Great Lakes student loans: only 11 payments/year??

[SeanSpicerSays]

Hi all,

I posted something similar on another forum but think I might get more input here and want to make sure anyone else on IBR with Great Lakes is aware of a potential issue.

I have run into an issue in which Great Lakes skips billing me for one month each year. Quite literally, I only make 11 payments per year, because they apparently don't bill the month that my IBR plan is regenerated after I re-certify.  I am on auto pay and caught this only after 2.5 years of repayment.

I asked them about the impact that this would have on my (hopefully) anticipated forgiveness. The customer service agent said this is how they do it for "everyone" and it won't impact forgiveness because forgiveness is based off of actual years of repayment, NOT number of monthly payments made.

Anyone else experience this?

This opinion seems to be contradicted by Q28 of this doc, copied below:

28.What does “after 20 or 25 years of qualifying repayment” mean?

This means that you will qualify for forgiveness of any remaining loan balance after you have made the
equivalent of 20 or 25 years of qualifying monthly payments, and after at least 20 or 25 years have
passed.

https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/sites/default/files/income-driven-repayment-q-and-a.pdf

Appreciate your opinions on this!  Would seem to also have a big impact on the potential "tax bomb" at the end of IBR.

[Optimiser]

I noticed the same thing on my loans, but I made payments even on the months they weren't due. I'm hoping to have them paid off long before loan forgiveness would happen, even if it doesn't make sense mathematically.

[SimpleCycle]

Forgiveness is after the correct number of payments, not years.

I would call the Department of Education, this doesn't seem like a correct way to service the loan.  You'll end up paying more interest than you otherwise would because of this policy.

[SeanSpicerSays]

Thanks for the replies!  I am going to first contact Great Lakes in writing, and then reach out to DOE if they don't rectify it.

[ringer707]

I am with Fed Loan Servicing and this is also how they do mine. You can still send them money that month if you want to, but I believe it will only go to any accrued interest (I may have this backwards so someone please correct me if I'm wrong).  It's frustrating because I'm on PSLF so I will lose ten whole months, but I've tried arguing with them and can't ever get them to actually bill me for the month, despite repeatedly noting that I do NOT want to be placed into forbearance while they recertify my payment.

[RocketSurgeon]

I also have Great Lakes, and the same issue, although it seems closer to 11.5 payments/year to me. I doubt there's anything that can be done about it, but I'm looking forward to hearing what kind of response you get.