Specific Student Loan Question

Xstatic3333

I have an oddly specific student loan question.  My husband called his loan servicer to ask about it, but they seemed confused by the question so I'm going to see if any of you have happened to have a similar situation.  We both have have federal direct loans.  My husband has been on IBR, and is renewing his paperwork this week.  We both have comparable loan totals, but his are very low interest (2-3%) while mine are not (6.8-9%).  We'd like to keep his payments as low as possible to tackle my loans, our other debts, and even our retirement accounts first.  

With that background, my question is whether it is going to work to have him stay on IBR while I am not.  If we both applied, we both would qualify, but we're right in that sweet spot where making my full payments is tough, but still doable without too much of a sacrifice.  All of the paperwork seems to be written assuming that either both spouse would apply or neither.  I realize our situation is probably a little bit on the unusual side, but I'm happy with things as they are and would prefer not to switch too much.  Any thoughts?

Wulfgar

I don't see why you could not do this.  My wife's and I's student loans are handled totally separate and what I do with mine does not affect hers at all.  Hers are on the 10 year repay plan while mine are in the 1.68% range and are in a 20 year repayment plan.

LeahMI

You don't have to apply for repayment plans together. If you do re-apply together, you go based off of your most recent tax returns. H and I applied together this year so we would have a more balanced repayment between the two of us instead of all repayment on mine, and not on his (I make a lot more than he does). Applying with your spouse is often seen as a benefit, but for you it seems that it would be more beneficial to do them separately.

Also, I'm very jealous of your interest rates.

Apollo11235

I don't know how the IBR application/approval process works, so I'm just going to throw a couple ideas out there:

-Is applying together the only way to get both of your loan totals taken into account? If so, the payments on his loans could be much lower just by you mentioning yours.

-I believe you're allowed to make extra payments on a loan while in IBR (http://www.ibrinfo.org/faq.vp.html#_send_extra_money). So I would think you would want to both apply so that you can make low payments on all but the 8% loans, and pay those off more quickly.

Xstatic3333

Thanks all! I did check the box saying I have SLs, and give Sally Mae access to see my loan info (my H's servicer, not mine). The box says something like "If you and your spouse would like each other's loan totals taken into account for your IBR payments," which is what is throwing me.

Apollo, your last question caught me in an oversimplification (trying not to confuse everybody too much!) When I got my loan payment plans, I figured out how much my monthly ten-year payments would be and budgeted to pay that much. However, to throw more at the 9% loan (currently with a 3,100 balance) I signed up for extended repayment for my big Stafford loan. The small loan should be done this year, and then I'll throw my full monthly loan budget ($425) at my Stafford loan. On IBR, my monthly payment on the Stafford loan would go from $228 to around $300, slowing the snowball. Sorry for not explaining that at first!

Anyway, it looks like this probably won't be a huge issue. I do want to make sure my payments are accounted for in H's calculations, and I think they will be. Thanks all for your input!