Latest news with #PSLF
CNET
3 days ago
- Business
- CNET
SAVE Student Loan Borrowers Likely Won't Make Payments This Year, but Should Do This One Thing Now
Pla2na/Getty Images/CNET It's been a trying year for anyone enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education student loan repayment plan. There's been a barrage of student loan updates in 2025: proposed changes to Public Service Loan Forgiveness eligibility, an effort to restart collections on defaulted student loan accounts and a new Republican-fronted bill seeking to change existing income-driven repayment plan options. But the biggest news for most borrowers has been the court ruling blocking the SAVE repayment plan for 8 million borrowers. However, since that news, very little has been shared about what's next for SAVE borrowers. Currently, your loan payments remain paused in a general forbearance and your balance isn't collecting interest. That also means you're not making progress toward a loan forgiveness program like PSLF during the payment pause. While you can choose to switch to an alternative repayment plan, most experts suggest sticking with SAVE, and doing this one thing ahead of payments resuming. Here's what you need to know about when payments will restart for SAVE borrowers, how to choose a different income-driven repayment plan and what experts say you should do during this downtime. Read more: How Much Could Student Loan Payments Skyrocket for SAVE Borrowers? We Did the Math When will payments restart for student loan borrowers in SAVE? It's not clear when payments will start again for borrowers on the SAVE plan but it's looking like the end of this year would be the earliest timeframe. The Department of Education's website says SAVE plan borrowers will stay in a general forbearance until at least the fall. It also directed loan servicers to adjust the income recertification deadline to no earlier than Feb. 1, 2026. Robert Farrington, student loan expert and founder of The College Investor, expects the general forbearance to last even longer. "Borrowers will likely see the SAVE forbearance end in mid-to-late 2026," says Farrington. "Many borrowers are already reporting the end date of their forbearance moving to September 2026." Should PSLF borrowers in SAVE switch to another repayment plan? If you're a teacher, nurse or other public servant pursuing PSLF, you may be worried that the payment pause is not counting toward your 120-payment requirement. That leaves you with three options. First, you could switch from SAVE to another income-driven repayment plan (ICR, IBR or PAYE). That way, your payments will count toward PSLF's 120-payment requirement. Alternatively, if you would have hit 120 months of on-time payments if not for the pause, you can apply for the PSLF Buyback program to get credit for your time in forbearance. "This program [allows borrowers] to make a lump-sum payment for any months spent in administrative forbearance under SAVE, ensuring those months count towards PSLF," explains Megan Walter, NASFAA senior policy analyst. The downside of these first two options is that borrowers have been reporting processing delays. So don't expect a fast response. Last, if you've recently enrolled in PSLF or are not close to receiving forgiveness, you might prefer to wait until you're moved into a new payment plan. Yes, your months in forbearance won't count toward your 120-payment goal, but this could give you time to start saving for a potentially higher student loan payment. Whether you decide to change plans now or wait, make sure your decisions align with your financial goals. With SAVE no longer an option, it's important to understand all your avenues for paying back your student loans. What should SAVE borrowers do now? That doesn't mean you should sit back and do nothing, though. Take this time to prepare for the likelihood that your payments will increase in the future. You can use the Federal Student Aid's Loan Simulator tool to help calculate how much your monthly payment will be under different payment plans. While your payments are paused, you won't have to worry about your account being moved to collections. Although borrowers with defaulted loans are once again subject to collections, including wage garnishment, those enrolled in the SAVE plan don't have to worry about those consequences for now. Use this time to improve your finances, suggested Farrington. "This is a great time to pay off other debts (including private loans), build an emergency fund, contribute to an IRA and more." If you have the wiggle room in your budget, start paying yourself each month the same amount you'd pay your student loan servicer. Put this money into a high-yield savings account to earn a little extra interest on your savings.
Medscape
23-05-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Changes in Public Service Loan Forgiveness Worry Doctors
For most American medical students, graduating doesn't just mean starting the job they dedicated years of training to — it also means paying off student loans. Physicians hold the highest student debt of any profession, with an average of over $230,000 for medical school alone. About a third of medical students say they plan to use the US Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program to pay off federal loans. If they work in a qualifying hospital or clinic for 10 years and make 120 monthly loan repayments, the rest of their debt will be erased. The amount forgiven depends on salary and the amount of loan repayments. Some students and physicians are alarmed by language tucked into the Republican budget bill, now being debated in Congress, that would exclude residency years from counting toward PSLF. Residencies can range from 3 to 7 years depending on specialty. 'At a time when our country urgently needs more doctors, especially in underserved areas, this bill would create new financial and logistical barriers that disproportionately harm low-income students,' warned Shannon Udovic-Constant, president of the California Medical Association. At the same time, the Department of Education is holding public hearings on student loan program rules with the possibility of limiting which hospitals and clinics are eligible for PSLF. The agency did not respond to Medscape's request for comment. Today, rural and community hospitals, Veteran Affairs health services, and most nonprofit and academic medical institutions qualify for PSLF. Graduates can start their 10-year countdown at the beginning of their residency. Critics of the proposed changes say that making it harder for new doctors to use PSLF will discourage them from choosing lower-paid specialties like primary care or pediatrics and could reduce access to care in rural or underserved regions. 'I went into pediatric endocrinology knowing that I would work for an academic non-profit hospital, and as such, would qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness,' wrote Brittany Bruggerman, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Florida, on Facebook. 'If I thought I would have to pay back my $200k of loans on my own… I may have made a different choice.' Limiting Options for Physicians These aren't the first attempts to reform the PSLF. While an important lifeline for many students, the program is far from perfect and suffers from bureaucratic hurdles and an overall lack of clarity, said Dimitri Koustas, an assistant professor at the Harris school of Public Policy, University of Chicago. Some of the rules of the program, including income thresholds and which employers qualify, can seem arbitrary, he said. The proposed PSLF changes reduce rather than expand eligibility. The intent is to address what is referred to as the 'doctors' loophole,' explained Audra McGeorge, communications director of the Republican-controlled House Committee on Education & the Workforce. Doctors who begin repaying their student loans during residency do so on a low salary which rises significantly once they become attendings; so for those years, they benefit from a high discount on their loan repayment. Supporters of PSLF changes say residency years should be considered part of doctors' education, not employment. To that end, the budget bill would allow physicians and dentists to defer loan payments during their residency years without accruing interest, based on the premise that residency is education, not employment. That would benefit residents earning lower salaries, said McGeorge. Currently, federal loan payment can be deferred during residency, but in some cases interest continues to accrue. Broader Repercussions for Healthcare Medical organizations and students worry that the proposed PSLF changes could have long-lasting repercussions for doctors' careers and for healthcare more broadly. Reducing PSLF's benefits for medical students 'could have the effect of pushing indebted medical students away from academic practice and away from lower paying specialties,' said Jim Dahle, an emergency physician and the founder of The White Coat Investor, a personal finance site for doctors. Some low-income students, worried about decades of debt, may decide not to pursue medicine at all. For medical students, having residency years no longer qualify for PSLF 'would be a major blow,' said Santoshi Billakota, a neurologist and epileptologist at Wyckoff Heights in Brooklyn, NY, and the co-host of Be Empowered, a podcast offering financial advice for doctors. 'PSLF was one of the few incentives encouraging new doctors to work in underserved or rural areas that often pay significantly less.' Doctors and students also noted that, due to the structure of the residency matching process, they have limited control over where they end up in residency, and those who ended up in lower-paying positions would be penalized if they couldn't offset the loss of income by participating in PSLF. The National Resident Matching Program, which places medical students in residency, did not respond to Medscape's request for comment. A Threat to the Healthcare System The intent behind the PSLF program, said Koustas, is to encourage professionals — in this case doctors — to take on roles they would otherwise remain unfulfilled because of the incentive of seeing their debt forgiven. Once that incentive is gone, his research found, people tend to leave their posts and gravitate toward higher paying positions. This, said Koustas, was the unexpected part of forgiveness that happened during the Biden administration, which granted borrowers a one-time adjustment that would include payments made outside of qualifying employment to count toward debt forgiveness. 'We did see that people switched out of public service and the not-for-profit sectors when they got forgiveness,' he said. 'I am a physician who is currently enrolled in PSLF. Neither of my parents were college educated nor did they have the funds to pay for my education,' said Mary Flaherty, a neurologist. 'It saddens me that other people from my background will not be able to access higher education to make our country better. I would not be where I am today if it were not for federal student loans.' Koustas' research confirms that first-generation students and those from lower income tend to be more debt averse and may be more likely not to choose an expensive educational path if it didn't come with an early opportunity of debt relief. 'I entered medicine not for personal financial gain, but out of a sincere desire to serve our nation's military veterans,' wrote Austin Miller, an incoming resident in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, in a comment to the Department of Education. 'The PSLF program has been the only realistic path forward to both manage [my] debt and serve in a lower-paying but essential public sector role, such as practicing at the VA after residency.'
CNET
23-05-2025
- Business
- CNET
Attention SAVE Borrowers: Don't Expect Student Loan Payments to Resume This Year. Do This While You Wait
Pla2na/Getty; CNET If you're one of the eight million borrowers who signed up for the Saving on a Valuable Education student loan repayment plan, you're probably wondering what's next for your student loans. There has been a barrage of student loan updates since President Donald Trump's administration came into office, including proposed changes to Public Service Loan Forgiveness eligibility, an effort to restart collections on defaulted student loan accounts and a new Republican-fronted bill seeking to change existing income-driven repayment plan options. Yet, aside from an expected court ruling blocking SAVE, little has been said about what's actually happening for borrowers enrolled in this payment plan. For now, your loan payments remain paused in a general forbearance and your balance isn't collecting interest. That also means you're not making progress toward a loan forgiveness program like PSLF during the payment pause. While you can choose to switch to an alternative repayment plan, most experts are encouraging borrowers to wait it out. I talked to experts to help you understand what's next for your student loans so you can prepare for when the forbearance ends. When will SAVE borrowers restart repayments? It's not clear when payments will start again for borrowers on the SAVE plan but it's looking like the end of this year would be the earliest timeframe. The Department of Education's website says SAVE plan borrowers will stay in a general forbearance until at least the fall. It also directed loan servicers to adjust the income recertification deadline to no earlier than Feb. 1, 2026. Robert Farrington, student loan expert and founder of The College Investor, expects the general forbearance to last even longer. "Borrowers will likely see the SAVE forbearance end in mid-to-late 2026," says Farrington. "Many borrowers are already reporting the end date of their forbearance moving to September 2026." Should PSLF borrowers take action to get debt relief sooner? If you're a teacher, nurse or other public servant pursuing PSLF, you may be worried that the payment pause is not counting toward your 120-payment requirement. That leaves you with three options. First, you could switch from SAVE to another income-driven repayment plan (ICR, IBR or PAYE). That way, your payments will count toward PSLF's 120-payment requirement. Alternatively, if you would have hit 120 months of on-time payments if not for the pause, you can apply for the PSLF Buyback program to get credit for your time in forbearance. "This program [allows borrowers] to make a lump-sum payment for any months spent in administrative forbearance under SAVE, ensuring those months count towards PSLF," explains Megan Walter, NASFAA senior policy analyst. The downside of these first two options is that borrowers have been reporting processing delays. So don't expect a fast response. Last, if you've recently enrolled in PSLF or are not close to receiving forgiveness, you might prefer to wait until you're moved into a new payment plan. Yes, your months in forbearance won't count toward your 120-payment goal, but this could give you time to start saving for a potentially higher student loan payment. Whether you decide to change plans now or wait, make sure your decisions align with your financial goals. With SAVE no longer an option, it's important to understand all your avenues for paying back your student loans. What can SAVE borrowers do now? That doesn't mean you should sit back and do nothing, though. Take this time to prepare for the likelihood that your payments will increase in the future. You can use the Federal Student Aid's Loan Simulator tool to help calculate how much your monthly payment will be under different payment plans. While your payments are paused, you won't have to worry about your account being moved to collections. Although borrowers with defaulted loans are once again subject to collections, including wage garnishment, those enrolled in the SAVE plan don't have to worry about those consequences for now. Use this time to improve your finances, suggested Farrington. "This is a great time to pay off other debts (including private loans), build an emergency fund, contribute to an IRA and more." If you have the wiggle room in your budget, start paying yourself each month the same amount you'd pay your student loan servicer. Put this money into a high-yield savings account to earn a little extra interest on your savings.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
No, the era of student loan forgiveness isn't over. Here's why
The Department of Education's April 21 announcement to borrowers seemed to leave little room for misunderstanding. 'Student and parent borrowers — not taxpayers — must repay their student loans,' the statement read, in part. 'There will not be any mass loan forgiveness.' Putting aside the argument that taxpayers unfairly foot the bill for forgiveness, a point Education Secretary Linda McMahon made in a follow-up op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, it seems the core message from the Trump Administration is this: If you're a struggling federal student loan borrower, and you were pinning your hopes on debt being wiped away, forget it. In and of itself, this is a clear missive. It might even be the kick borrowers need to settle on a repayment strategy. Perhaps you adopt an aggressive approach of making extra payments or a strategically slower approach of making lower payments via income-driven repayment (IDR). But the Education Department's message, while clear, lacks a certain context: Student loan forgiveness is far from dead. Here are four reasons why. No, not all 42.7 million borrowers are going to get debt canceled in one fell swoop. President Biden tried that. His ploy of discharging up to $20,000 per borrower in 2022 was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2023. And yet, millions of borrowers could still access federal loan forgiveness in other ways. To wit: On its way out the door, the Biden Administration claimed it forgave $188.8 billion in outstanding federal loan debt for 5.3 million borrowers — and here comes the key part — 'across 33 executive actions.' In some cases, these executive orders merely sped up the process of awarding federal loan relief programs that were already offered, including:Who does it work for? Civil servants, nonprofit workers at eligible employers. How much does it forgive? Your remaining balance, after 10 years of qualifying monthly payments. Is it now under threat? President Trump signed an executive order in March to limit PSLF eligibility for employees of certain nonprofits. The Administration was going through the negotiated rule-making process this spring to potentially make more severe alterations to the program. Teacher Loan Forgiveness Who does it work for? Educators at eligible low-income schools. How much does it forgive? Up to $5,000 or $17,500, depending on your education level, certification and area of expertise. Is it now under threat? No. Borrower Defense to Repayment Who does it work for? Borrowers who were defrauded by their schools. How much does it forgive? Up to the full balance of — and potential reimbursement for past payments toward — federal loans used to pay for the school in question. Is it now under threat? No, although more generous rules finalized by the Biden Administration in October 2022 have since been blocked. Total and Permanent Disability Discharge Who does it work for? Borrowers who suffer a total and permanent disability. How much does it forgive? Up to your remaining balance — and possible reimbursement for loan payments received by your servicer on or after the date you provide evidence of your disability. Is it now under threat? No. Income-Driven Repayment Who does it work for? Borrowers who repay their loans on IDR plans for 20 or 25 years (depending on your plan). How much does it forgive? Your remaining balance. Is it now under threat? While you can still receive relief on the Congress-created income-based repayment (IBR) plan, discharges on the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) and income-contingent repayment (ICR) plans are on pause, in legal limbo. On the bright side, your qualifying payments on PAYE or ICR can still help you receive forgiveness if you switch to IBR or are pursuing PSLF. Other federal loan discharges — for a closed school, unpaid refund and false certification — also remain available for borrowers who face these unique scenarios. And they, too, can be awarded en masse: State attorneys general can apply for a false certification discharge on behalf of many of their constituents all at once. Also, each of these discharges would forgive your remaining loan balance for the loan or loans affected. Although President Biden's actions were the culmination of a Democratic party swayed by student loan forgiveness activism, Republicans aren't necessarily cold to the concept. In fact, Congressional conservatives include IDR-related forgiveness in their current budget reconciliation efforts, known as the Student Success and Taxpayer Savings Plan. Although it still needs the full support of Republicans in both chambers, it could shrink the menu of IDR plans down to one — the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP). RAP would award forgiveness after 30 years of qualifying payments (as opposed to 20 to 25 under current plans). Three decades is a long wait for relief. But if you're a low-income borrower who'd qualify for bargain-basement payment amounts on RAP — the current proposed minimum is $10 per month — then it could be relief worth waiting for. Plus, the current proposal would grandfather in progress made on existing IDR plans. So, if you've made 20 years of low monthly payments on IBR, for example, you'd only have another 10 years of payments due on RAP until your balance is wiped clean. There's a catch Republicans are proposing to end tax-free student loan forgiveness, except on relief via the borrower's death or total and permanent disability. The reprieve on federal income taxes, made possible by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, is set to expire at the end of 2025. If it does and you receive forgiveness, you could face a hefty federal income tax bill. Consider the case of one real-life borrower who's a client of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors (TISLA): 'She's been on old IBR with a $0 payment because she's essentially been surviving off of Social Security for the past 25 to 30 years,' said TISLA founder Betsy Mayotte at the mid-May Higher Education Finance Symposium in Alexandria, Va. 'And if her loan is forgiven by the end of this year, which she's eligible for — she's made enough payments — she's going to have a tax bill of six figures. And she's going to have to file for insolvency. So, that's my real concern when it comes to forgiveness.' As with all tax matters, however, it's wise to consult a certified tax advisor. The federal government doesn't have to be the sole source of student loan forgiveness, nor has it been. You can find relief in all sorts of places. Even new places: Some states, in an effort to motivate migration, are known to offer forgiveness for new residents. Most commonly, if you're an in-demand essential worker willing to relocate to a high-demand area, you could find forgiveness waiting for you there. The Indian Health Service, for instance, offers up to $50,000 in repayment aid for healthcare professionals in exchange for a two-year service commitment. Student loan forgiveness also exist for borrowers pursing specific professions. Learn more about programs for nurses, doctors, pharmacists and lawyers. And there are ways to wipe away some or all of your debt even if you aren't in a public service profession or if you have more private student loans to repay than federal. Consider: The number of companies that help employees pay off student loans increased from 4 percent in 2019 to 14 percent in 2024, according to an International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans survey. Related reading: How to avoid student loan forgiveness scams Given the life terms of Supreme Court members, it may be difficult for student loan forgiveness activists to find friendly faces on the bench anytime soon. But if forgiveness-supporting politicians are elected, you can bet they'll try to effect change. Just look at how the swayed Biden Administration went about targeted forgiveness once the road to mass relief became blocked. Forgiveness program Previous administrations Biden Administration (2021-2025) PSLF 7,000 (since 2017) 1.07 million Borrower Defense to Repayment 53,500 (since 2015) 1.77 million Total and Permanent Disability 604,000 (since 2017) 633,000 IDR 50* 1.45 million So, it's reasonable to ask: If a forgiveness-friendly political party controls Congress and/or the White House in the future, to what end would they pursue mass relief? Remember, it might be forgiveness by another name. For example, there was a limited PSLF waiver (through Oct. 31, 2022) for borrowers to get credit for past payments and an additional IDR waiver (though June 30, 2024) to similarly and retroactively receive credit. Both initiatives made it easier for federal loan borrowers to qualify for forgiveness. Related reading: How these 10 student loan borrowers are feeling about repayment in the Trump era No, student loan forgiveness isn't dead, not even in mass fashion. Still, unless you qualify for one of the programs listed above, your repayment strategy probably shouldn't hinge on waiting for relief to arrive. If you're fortunate enough to be on solid financial footing, consider tips to pay off your student loans faster, perhaps via student loan refinancing. Just remember that refinancing permanently strips federal loans of access to the government-exclusive programs mentioned above. If you've been less fortunate financially, it may be high-time for you, too, to strategize. Never paying student loans comes with serious consequences. And though discharging education debt via bankruptcy is possible, it's a last-resort option for a reason (it'll wreck your credit for years to come). If you need help determining your next step, consider contacting your federal loan servicer or working with a certified loan counselor. Sign in to access your portfolio
Forbes
22-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Here's Who May Want To Consolidate Student Loans And Who Shouldn't
In a previous Forbes post, I warned that consolidating your federal student loans right now could erase years of hard-earned progress toward student loan forgiveness. For borrowers already on track through Public Service Loan Forgiveness or Income-Driven Repayment, hitting reset at the wrong moment can delay or destroy your debt-free future; however, consolidation isn't always a mistake. For some borrowers, especially those with older federal loans or who are in default, consolidating may be the only way forward, or at least the best path. The challenge is figuring out which group a student loan borrower falls into. For some student loan borrowers, consolidation is necessary or optimal despite the risks: FFEL, Perkins, or Older Loan Borrowers: If you have federal loans that are not Direct Loans (such as FFEL Program loans held by commercial lenders, Perkins loans from a school, or older federal loans), consolidation is typically required to access programs like PSLF. These loans aren't eligible for PSLF unless converted into a Direct Consolidation Loan. For borrowers in this category, consolidation may still be worthwhile; it starts your forgiveness clock, whereas without consolidating, you have no clock. For instance, an FFEL borrower working in public service cannot earn PSLF credit until they consolidate into Direct. That said, these borrowers should be highly mindful of timing. The Education Department had extended the consolidation deadline for the one-time adjustment to June 30, 2024, specifically to help FFEL borrowers carry over past time in repayment. Post-deadline, if you consolidate now, those past years on FFEL might not count. You'll be starting fresh toward PSLF or IDR forgiveness. If you've already accrued 15 or 20 years on FFEL loans, understand that consolidating in 2025 likely means resetting your timeline, an unfortunate reality if the special adjustment relief wasn't secured before the deadline. Defaulted Loan Borrowers: Given the sharp rise in student loan delinquencies, borrower default may be forthcoming for millions. Borrowers who default might use consolidation to get out of default and back into good standing. If you're rehabilitating your loans or consolidating to exit default, the priority is to resolve the default status – since in default, you can't make qualifying payments anyway. For these borrowers, there's little to lose regarding forgiveness counts (months in default don't count toward IDR or PSLF). The sooner you get out of default and into a qualifying repayment plan, the better, as you can work to reverse a decrease in your credit score and ward off wage garnishment or Social Security offsets. Just be aware that consolidating will wipe away any prior qualifying payments you made before default. It may be a necessary trade-off to restart the journey. On the other hand, many borrowers should think twice and perhaps hold off on consolidating right now: Direct Loan Borrowers with Progress Toward Forgiveness: If all your loans are already Direct and you've been making qualifying payments toward PSLF or IDR forgiveness, you typically don't need to consolidate. For example, borrowers who previously consolidated during the pandemic payment pause to take advantage of the IDR waiver already have their loans in the right status. Consolidating again to simplify or change servicers could be detrimental. Until the legal cloud lifts, it behooves most borrowers to avoid any unnecessary consolidation that would restart their count. This is especially true if you are only a couple of years away from reaching 120 PSLF payments or hitting that 20- or 25-year IDR mark. Let those clocks run out and claim forgiveness rather than resetting the clock. SAVE Plan Enrollees: Borrowers who planned to benefit from the SAVE plan's more generous terms might consider consolidation to join SAVE (for instance, consolidating Parent PLUS loans, which are ineligible for SAVE, into a new loan that could access a different plan). However, given the injunction on SAVE, now is not the time to consolidate solely to get into that plan. The SAVE plan's future is highly uncertain pending court outcomes. Also, consolidating Parent PLUS loans only makes them eligible for the older ICR plan (or the contested SAVE, if it returns), and you'd lose any credit for time already spent in repayment. Until there's clarity on SAVE, consider holding off major moves like this unless necessary. Borrowers Looking to Merge Loans for Convenience: Some borrowers consider consolidation to merge multiple loans into one for ease of a single payment or potentially to switch servicers. In 2025, that convenience isn't worth the cost if you've made any progress toward forgiveness. Consider consolidation as pressing a reset button on your repayment journey; it's likely not worth it to streamline billing, especially when servicers can often link accounts or when autopay can handle multiple payments. The potential loss of tens of thousands of dollars in forgiven debt (by extending your repayment term further) far outweighs minor convenience factors. The upshot for student loan borrowers is that they assess which of the above categories they fall into before consolidating their student loans. Consolidation is not inherently bad, but it's also not neutral. In today's chaotic student loan landscape, and given the tremendous uncertainty hanging over the Education Department, the SAVE plan, PSLF eligibility, and myriad other factors, consolidation may be your best or only path forward; but it could also be your most significant setback. Simply put, if you have defaulted on student loans or hold older FFEL loans, consolidation may be the only way to regain eligibility. If you're close to forgiveness or enrolled in a qualified plan, consolidation could wipe out everything you've earned. Before consolidating in the near future, ask yourself the following questions: The coming months may bring more clarity around the landscape for student loans. For many, it may be worth waiting until there is more concrete detail about what student loan borrowers are trading off for consolidation.
