UD’s Corner

Do you need help managing your student loan debt? 

By Shannon Alston, MEA UniServ Director 

 If you need assistance managing your student loan debt, you are lucky that you are a member of the APA/MEA/NEA.  As a member, you currently have one year of no cost access to NEA’s Student Loan Debt Navigator powered by Savi.  Savi helps you quickly find options to manage your student loan debt, makes filling out the forms a snap, and checks forms for common errors when it electronically files your documents. Savi also assists with yearly re-certification on re-payment plans, including loan forgiveness plans.  Most members are eligible for student loan forgiveness programs as employees of MSU, but often run into obstacles with the paperwork.  Savi can help with that.  Read the testimonial below from your APA membership chair. 

 “Though I’ve been paying on my student loans for almost 9 years, the annual process for Income Driven Repayment application and certifying/recertifying employers current and past can be frustrating.  After learning about Savi while attending a virtual conference through NEA, I decided to explore my options; of course, hearing we have the benefit with our membership of fees being waived the first year was certainly an additional motivator.  What did I have to lose? 

 Within a matter of days the plan was in motion.  Every two to three days I received an email from a representative with Savi with updates on my case and what the next step would be to proceed.  Savi takes the guess work out of this experience.  If you’ve been through this yourself in preparing for PSLF (public service loan forgiveness) missing one word or one check box could disqualify your application.  I started my plan with Savi on January 8th this year and it was wrapped up by January 21st.

I highly recommend to reach out to Savi to see what they can do for you when managing your student loans.”  -Kandy Slack 

 You can sign up for Savi at:   https://www.neamb.com/products/nea-student-debt-navigator 

 If you need your membership number, please contact your MEA Field Assistant, Heather Traxler at [email protected] or your membership chair, Kandy Slack at [email protected].