<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I dropped out of school a little while ago, and now I've been out for two semesters so it's time to repay my student loans. However, I don't make much money right now and am really struggling financially. When I was taking out student loans, all I did was to go and fill out a loan request form and they gave me my student loans. They never told me who was issuing my student loans at all. However, I think I found this student loans.gov site or something like that and I believe that I have pinpointed the company that issued my student loans. They are saying that because of my VERY SLIM income of $20,800 per year, that I would only owe like $28 a month in loan repayment as long as they were the only company issuing my student loans. This actually isn't that bad, and if I dig deep in my pockets, I could afford it. They told me that because I had no other calls from other companies trying to collect money from me for student loan repayment, I probably didn't have loans taken out from any other companies. I only took out loans from my school, and the subsidized/unsubsidized paper they had me fill out, and I haven't taken out loans from Sally Mae or any other type of private loan company. How do I make sure that this is the only company that I have taken out loans from as I don't want to get hit up for money by multiple companies for even more money. </p>
<p>EDIT: I am really trying to avoid loan forbearance as well to avoid interest compounding. </p>
<p>Soon after you borrowed, you would have received a disclosure notice in the mail at the address on your FAFSA. This notice, sent by Direct Loans, would have included the information about your servicer. Yes, the info you found on studentloans.gov is your servicer information. Set up an email account with them right away. You can see if you have any other loans by going to <a href=“http://www.nslds.ed.gov”>www.nslds.ed.gov</a>. It won’t tell you if you have any loans through a private lender, but you absolutely should know if you borrowed a private loan (it was not done through your school). </p>
<p>You will need to request an income based repayment plan (Pay as You Earn is best, if you qualify). This is done online at <a href=“http://www.studentloans.gov”>www.studentloans.gov</a>. You will also need to submit a 2013 tax return. Call your servicer, tell them you have requested the income based repayment, and ask to be put into forbearance until the payment plan is okay’d (it can take a couple months) - that way, you won’t be considered “late” on payments. Please understand that interest will continue to accumulate while you pay the $28/month - so if you can afford more as time goes on, pay more. It keeps your total repayment amount lower in the long run. You will need to submit a new tax return annually — be sure to read ALL communications (email and snail mail) from your servicer. Keep your street address and email address up to date at all times.</p>
<p>All students should read everything they are sent when they borrow, and they should print it and retain it for their records.</p>
<p>Ok I will now check that site out and I will post more questions if I need to. Thanks a lot people. </p>