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Melissa Maguire
Student Debt Expert, Product Specialist
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Profile
Join date: Sep 9, 2024
About
Melissa has over a decade of certification and experience in the student debt market. Since 2012, she has counseled thousands of student loan borrowers providing them clarity, guidance and tools to successfully repay their student loans. Melissa has been authored and published several times, notably in the Journal of Accountancy. In addition to her consumer advocacy, Melissa has used her expertise and experience to guide the development of Student Debt Solutions. Her vast knowledge of the rules associated with student loan repayment has been vital to product development and strategy.
Posts (81)
Sep 15, 2026 ∙ 2 min
Same Balance, Different Outcome: Why Student Loan Guidance Has Become More Individualized
Student loan repayment used to be easier to talk about in broad terms. A borrower could ask about income-driven repayment, consolidation, or forgiveness, and there was often a relatively straightforward list of options to compare. Today, that is much harder. Two borrowers can have similar incomes, similar loan balances, and even similar career paths, and still have very different repayment options. That is because the answer increasingly depends on the history behind the loans, not simply the...
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Sep 15, 2026 ∙ 2 min
Is the Lowest Monthly Payment Always the Best Repayment Option?
This is one of the most common questions borrowers ask, and it sounds like it should have a simple answer. If one repayment plan is $250 per month and another is $500, why wouldn’t you choose the $250 payment? Sometimes you should. But not always. A monthly payment is one part of a repayment strategy. The real question is what that payment does for you over time. When the Lowest Payment Makes Sense If affordability is the your biggest concern, a lower payment can be extremely valuable. It may...
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Aug 17, 2026 ∙ 2 min
New Rules, Missing Records and Incorrect Bills: Why You Should Question What You See
Student loan borrowers are being asked to make important decisions. SAVE borrowers must select new repayment plans. Payments are being recalculated, and millions of people are trying to understand how the new rules affect them. But there is a growing problem: Borrowers are no longer sure they can trust what they see. In recent weeks, some borrowers pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness discovered that qualifying payments had disappeared from their StudentAid.gov accounts. These payments...
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