Older loans not eligible for relief

[Anonymous]

I have older federal student loans (pre-2010) that did not qualify for the 0% covid relief because of the age of the loans, however, I cannot find anything that explains why these are excluded. My financial position has increased over the last couple years and was considering refinancing to take advantage of low rates and get these knocked out in 5-7yrs. I've been holding out in hopes of Biden $10k relief but I have doubts this will ever come. Also, I'm concerned that if it does come that my "aging" loans wouldn't qualify since I couldn't even get covid relief.

Does anyone have info on this subject?

[Anonymous]

You mind sharing some of the sources to that relief information? Need to see if I qualify as well.
Here looking for student loan help too.
Thank you and good luck!

[calyx]

What *kind* of loans?   I know that Perkins & FFEL took longer to be included (Perkins if they weren't owned by the school, which happens).
If you're hoping to be eligible for some kind of forgiveness, I would recommend consolidating them into a Direct ED loan.

[calyx]

Another question - what does your Studentaid.gov file qualify them as?

[Anonymous]

I have one Perkins. The rest are subsidized/unsubsidized.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, 7 in defaulted and none of the previous payments I made to a collection agency are listed. (facepalm)

[calyx]

Perkins loans are weird animals, and what they're eligible for is determined by who owns them, so that one could get dicey.

The loans that are defaulted - I would recommend you rehab them, which would bring them over as current positive tradelines - good for you, good for your scores.    If you want to qualify for forgiveness in any of the programs, you'd need to consolidate them to Direct Loans (I'm assuming they're FFEL loans - mine were), but if you just want to pay them off, I would do rehab, bring them current, and then pay them off quickly - that would give you the best "bang" for your buck.

Alternatively, you could just consolidate them right off the bat (which would pretty much make them easily eligble for most forgiveness), which would start a new tradeline and then pay them off.   

My defaulted FFEL loans were consolidated from default into a new tradeline.    I've been using the 0% "pause" to stockpile payments, just in case forgiveness happened while they're in forebearance.   I figure the day they open back up for interest, I'll pay a sizeable lump sum.

[Anonymous]

Great information and strategy. Thank you!