How Educators & Graduates Are Finally Beating Student Loans

Crippling student loans are collectively one of the major social crises of our modern society. While we all wish they would go away at the snap of a finger, that seems impossible. While student loan forgiveness isn’t instantaneous, it is possible. In fact, there are many avenues through which you can obtain it.

These methods exist for professionals in a variety of industries, including health care, education, public service, and many other areas. Here is a list of some of these forgiveness programs. We’ll even look at some of them.

• Public Service Loan Forgiveness
• Forgiveness with Income-based Repayment
• Pay As You Earn Forgiveness
• Forgiveness with Revised Pay As You Earn
• Income-contingent Repayment Loan Forgiveness
• Federal Perkins Loan cancellation
• Student loan forgiveness for teachers
• Student loan forgiveness for nurses
• Loan repayment assistance for doctors and other health care professionals
• Loan repayment assistance for lawyers
• Student loan repayment assistance programs for other careers
• Military student loan forgiveness and assistance
• Student loan discharge for special circumstances

PSLF: Public Service Loan Forgiveness

This program is mainly for the benefit of those working in the public service sector. Once you have made 120 payments, you are qualified for loan forgiveness at 100 percent of the original loan. Additionally, to make it even better, they don’t have to be 120 consecutive payments.

IBR: Forgiveness with Income-based Repayment

This isn’t strictly a forgiveness program, but it can lead to loan forgiveness. Through this program, your loans can never exceed between 10 percent and 15 percent of your discretionary income. Once you’ve been making consistent payments for either 20 years or 25 years, your remaining loan balance is forgiven promptly.

PAYE: Forgiveness with Pay as You Earn

This program is very similar to the IBR program in the sense it isn’t strictly a forgiveness program but could still qualify you for forgiveness after a certain amount of time. Your monthly payment is capped at 10 percent of your income, and once you make payments for 20 years you become eligible for loan forgiveness.

REPAYE: Forgiveness with Revised Pay As You Earn

The only major difference between this program and the PAYE program is that REPAYE has no requirements pertaining to income eligibility. Otherwise, your monthly payments are still capped at 10 percent of your income and you are forgiven after 20 years for undergraduate loans and 25 years for graduate loans.

ICR: Forgiveness with Income-contingent Repayment

Under this program, your payments are capped according to what you would pay on a 12-year fixed plan or 20 percent of your discretionary income, whichever is less. This might not seem like a good program, but it is the only one open to borrowers who have taken Parent PLUS Loans. If you make your payments on time for 25 years, the remaining balance is forgiven.

Federal Perkins Loan Forgiveness/Cancellation

This one is for those who took out a Federal Perkins loan. The program forgives a specific percentage of student debt during every year you service it. They add up in time until you are forgiven.

The other programs on the list are extensive and would require an entire article to talk about. On the whole, however, there is definitely a way you can make those student loans go away. All you need is a little determination and knowledge of the right places to look.