One of my kids has a direct subsidized student loan taken out for the 2014-15 school year. When I look at her loan servicer online website (Nelnet), it shows her status as “in school” and the loan has not been accruing interest. She graduated in mid-May 2017. I think, though, that next month it would normally start accruing interest (at the end of the 6 month window). I’ve made a few payments to help her out, so it isn’t actually expecting payments any time soon.
However, she is now in grad school. From reading online it looks like she can defer the interest further on the loan (no interest accrued) while in grad school. But I can’t figure out how to do it. No forms on the Nelnet site. I looked at the deferment section of the studentaid.ed.gov website, but can’t find it there (they imply that there is a form, but I can’t find it).
I know she has not notified them that she is enrolled in grad school, so I assume she has to do that. But it isn’t clear to me how… anyone have any thoughts on this? Can she really get this deferral? If so, other than calling Nelnet, is there something obvious she is supposed to do?
My first thought would be to contact the FA dept of her undergrad school - they should be able to help find the answer.
I don’t mean to pick on you, @intparent because you have been super helpful to so many people here and I agree with an awful lot of what you post. So may I ask, with all due respect, why isn’t your D figuring this out herself? She is a college graduate and these are her loans. At what point do we stop trying to solve our kids’ problems?
Perhaps I just don’t understand how busy her grad school is making her life.
DD went through this about a year ago. It was definitely a challenge to figure it all out. My recollection was that my DD went into the link to set up payments for the loans and that are of the site included options to defer, pay based on income, etc. I may not be recalling this correctly, but I would have your DD check out that area of the Nelnet site.
DD found it very difficult to get answers from Nelnet regarding deferral.
Your D’s loans will automatically be placed in in-school deferment based on her current school reporting her enrollment to the National Student Loan Database System. All schools are required to do this. The only federal loans that you may need to complete a deferment form for are Perkins loans - if the current school reports enrollment directly to NSLDS, the Perkins servicers don’t have access & won’t know the borrower is in school (if the school reports through the National Clearinghouse, they will know).
Borrowers can find out if they are in in-school deferment by contacting their servicers to ask. It’s a quick phone call.
@3puppies, because as a graduation present I told her I would pay off her loans. It is not uncommon out here, I think. I’d planned to just do it before the grace period is over (and did already pay one in full), but decided I’d like to hold off on paying the other for personal financial reasons right now.
@kelsmom, it shows her status as “in school”, but under school is shows her undergrad institution name (which is where the loans were paid to back in 2014-15). We just can’t tell that they’ve picked up her new status from what Nelnet shows.
That’s weird, but not unusual - servicers can be behind in updating. Is she enrolled at least half time? If not, the loans won’t be in deferment. If she is, they should be in deferment - there is often a way for the student to report being in school within the servicer’s account. Check to see if Nelnet offers that option. Otherwise, she can call to tell them she is in school so they can update her file.
Yes, she is a PhD student at a state university carrying what is considered a full load for her program (can’t remember – 9 or 10 credits, I think). She started in mid-August. Nelnet doesn’t seem to have an option to report this (looked everywhere). They might have it, and maybe the “school” field just shows where the loans were paid to when they were disbursed. There is a way to ask a question on Nelnet, we will try that.
I had a different loan servicer, but I did not have to contact them directly. In my first few years at grad school, this process was done automatically - I didn’t have to do anything and my servicer knew I was in school. I think something may have changed halfway through (or maybe it’s because I achieved candidacy), but After around year 3 or 4 I do remember having to log into my student services account and press a few buttons to submit a loan certification to the servicer. But then I never contacted them directly - the university sent my in-school certification to the servicer on my behalf.
Nelnet’s deferment request forms are here: https://www.nelnet.com/online-forms. They’re fillable PDFs. (They appear to be a standardized one for the federal government. I don’t remember filling them out every year, but maybe I did!) In-school deferment is the first one.
My daughter has had her loans deferred for a long while. She was in the Peace Corps, and her loans were not required to be paid.
Then she worked for three years…and her loans did come due…so she paid.
Now she is back in school. Her loans are again deferred.
She did something the first year to let the loan services know she was back in school. It was a different loan services. Changed to Nelnet. She never has needed to do anything since.
I don’t have a Nelnet account so can’t see what is actually there, but the website says: Log in to your account and click Postpone My Payment to apply for deferment or forbearance. You can also call us at 888.486.4722.
@intparent, How did you log in? My son has a small loan through a different servicer (Great Lakes, I think), and the only way I can access his account is by entering his social security number. Do you or @kelsmom know if that’s typical? I’ve been making payments for him, but it would be nice to see a statement. Maybe I’ll ask him to call and request a monthly
paper copy.
I don’t know if this will have any effect on borrowers’ customer service and interaction with the system, but Great Lakes is the one being bought by Nelnet.
You used to be able to set up a user name and password at Great Lakes - not sure what is requested for the initial account setup, though (could be SSN). If it’s a secure site (https) and you are on a secure network, you should be okay entering it (as safe as it ever can be these days).
