I'm not giving up quite that easily:
-Does anyone know if it is possible to go on an income-based repayment plan and still get the forgiveness? Does that count as a refinance?
-What about your taxes—other than not getting the deduction, does the forgiven amount count as income?
-Does the clock reset when one goes on the income based repayment plan, or would we still only have 7 years to go before the forgiveness (if it is possible)?
Hope somebody can help. Kinda really annoyed that we were doing what was the financially responsible thing, and it might have been a poor move.