Loan companies can cause headaches: or at least for me in regards to my one loan company. If you recall here, I had to call the loan company that owns the whale-sized grad school loan about them randomly putting me on deferment because the university decided to tell them I was full-time with zero credit hours being taken. The loan company then had said it would take a month to take me off of it and for my repayments to start back up.
Well, turns out, they lied. It took 3 months to take me off. When I checked my account yesterday to cry over the accrued interest, it no longer said deferment. It said forbearance. Which I didn't know what that meant at the time. I do now though because I wanted to make sure that wouldn't negatively affect me in any way (credit score anyone?). Turns out it doesn't, at least not if I make payments.
Epilogical's definition of forbearance: It is just like deferment, meaning you don't have to make any payments. The only difference is with forbearance, both subsidized and unsubsidized loans accrue interest as opposed to just the one. So in the long run, you pay more in total when all is said and done.
Now, with forbearance, the loan companies don't just hand these out like candy at a parade. With my loan company, you have to actually apply for it. It's usually for if you're having trouble making the minimum payments due to a major financial blow such as losing a job or not being able to find a job. Or having large medical costs due to illness. So apparently, I'm special because I didn't have to apply for this (though they were right in knowing making the minimum $800 monthly payments would have been a little hard the past couple of months). So, I was getting ready to call them and ask what the heck was going on because who knows, maybe they know my main job had ended last month, when I realized something else interesting. I made a small payment for each of the two loans (why they separated them by each year is beyond me, just group them together for crying out loud) in a vain attempt to keep the interest down back at the beginning of June. It said the payment was pending. Pending.... as if my money wasn't good enough for them or something.
I checked my bank records. Yep, the payment was withdrawn from my account. So my call was turning into a "what did you do with the $200 I paid you last month?" Well, they were closed and I would have to wait until morning. For the heck of it, I called the automated line to get my account information. This is what they said in a nutshell for both loans: "Your loan is currently in forbearance status until July 9, 2012 (as in yesterday, the same date as the phone call was occurring by the way). Your last payment of $100 (per loan which is correct) was received on June __, 2012."
So, after putting ice on my head to numb the pain caused by smacking it against my desk, I rechecked my account online. Sure enough, the payment did not say pending anymore. It was applied to the interest. Which I don't know what to make of this situation now. Everything looks good (except for the forbearance ending, I could actually use that right now). And all it took was a phone call to an automated system after a near panic attack and procrastination at posting the payment as occurring.
Moral of the story: when you have a loan, be it student, mortgage, auto, tattoo, whatever it may be, pay attention to what is going on with it. Print any and all confirmation numbers and make sure payments post properly. Also, call if something doesn't look right because chances are, it's not and it's better to get things sorted out immediately than later on.
By the way, the total interest accrued for those who are curious was: $1011.16, making me very close to a total of $70,000 for the 2 years of my life in school full-time.
On a completely different note, I had another centipede visit from the Bug of the Month Club late last night. Unlike the one in the popular 5 Second Girl Dance post, this one started running along the wall when I went to grab a tissue. I found it, knocked it down, and it ran under my couch before I could catch it. I think it's still under there because I said screw it and went back to bed when I didn't see it underneath.
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