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Student Loan forgiven?

cruiseroutfit

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
Anyone ever had this happen?

I've been paying on my student loans since I graduated in 2006. They were federally funded, non-subsidized administered by the Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority (UHEAA). I was down to ~$1000 owed and made my monthly $100 payment earlier this month.

I get a letter in the mail today from them stating this:

"We are please to inform you that the remaining balance of your student loan(s) listed in the table below has been forgiven as a way of thinking you for taking care of your loan obligation in a diligent manner. Within 2-3 weeks UHEAA will send a document indicating the paid in full status of the loan(s)"

Any idea what I did to meet the criteria of 'diligent manner'? I'm not complaining by any means but this just sounds too good to be true and I'm expecting the next letter to have a spot on the form for a credit card number so I can pay them to 'process my account closure' or some scam like that. This came in an envelope just like my monthly loan statements and it looks somewhat legit... the balances of my 3 loans match what I think I actually owe.

Random...
 
03rubicon

03rubicon

Active Member
Location
Nephi,Ut
Hmmm... I'm not sure about that, But I wish I would get a letter saying the balance on my student loans has been forgiven.:eek:
 
ichi-san

ichi-san

Earthbound Misfit
Location
Virginia
My wife has student loans (Sallie Mae) that she refinanced into one loan at 4% a few years ago - she was told if she makes ALL payments on time the rate would be knocked down to 3% - don't know if that is meant to be retroactive or not ??? Maybe something like that's going on.

I would still make a phone call and confirm before I stopped making payments...
 
Kiel

Kiel

Formerly WJ ZUK
My Girlfriend got her loan through the same place Kurt and was down to about 700. Got the letter saying she paid so well- blah blah, and the rest was written off and forgiven. Got the letter about 3 weeks ago.
 
mesha

mesha

By endurance we conquer
Location
A.F.
It hasn't happened to me, but it does happen.
If you were a science teacher in a title 1 school they forgive 17500 of your students loans.
 
Bart

Bart

Registered User
Location
Arm Utah
There is a huge default rate on student loans and lots are refinanced. I'm guessing that due to your diligent payment plan that it could be real and they've saved that much money by not having to track you down. I have never heard of this before, but this is a crazy financial time.

As you've already stated, I'd be skeptical of any processing fees that may be requested, or if they ask you to verify your SSN and birth date.
 
cruiseroutfit

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
Its the real deal! My balance is zero!

The guy explained it to me as this... UHEAA gets chunks of money in the form of bonds from the federal government to loan out on student loans. Well they pay back the federal government the same amount no matter how much of the bond they actually use, and the bonds expire after say 5 years. So, when they have money left from bonds, rather then give it back for nothing... they will apply it to loans that have been 'low maintenance' for them. Still not 100% clear on the whole process but I just logged into my UHEAA account and sure enough its got a $0 balance :cool:
 
E

EROK81?

Sell out
Location
SLC
Mine got paid off and so did my mom's. Neither of us had the best payment history either.

Now to start them back up and hope they get auto paid again. :rofl:
 
Caleb

Caleb

Well-Known Member
Location
Riverton
ichi-san said:
Cool - it makes me feel all warm & fuzzy inside that someone who's responsible has been rewarded instead of all the bozos that get bail-outs after making bad choices...
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No Kidding! This is the first time this novel concept of rewarding those that take care of their obligations rather than rewarding those that aren't as responsible has come up...kinda odd, but I like it!
 
S

scoutabout

None
cruiseroutfit said:
Its the real deal! My balance is zero!

The guy explained it to me as this... UHEAA gets chunks of money in the form of bonds from the federal government to loan out on student loans. Well they pay back the federal government the same amount no matter how much of the bond they actually use, and the bonds expire after say 5 years. So, when they have money left from bonds, rather then give it back for nothing... they will apply it to loans that have been 'low maintenance' for them. Still not 100% clear on the whole process but I just logged into my UHEAA account and sure enough its got a $0 balance :cool:
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That's pretty cool. Since they have left over money they have to pay back does this mean that there's an excess of funds available? Not enough applicants? Everyone pays in full so there's never a default? Doesn't sound like a good use of my tax dollars. You owe me a cheeseburger.
 
cruiseroutfit

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
scoutabout said:
That's pretty cool. Since they have left over money they have to pay back does this mean that there's an excess of funds available? Not enough applicants? Everyone pays in full so there's never a default? Doesn't sound like a good use of my tax dollars. You owe me a cheeseburger.
Click to expand...

The way I understood it is that UHEAA pays pack the full value of their bonds regardless of whether or not that use the full amount. That full amount has to be spent in x amount of time or the feds require it to be returned. I guess that makes the state higher education groups enticed to seek out students and loans. So rather than give the money away for free they apply it to loans that are near fruition, likely clears them of paperwork and is an added incentive for those that pay. Some don't get all their loans paid, just one or the other. Some have 10+ different loans as you could theoretically get one for each semester. Suppose they came and paid off one of your loans in the name of good behavior, I'd be dilligent about paying the others :D I could be totally wrong on my understanding, either way I'm not going to complain.

I think they always have money left over. Keep in mind my loans were unsubsidized, so I was paying interest (albeit really low) on these for the past 3 years. So while they may have more money available for lending, I'd bet the grants and interest free stuff goes first?

Von@BenHanksRacing said:
Great, now you can afford to enter a desert race in January... wait, what were we talking about again? :p
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LOL. Lets talk!
 
S

scoutabout

None
cruiseroutfit said:
The way I understood it is that UHEAA pays pack the full value of their bonds regardless of whether or not that use the full amount. That full amount has to be spent in x amount of time or the feds require it to be returned. I guess that makes the state higher education groups enticed to seek out students and loans.
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Yeah, but since the extra money is going to pay off existing loans, it seems like we can conclude that there is an excess of funds available. For example, if they were giving out more student loans, there wouldn't be this leftover money to allow forgiveness on existing loans.

cruiseroutfit said:
either way I'm not going to complain.
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No kidding, sounds like some good karma coming back your way. Not sure how that could happen. ;)

cruiseroutfit said:
I think they always have money left over. Keep in mind my loans were unsubsidized, so I was paying interest (albeit really low) on these for the past 3 years. So while they may have more money available for lending, I'd bet the grants and interest free stuff goes first?
Click to expand...

Yeah makes sense. So in reality, counting interest already paid, you've probably already returned the principal plus a little. Good deal!
 
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