Hello,

I’m currently living in France, having no plans to move back to the US and am working to get citizenship here.

I have both private and federal loans back home, my federal loan payments at 0 due to having foreign income.

However I still have Sallie Mae and Parent Plus loans on hold that will resume payments in September.

I don’t plan to pay them back however I have my parents as co-signers and need to make the minimum payments in order to release them and have them only in my name.

Does anyone have experience with doing this and was successful?

Also what is the process for defaulting on loans and living abroad? I’m prepared to eventually get a lawyer, go to court and reach a settlement, but what is the process before that? Will i be arrested at the border (don’t laugh, I’ve seen crazy ‘stories’ idk if they’re true or not) or potentially have my parents harassed even if they are no longer cosigners?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated !

So I got into REALLY bad situation & wasn’t able to pay my loans back, so I just haven’t in a few years and just recently filed for bankruptcy and about to be discharged (not the student loans tho obviously). There was a point when i knew i wasnt going to be able to keep making the payments where I had called to try to work out some thing, and the woman basically laughed in my face and told me to go get a second job. At that point, I was just ata loss, they clearly did not give a **** & as they shouldn’t because it’s my own fault that I got into this situation. But, I was worried because I did have a cosigner, although he is 99 years old sooo my parents said it wouldnt matter much bc they’ll probably kick the bucket soon. Well, now I’m wondering for people who’ve been in my situation what do they do??? my wages are not garnishable, because I’m on public assistance. I’m working with an agency to try to find a job, so I have that appointment on Tuesday but as of right now if they sue me it’s not like they can get anything. And even with my cosigner, their wages are protected as well. Due to this is there any way that they’ll try to work out some kind of payment plan with me? Is there anyway that I can consolidate these l is there anyway that I can consolidate all of my loans? I have discover ones too, and federal.

Chase student loan signed in 2008 for $15,600. I paid on it for 7 years before filing bankruptcy. The principal was covered in that time. Interest rate was originally 3-4%. It has now ballooned to $30k, current interest rate is 13% and they’re raising it again due to the “market conditions.” Current payment is $315, going up to $370. No clue what the new interest rate will be.

1 asset, my home purchased in my name only. I don’t have a job. Can’t they garnish my husband’s wages? If a lien is out on my house, when does that need paid off? I’m so frustrated.

So I'm going to make this short and simple, and try my best to include the important bits:

My wife just got a job to teach English in Korea and I am moving over there with her.

I have a private student loan with Earnest (refinanced from Sallie Mae) and currently still owe $56k, making $400 payments each month.

We don't really have any assets here in the states, just a couple of thousand in savings, and we don't plan on coming back to the states.

Could I potentially just stop making payments and default? And if so, what's worst that could happen? (Sorry if the question isn't phrased the best, hope I'm still getting the general inquiry across)

I’ve done some research and consulted with an attorney about the default and settlement process. Currently have $97k (originally $125k) in private loans with Earnest which were refinanced from Navient. I’ve been paying them for the last 10+ years and have made about $60k+ in payments so far. I currently pay $905/mo down which is down from $1000/mo after throwing $10k on them last year (Prob not the smartest idea) My alledged payoff date is 2038 and from now to then with my current monthly payment that’s $152k! And with that, I’ve decided I’m done. My FICO is in the 800s so I know it will take a hit but I have no big purchases in the immediate future. I AM DONE. Private loan settlement with earnest? Would love to hear your experience!

This subreddit and some of the older guides and posts helped me early on as I started to research defaulting on my private student loan debt. I'm over one year in on a strategic default and was just approved for a mortgage this week. I wanted to share some of the things I've learned along the way in hopes it can help you like many others have helped me on this journey. Also, adding the obligatory "I'm not a lawyer, nothing that I say should be construed as legal advice, consult with a laywer, etc."

For reference, I am in my late 30s, married and own a home, cars and several assets. My original loan balance was $200K; over the course of 13+ years of faithful payments, I had knocked this down to $175K. After being in forbearance for 2+ years due to COVID (my lender was one of a few that did offer forbearance in the thick of the pandemic) and with the help of compounded interest, my balance jumped back up to $200K and my payment was north of $1,400/month. As I was getting ready to enter repayment in early 2023, I had an "I'm done with this" moment that led me to this subreddit. I went into this strategic default with a 790+ credit score (which is what scared me the most and I talk about further down). After refinancing my loan in my early 30s, I did NOT have a co-signer on my loan.

Do Your Research

Specifically, you need to understand the following:

• Does your state consider private student loan (PSL) debt to be "consumer debt?" I haven't seen a situation or state where this isn't the case, but always verify. This will determine what protections you do or don't have should you default and the lender chooses to come after you.
• Assuming PSL debt falls under consumer debt in your state, what is the Statue of Limitation (SOL) for lenders suing for default on consumer debt in your state?
• Does your state allow or prohibit wage garnishment for judgements?
• Does your state allow liens against assets for judgements?
• If you live in a different state now from where you lived when the loan originated, which state law dictates the SOL? I've seen conflicting information about this, but it seems like the lender usually files in the state you currently reside in.
• What are your current assets and do you have any way to protect these should the lender sue and you end up with a judgement against you? Again, much of this will also be dictated by state law and some states protect consumers from having liens placed on their home, car, etc. and others don't. If you are going to shift assets out of your name, you need to consider doing this BEFORE you default and have a "good reason" for doing this should you end up in court. If you have no assets, this will be the one time in life where you should pat yourself on the back for having one less thing to worry about and embrace the default full-on.

Prepare

• Build a budget. Obviously, you probably wouldn't be considering defaulting if you were flush with money (or maybe you are and you just want to stick it to the man), but you need to understand what's coming in and what's going out before you jump off the default cliff.
• If you have a co-signer, you need to talk to them. 99.9% of the time, they aren’t going to want you to default and a decision like this won’t just impact you. Explore your options to refinance all or part of your loan without a co-signer (yes, you can refinance part of a loan if you can’t get approved to refinance the entire amount without a cosigner; if you do this, you would want to keep paying the loan with the cosigner and plan on defaulting on the refinanced loan with no co-signer).
• Apply to and start collecting credit cards. It's counter-intuitive to what we are often taught, but trust me on this. Even if you are in your early 20s and have little to no credit, open as many credit cards as you can, even if you only have a $250 credit limit. If you have little to no credit, a Capital One card, gas cards, and retail cards will usually approve you and extend you a line of credit. It's usually good to apply for a few, then wait 30 days before applying for another round.
• Start using the credit cards in small increments. If you are new to credit, let the bill cycle, then pay off the statement balance. If you pay off what you spend prior to the bill cycling, this won’t build your credit. It will just continue to show a $0 balance on your credit report and to lenders and the credit agencies it’s as if you never spent this money. The other important part of what I mentioned is to PAY OFF YOUR STATEMENT BALANCE EACH MONTH. DO NOT start spending above your means on these cards. Stick to your budget that you already built and shift your monthly bills to these cards. For bills that require payment via ACH/debit/checking, there are several apps out there that let you process these through the app using a credit card and charge a small fee. Not saying you should go that way (or spend the extra $), just throwing it out as an option.
• Pull your credit reports and download your student loan statements shortly before you stop making payments. You will want the most recent records of your last payments, your credit, etc.
• If possible, meet with a consumer debt attorney in your state (even better if you can find one who specializes in student loan debt – surprise, surprise, more of these are popping up!). I met with one who was able to advise me of the consumer debt laws in our state, confirm the SOL clock started in our state once the lender charges off the debt (sells off to collections), confirm our state does not garnish wages, and also confirmed that a lien COULD be placed on our home if I was sued and ended up with a judgement against me. This was helpful in helping my partner and I evaluate whether to sell our home while we let the SOL clock run out.
• Delete your personal voicemail greeting and consider changing your phone number. Make sure your contact info is removed from places like LinkedIn and social media, and lock down your LinkedIn and social media accounts – make the debt collectors and attorneys work a little to find you!
• Decide whether you are going to engage with your lender, and down the road debt collectors, or not. Many on this forum and others advised not to take calls from either and I chose to follow this approach. I decided I would only respond to written communications that were legal in nature and from an attorney, at which point I would retain the attorney I consulted with.
• If it makes sense, educate your family on your plan, especially if they might receive a call from a debt collector. Make sure your family knows that in no uncertain terms, they are not to give out your contact info (especially if you’ve changed it). They should just not answer the calls, but if they do answer, they should immediately hang up. Also, it helps to let someone know your plan so they can support you.
• Get your mindset right. This was HUGE for me. I shifted my mindset to look at defaulting as a strategic business decision and not one tied to my self-worth or my “goodness” as a human. I told myself that countless successful business leaders have zero problems with defaulting on business loans when it is what’s best for the company; they recover and they also sleep just fine at night. I also made a list of what freeing up this money would do for my family (or if you aren’t currently able to make the payments, make a list of what not owing this money in the future will mean for you). Here were some things from my list:
  • Save for my child’s education so they don’t continue the cycle of student loan debt.
  • Travel more as a family, gaining invaluable experience and life perspective (this will ALWAYS win out, imo).
  • Save for retirement, something neither my parents or my partner’s parents were able to do.
  • Shift careers in the future (real estate investment, etc.).

Make the Jump!

• Once you make the decision, it’s time to jump in with both feet!
• If you have been making full or partial payments, make sure auto-draft is cancelled if you previously had it set up.
• Delete all banking account information from your PSL account(s); if you are asked to confirm your contact information when you log-in, skip this.
• Don’t open emails from your lender or debt collector. Many companies have tracking software that will tell them if an email is opened, the date and time it was opened, and how long the reader kept the email opened for.
• Track and document everything – the last payment you made, the date it cleared, etc. If you do communicate with your lender or debt collectors, document the agent’s name, the date and time of the call, and record the call. If you are in a one-party consent state, you don’t need to notify the other party that you are recording the call (but you can for giggles, it might throw them off a little). If you are in a state that requires notification, make sure you have a script written out with the language so it’s “official.” All this info and wording is usually is available online with some detective work.

Now What?

• It will take a few months to officially move into “default” status with your loan. This was the hardest part for me and felt a lot like “hurry up and wait.” The lender would call, email, and send letters about making payments, even just partial ones to bring my account current, and at times I questioned and just hoped I made the right decision. Depending on the lender, your loan amount, the state you live in, etc., you may move into default status quickly or it may drag out for 90+ days. My loans officially moved into default status in March 2023 and were closed and sold to collections in May 2023.  
• If you monitor your credit score during this time, buckle up for a ride! I went from a 790+ (I cleared 800 with one of the credit bureaus which I was so proud of at the time and now could care less about – the credit system in our country is a joke!). At its lowest, my credit score was in the very low 600s, flirting with the high 500s. During this time, I knew I wasn’t going to be approved for ANYTHING, but already had a solid credit history AND had a collection of credit cards I used to help me rebuilt and I also had a few I could pull out for emergencies.
• Since my loan was closed with the lender and sold to a collection agency, I have not received a phone call, email, or letter. I realize I need to knock on wood as I type that last sentence! I know I could still receive a call or letter at any point and if/when that time comes, I know I have a plan to address it. This allows me to sleep at night and honestly, most days I forget I even had student loan debt.
• Recently, my partner and I decided to explore the possibility of selling our current home and buying a townhome. We are elder millennials who have bought and sold multiple times over the years and have had zero help from family when it comes money (they’ve actually made it more challenging, but that’s a post for another sub). I share that because I know the market is crazy and home ownership feels out of reach for many folks reading this, but I also want to share so you know it’s possible to come back from a default.  
• Since January 2024, I was impacted by layoffs and took another job and a significant pay cut, leading to us once again re-evaluating our finances. Leveraging the strategy I mentioned above with credit cards, I’ve rebuilt my credit to 680-710, depending on which credit bureau you ask, and was able to get approved for a mortgage loan using just my income and credit score. The mortgage lender set up a call to confirm a few things, including asking me about the defaulted loan. I was very transparent and shared that this was a strategic decision I made after much research and based on my credit report, he could hopefully see I am generally a responsible individual who pays my bills on time. He actually congratulated me and told me this was clearly a good decision because the loan was showing as closed and even though it was sold to collections and overall, negatively affected my credit, because the loan shows as closed/sold off, it also shows a $0 payment, so it can’t impact my debt-to-income ratio!
• I also pulled my credit reports again during this time to confirm exactly how my PSL was showing up. It is showing as closed/charged off and will be eligible to come off my credit report in May 2029!

All in all, if I had it to do over again, I absolutely would and I wish I had done this much earlier. If you are considering a strategic default as an option for your PSLs, do your research! Even if you need to relocate to a state with a low SOL and one that prohibits wage garnishment, it could very well be worth it! I’m happy to answer questions and will update if/when there are updates.

Question from a friend without Reddit:

I had a private student loan that I was making payments on for about 1.5 years. After being in a bad financial spot, I was unable to continue paying on the loan for three months (last payment was November 2023). The private loan ended up being sold to collections in March 2024, but I didn’t know this. The school did not notify me and I ended up finding out about the debt being sold via a single letter to my dad’s address. I have not lived with my dad for about two years now and his address is not listed on my student profile with the school. He did not think to notify me of the mail in a timely manner because he didn’t realize its importance.

I understand that the debt has been sold and I can no longer make payments to the school now that I am in a spot to start making payments again; however, because I was not properly notified by the school or debt collection office, am I able to fight this sale? I know I can pay off the debt to the collection company but I don’t want this effecting my credit score all because of a miscommunication.

hey,

has anyone had any luck buying a home on the east coast after defaulting. i am starting to look at some homes but im worried about the defaults on my student loans.

International student here. Had big dreams to come and work in US. Performed great in school. Got a decent 90k job in California, currently on laid off notice. Loan was from UK based company around 110k and refinanced it to US based company which is private loan. Exhausted all H1b attempts. Feels devastated and sad that this visa is totally based on luck and not other metric like performance etc. Never missed a single payment yet. Right now in a situation where I feel I lost and tbh I am curshed and have no hopes to continue working. I still have $50k loan left. What are my chances of right now? I am thinking to go back to home county

1. Can I do something to pay a lump sum amount like settlement
2. I don’t want to do this but if there’s no other possible way, can I go back to home country? Worried that the current private loan provider (who don’t have my home country address details) to reach out to the UK based loan provider who has my home country address details? Is that possible or not?

No plans to come back to back to US in future, ever.

Note: no co-signer for the private loan however the initial loan provider have my home country and guardian details

Hi,

I have lurked this sub and other subs on the topic of predatory student loans and defaulting. Long story short, I have around $230K in private student loans and obviously can’t make the monthly payment of $1,600 a month. I’m 24 with no assets, and rent with roommates in NYC. I don’t own a car.

I recently went delinquent on my loans about 3 months ago now and am now receiving daily calls and a demand for payment on the loans. I got this email a while ago, and recently got a pretty unprofessional text saying I’m being sued (but no official summons or anything).

I wanted to hear what other people’s experience has been defaulting, and dealing with your loan providers/collections. Are these just fear mongering? Should I look for lawyers to represent me court.

Ideally I plan to hit the statute of limitations, but at this point I might have to agree to a settlement.

Any advice welcome.

I have several private student loans w/Navient. I finally couldn't keep up with payments (which were about $1600/month so I defaulted. Parent is a cosigner, but equally has no assets or $.

In January I got paperwork that I was being sued for 1 of the several loans (just me, not the cosigner). I paid a lawyer $1500 to take the case (I had to take payday loans and set up a payment plan to cover that). Today I found out that they just filed 3 additional suits for some of the other loans.

I have no idea what to do at this point. I am married, 4 kids, beyond broke. My entire check goes to repay payday loans so we can take them out again. I just started a second job last week but it only pays about $75/week. We have 1 home jointly, 2 cars jointly (not nearly paid off and we live in a rural area and work in different areas so need 2 cars to get there). Own nothing of value. Same for cosigner parent. We even owe >$1000 to the IRS this year because I guess my job didn't withhold enough. We don't qualify for any financial assistance. The rates of everything has skyrocketed (home insurance, car insurance, food, gas, etc.). I can't even afford to get an oil change that I am way over due for right now. No savings, no 401k, my bank account with be overdrawn by the time I get paid again.

I assume bankruptcy is not an option due to the loans having cosigners and other debt being joint with spouse.

I can't afford to pay my current attorney another $1500 times 3 to take on these other suits as well, and I can't afford to pay them regardless of the outcome of the suits. I mean maybe if I stop eating and paying any other bill I have?

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This is a last ditch-effort. So in 2008 (my sophomore year) my parents took out a loan with Sallie Mae/ Navient for 40k...after I graduated and was paying $300 a month a few years later we bought a house and things were going well. Then it ballooned to $900 a month and I was struggling with that payment and they wouldn't reduce it and so I just stopped paying for 5 months since my husband got into an accident, totaled his car and was in the hospital for a month and didn't get back to work until 6 weeks after his accident. Disability only paid a portion and now we have some pretty large hospital bills on top of being out of work for a few months.

Navient called me (I was ignoring the calls for a while but then they said they were going to sue me) and said that it's been 177 days since my last payment and once it hits 210 days that it would go to their lawyer and no more programs would happen and I would lose my house and property based on Texas law. I really just want it to go to collections and try to cut some kind of deal with collections to reduce the total I owe (which has grown to 93k) and pay a smaller amount towards that new balance.

My questions are:

1. Can I just ask them to take it to collections?
2. If I could borrow from family to make like 3 months worth of payments and then stop again to reset the clock maybe?
3. Let it just go to their lawyers, get sued. And I'm almost just tired...let them take all my stuff or send me to jail because I'm tired of this loan that's almost 20 years old and since both my husband and I are teachers we're almost guaranteed to never be able to pay it off.

Hypothetically. Thinking through the pros and cons of defaulting my husbands private loans from Navient.

If he defaults, and we settle. He will have that default for 7 years. After 7 years, how do you answer the question from banks, background checks etc. The question usually states "have you ever defaulted on a loan" and does not specify timeframe. Are we required to say YES. Even though it has by then dropped off our credit report?

I have a private student loan that is past the statute of limitations (SOL) that has written me letters asking for a 10 percent settlement. That means 90 percent of the loan would be forgiven. That would normally mean that the part of the loan that is forgiven would be treated as income, and I would receive a 1099c stating that I had to pay taxes on it.

However, current tax law seems to suggest that forgiven student loan debt, even if it is private student loan debt, is not taxable right now. Section 9675 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, states that amounts of discharged student loan debt that would normally be considered to be gross income under the law will be excluded from gross income as long as the discharge was made between December 31, 2020 and January 1, 2026. It also says private education loans are included in this exemption.

Has anyone had any experience settling private student loans since December 31, 2020? Do you still get a 1099c with a taxable amount forgiven? Or do they not mail those out at all during this period? If you receive a 1099c, how would you exclude it from income when filing your taxes?

I don't even want to consider settling this old debt if it just means the settled debt will be taxable income.

Hello Everybody,

I got laid off last year during a messy divorce and racked up a ton of debt with lawyer, divorce settlement and living expenses. I just recently landed a job and I am living paycheck to paycheck. It has aggravated my mental health substantially. I am considering rerouting the $1,700 monthly student loan payments as I am already in default and use it to pay off credit cards. I defaulted on the student loans for 90 days when I was laid off last year but I disputed it and it got dropped off my credit report. What do you guys think?

130k non-cosigner, unbacked international student loan (dropped off credit report)

10k credit card debt

Hello Everybody,

I got laid off last year during a messy divorce and racked up a ton of debt with lawyer, divorce settlement and living expenses. I just recently landed a job and I am living paycheck to paycheck. It has aggravated my mental health substantially. I defaulted on the student loans for 90 days when I was laid off last year but I disputed it and it got dropped off my credit report. I am considering stopping the $1,700 monthly student loan payments and use it to pay off credit cards before I default on them as well. What do you guys think?

Summary:

130k non-cosigner, unbacked international student loan (dropped off credit report)

10k credit card debt

Considering using student loan payments to pay off CC debt

Has this happened to you? Did you pay the IRS income tax on predatory cancelled loans?

A few years ago, the IRS sent me a notice that I owed over $10k in income tax on old predatory loans. They were wrong, but it took me over 9 months to prove it. With more and more borrowers getting their loans cancelled, I think my story will be helpful to others who are being similarly duped by the IRS. 

I graduated with a BFA in 2010 from a state university and put myself through school with a combination of scholarships, grant-in-aid, work study and waiting tables. I also took out federal aid from FAFSA, recieved a few Pell grants, and some private loans. JP Morgan Chase issued 3 loans to me in 3 years with interest rates between 17.8 and 21.5%. These loans were legal in the GW Bush years,  but the Obama administration declared this predatory lending. It took another 7 years and a case against Corinthians College for the predatory private loans with high interest rates to be declared illegal. In 2018, probably after writing off all of these loans as "bad debt", JP Morgan Chase shuttered their Student Loan division. I was never sent a 1099-C to document income from cancelled debt.  My crappy investment advisor at a Manhattan Chase branch told me I could just "fuggedaboutit". The loans were suddenly off my credit- I had nothing to worry about, he said. 

At the end of 2020, IRS notice CP2000 arrived in the mail, explaining specifically that the bank had issued three 1099-C's and my 2018 income had been corrected accordingly. I was being charged both the net difference income tax and also charged back for the interest deduction I had taken. This huge "windfall of income" bumped me into the next tax bracket where the deduction wasn't allowed.  Almost $10K in tax was due in 3 weeks, with additional interest charges for the last two year adding almost another grand. I read through the document a few times when I first opened it, not really understanding how this was possible. There was definitely some mistake- we're deep in the pandemic at this point and I was not prepared or willing to pay. 

I started making phone calls and long story short, no one was willing to help me. The bank had no records of the 1099's because the division had been closed. Student Loan lawyers, and anyone I could get on the phone at the IRS or my state senator's office, told me I'd have to pay the IRS or be able to claim insolvency using Form 982, Reduction of Tax Attributes Due to Discharge of Indebtedness. I wasn't insolvent (bankrupt), so that was impossible. 

I had to be my own lawyer, and read the laws- and I found it:  IRS rule 26 CFR 1.61-12 / Rev. Proc. 2020-11. had declared that the student loans that were cancelled this way should not have had 1099-C’s issued in the first place. If the IRS sends you a similar notice, listen up: this is the Rule/law that proved my case.

Not one lawyer, IRS agent, or government employee I spoke with seemed to understand what had been decided in Rev. Proc. 2017-24, and Rev. Proc. 2018-39 of Rule 26CFR. This new income tax charge had been declared  "a compliance burden on taxpayers, as well as an administrative burden on the IRS, that is excessive in relation to the amount of taxable income that would result. Accordingly, the IRS will not assert that a taxpayer within the scope of the safe harbor in this revenue procedure recognizes gross income as a result of the discharge." In short, the bank can't tell the IRS to collect income tax on their bad loans.  I read every published article related to the cases that led up to this Rule. Once I found the Rule, I submitted it in writing three times before someone at the IRS called me back 9 months later. 

We- me and the nice old IRS guy outside of Albany (probably using an abacus to check his work by oil lamp)- spent four hours on the phone reading 8 pages of law together line by line. Finally he saw It, and announced suddenly "Oh, yes, I've found it. Case closed." (He didn't find it, I found it!) He then confirmed I no longer owed this tax. About 7 weeks later I received a bill for $0 with a "thank you for your response to our notice".

I still owe on some federal loans, and am enrolled in the SAVE plan with hopes the Biden administration will cancel $20K for Pell recipients. I'm 35 now and live rent stabilized in Brooklyn, and that's literally the difference in being able to buy a house and get out of town or not. Having to navigate repayment of the $72K in loans that I graduated with has been suffocating. Almost to the point it feels silly to even talk about. Which is part of the reason it's taken this long to wrap my head around How I Beat the IRS Without Anyone Helping. 

I hope my story helps people, and I'm also curious if anyone else had a similar experience. Re-reading the laws now, I'd be interested if there's anyone who might actually have a case against the gov't for imposing this burden in the first place?

I have old loans that I let default years ago. Today I get an email about Fresh Start and they’re saying I have to get on this plan or they will submit the loans to collections. It already was in collections and fell off my report years ago. Can they resubmit it? They also threaten tax and wage garnish.

I just got email from Dept of Ed on my Federal loans because I'm in PSLF program. This screenshot is from the email. I take this to mean Mohela got fired LMAO!!!!

I'm past SOL on my private loans, but I know that others in this sub have a hybrid of loans like I did, so thought this would be useful info.

?

So Navient just randomly sending an email telling me that I have a tax form in my forms and that I need to login. I know there’s been several lawsuits some loan forgiveness during the pandemic and such but I’m afraid to login. Of course I’m paranoid about the SOL Should I do it? I don’t even remember my username and password.

Here’s some details on my situation, could really use some advice here, currently living in NY. I have 4 private loans with Navient, total payment per month is roughly $750. I’ve been paying on this loan for the past 13yrs and only knocked $6k off of it.

My father co-signed for these loans, he’s currently on permanent disability/retired due to a stroke, he’s 73. He owns his house (worth probably $140k) and doesn’t have a ton of money in the bank.

Between my private and fed loans ($350/month) I haven’t been able to ever save money. I currently work two jobs and make about $140k/year but have no assets other than a 2019 Cruze which I’m still paying on for another 2 years.

If I default on these loans what action can they take against my father? I know the SoL for consumer debt in NY is only 3 years, do I attempt to run out the clock for 3yrs?

Appreciate any advice!

Settlement? Able to bring credit up? Able to make big purchases in the future ? Private loan companies

I have been doing SAVE plan since last fall. I checked and apparently none of my payments are going to principal but instead to interest. What's going on here? I thought interest was being waived?

Howdy ho guys, I really need some help here.

My wife defaulted on her student loans. It went to collections and now they are calling her mom (who co-signed on the loans) all the time and threatening with everything they can. I am unsure what to do and what is true and what is not?

The student loan is around 80k, all private.

Technically, my wife has nothing to her name and has no job. But I do so does that mean they can come after me and everything that is in my name? I am the one with all the assets in the home. Her mom owns pretty much nothing. Are they at risk of being sued? Am I? Do student loan creditors go after spouses ?

I was just served papers by my local sheriffs office saying that Sallie Mae is suing me for 43k.

Loan is a private student loan.

To keep it short, graduated 2020 had grace period, then covid deferments, in 2021 went to grad school. Sallie Mae account closed April 2022 and was sold. Now they after me :( (Federal loans are taken care of with income based repayments)

I’m assuming I get a lawyer, but has anyone been through this process? Please give me any advice possible.

All my loans are in default for about 10 years now due to medical issues. Got married, filed jointly for the first time last year and tax refund was initially garnished but given back because of COVID… I’m a SAHM and make no income. I don’t want the refund to get garnished. What are my best options? File separately?

Defaulted on a GA Student Finance authority loan. 7k. Unfortunately I was unemployed for a few months prior, I reported this to them, but forgot to provide supporting documentation (because I was focused on surviving). I thought it was handled when it was not. My States taxes were just sent over to GSFA and I got a letter saying they sent it to a credit agency. I’m in fear of wage garnishment ( I just started working 2 weeks ago after being unemployed for 3 months ) what should I do? Please help.

Hello there! I am so lost, I do not know where to start. Any advice is greatly appreciated. I have 2 FFELP loans for 80K. 5 subsidized 25k and 5 unsubsidized 144k. These are divided 80k at 4.25% by American Education Services and 170K (sub and unsub) by Nelnet @ 6.8%. I am not working right now because I have been caring for my Mother-in-law who has been bed-bound for the last 6 years. I am married but file separately. I want to get out of default as it is taking a toll on my mental and emotional health. Any advise is greatly welcome!

Sorry if this is long but I need to lay out a better picture so hopefully you guys can help me better

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I have ~240k debt from private loans (200k discover) (40k Sallie mae) and another ~160k fafsa loans

I am in medical school but just took a leave of absence for 1 year due to reasons but I will join back in January.

Sallie Mae has essentially said don't care if you're in school or not you need to start making monthly payments. Almost 700$ a month.

Discover has actually worked with me pretty well in the past and usually gives me reduced payments or deferment/forbearance. (They're not offering loans anymore so I'm kinda worried they won't be as lenient soon)

My dilemma is the fact that my dad is my cosigner for both private loans. He has an average job and is a few years from retiring. He has a retirement fund from work he has saved up on and mortgage on a home. I know the fafsa loans are fine because essentially I could just do IBR and pay those off till I die, but I don't want my the private loans to try to take his wages/home/etc.

Like the case with most people in this situation I was stupid and my dad wasn't much brighter. I know there's no real way for me to refinance or remove him as a cosigner at this moment but I just don't want him to lose everything he's worked so hard for. Defaulting seems like an option but I don't know with all these variables.

Any help would be appreciated.

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TLDR: 240k private debt, don't want dad getting his lifes work taken from him.