Clarisse Sison, 24, learned about the student loan refund on TikTok.
Courtesy of Clarisse Sison
Clarisse Sison, 24, paid off $47,199 in student loans in just two years.
Sison saw on TikTok that you could get a refund on any payments made during the pandemic.
She called her student loan servicer, and she will be receiving $9,700 back via direct deposit.
When President Biden announced $10,000 in student-loan forgiveness per borrower, 24-year-old Clarisse Sison didn’t think the news applied to her. Sison started paying off her student loans before she even graduated in May 2020, and she finished paying them off just two years after graduation.
After forgiveness was announced, “A lot of people asked if I regret paying off my student loans already, and I don’t,” says Sison, who is the author’s sister. However, as she was scrolling through TikTok, Sison learned that she could get a refund on any payments she made during the pandemic — meaning she might benefit from Biden’s plan after all.
Sison called her student loan servicer and learned she’s eligible for a $9,700 refund
She says, “People on TikTok were like, ‘Oh yeah, it was super easy. It’s legit!'” But the Federal Student Aid website crashed on the day the news broke, which meant there was no way for Sison to confirm whether or not what she saw on TikTok was real. “I was like, ‘OK, I’m just gonna call my loan servicer,'” Sison says.
After two hours on hold, she was shocked to find out that TikTok was right: Sison will receive an estimated refund of $9,784, the total amount of the payments she made during the pandemic.
“I really thought, ‘There’s no way I’m gonna get that much money back,’ but I did. So it was like, the best surprise ever,” she says. “I never expected to even have a chance to see that money back.”
Borrowers can get a cash refund, but it will be added back to the loan’s principal balance
Now back up and running, the Federal Student Aid website says that borrowers can get a refund for any amount, including automatic payments, paid during the pandemic payment pause that started March 13, 2020. For most borrowers who still have a student loan balance, you may get a cash refund but the amount you’re refunded will be added onto your principal balance.
In Sison’s case, since she already paid off all of her student loans, her student loan servicer said her refund would be delivered via direct deposit and her account will remain closed.
Sison said she’ll use the $9,700 to save for a house
Sison says that paying off her student loans so quickly put her in a “toxic relationship” with her money. “I spent zero money on myself, like I’m not exaggerating at all,” she says. According to records viewed by Insider, Sison paid as much as $400 a week toward her student loans during some months. Some months, she made additional lump-sum payments of $800.
Now that she’s getting nearly $10,000 back, Sison wants to use some of the money to save for her first home. She says, “I am definitely gonna treat myself to something nice, like I want this really expensive pair of $600 Jordans. And then the rest, I’m just saving because I wanna buy a house.”