Hello! I’m relatively new here. Very excited about the recent win (I’m one of the lucky Pell Grant recipients whose loans may be completely wiped out), but ready to keep fighting for more debt cancelation and free public college.
I do have a question about the recent news. One of the loans I have left is a Perkins loan that is not serviced by the department of education. It’s serviced by a company called ECSI. I also have federally held direct loans. Is it possible to consolidate my loans into one direct loan, so that the Perkins loan would also be eligible for cancelation? I’ve also worked in public service for the last 9 years and had submitted my application before this news was announced, so I received info from the department of education that said I should consolidate my Perkins loans with my other loans so that it would be included for PSLF loan cancelation. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that these were eligible for a payment pause for a while during the pandemic (looks like June 2020-June 2022, the amount due on these loans was $0, but I received no communication about this pause, and direct debit payments were not halted automatically like with my federal loans UGH). Does anyone know if it’s possible to get a refund for payments I made during the pause on my Perkins loan? I’d like to try to consolidate my loans before the cancelation goes through but am not sure if it’s possible or how. Any resources or tips for this situation would be greatly appreciated!! 