I transferred schools in the beginning of the semester and I recently received a letter in the mail stating that my loan with my previous college has been deferred until 9/18 and after that I have to begin payments. I’m still in school with about 6 more years to go and I was always told that I wouldn’t have to pay on my loans until I graduated from college. Is this now automatically void due to me transferring schools? I have no idea what to do here and I’m stressing because I only work a part-time job and don’t make nearly enough to begin to start paying on my loans. I’m a first gen. college student as well so my family has no idea what to do about any of this.
What is the specific type of loan?
Your loans go into repayment 6 months after you: Graduate OR drop below half time OR leave school entirely. When you separated from your former college, they had to report your last date of attendance to the National Student Loan Database System … this would have been the last day on which you were enrolled at least half time. The 6 month grace period you have before payment is due began as of that last day. Your letter was based on the enrollment report from the former school. I assume you were last enrolled at least half time at the former school March 18, 2018. Is that correct?
If you are now enrolled at least half time in a new school, you will be able to have your loans deferred based on enrollment at your new school. If you are not enrolled at least half time, then yes, your loans will go into repayment.
Please call your servicer and talk to them. If you are not enrolled again at least half time, you can request an income based repayment plan for repayment … your repayment amount can be as low as 0, depending on your 2016 adjusted gross income (or W2 income, if your income was so low you didn’t file a tax return; or 0, if you didn’t earn money in 2016). If you are enrolled at least half time, ask them to check your enrollment to see if you are now reported as being at least half time & eligible for in school deferment. If they say no, contact your new school’s Registrar’s Office to ask why your enrollment has not been reported.
If the loan you are talking about is an institutional loan, not a federal loan, then you will need to call your former school to ask them how to prove that you are now in school at least half time. Again, if you are not enrolled at least half time, you will be in repayment - in this case, there are no income based repayment plans like with federal loans, so you will need to ask them about your repayment options.