Income Share Agreements (ISAs) are emerging as an excellent alternative to traditional private student loans. With this type of agreement, students pay nothing, in most cases, until after they complete their program. Then, once a student has finished the program and gets a job using their new skills, they pay a percentage of their income for a set period of time until they have either reached the Required Payments, Max Payment Cap, or Payment Window.
ISAs have student benefits built-in to help students through tough times. Besides the absence of growing interest and no upfront payments, a significant benefit of Income Share Agreements is the fact that there are certain instances when your payments are paused or deferred.
In today’s post, we’re going to take a look at the ISA student benefit known as painless deferment.
The Income Percentage
The Income Share Percentage is the fixed percentage of your monthly pre-tax income that you agree to share during your contract term. Income shares can range from 2.5% to as high as 17.5%. Under your ISA contract, you will pay this percentage of your income for your designated Required Payments or until you reach the Max Payment Cap or Payment Window.
Painless Deferment
In order to defer traditional student loans, you must meet specific eligibility criteria and have deferment time available. Traditional student loan deferment can pause your monthly payments, often for a maximum of three years. But, interest will continue to accrue and make it more difficult to complete paying off your traditional student loan in the long run.
With an ISA if you need to defer your payments because of
- Unemployment
- Earning less than your Minimum Income Threshold. (The Minimum Income Threshold is a certain amount of your income that you have to earn over in order to make payments.)
- Medical leave
- And possibly other extenuating circumstances that impact your monthly income
Read the full list of when your payments are deferred.
In order to defer your payments with Meratas, you will need to submit your latest paystub or termination letter along with a quick one-page form to fill out, which can take as little as three minutes to complete.
Then, for every month where you meet the deferment requirements, your payments will continue to be deferred until you start a new job, start earning more, finish school, or recover!
Meratas is the only ISA platform that offers this student benefit as an option to partners on our platform and is one of the many benefits of working with Meratas for all of your ISA needs. Ready to offer an Income Share Agreement program at your school or educational institution designed to increase student enrollment and accessibility?
About Meratas
Meratas is the leading Income Share Agreement (ISA) software company, providing a full-service, turnkey, SaaS platform to design, originate, and manage ISAs. We help universities, bootcamps, trade schools, and membership programs increase enrollment and open accessibility to their programs. All through the power of Income Share Agreements.
We also help those looking to get an education, up-skill, or re-skill get into the career of their dreams. All at no upfront cost. We pair individuals looking for fresh, new careers with the best educational programs on the Meratas platforms to reach their professional goals. If you’re looking to break into your new career, check out our student page and we’ll help you find the job of your dreams.
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Although every effort has been made to provide complete and accurate information, Meratas Inc. makes no warranties, express or implied, or representations as to the accuracy of content contained herein. Meratas Inc. assumes no liability or responsibility for any error or omissions in the information contained herein or the operation or use of these materials.
