Needing advice. I received a court summons from Sallie Mae. What do I do??

I started the process of defaulting on my private loans 4-6 months ago (I have 5). This all started unfortunately due to being laid off last year, as I was unable to pay on these after a certain point. I started reading up on “strategic defaults” and feel this is the best decision for me. At this point, my credit is already damaged due to being unemployed for about a year. I have also decided to file chapter 7 bankruptcy. My loans are $45k, I’ve already paid $68k and still owe $45k. Those numbers and many others I read about are infuriating and I refuse to pay another penny. Just want to confirm, for those who have defaulted, that there is no point in speaking with them prior to default correct? They won’t offer me anything but a payment plan I assume? Which they refused to offer me 6 months ago? I keep getting calls and letters that 11/30 is the last day to speak them prior to default. I’m at 6 months with a few, the other loans are at 4 months. My plan was to let it default and wait until they threaten to sue or offer a reasonable lump sum. Thoughts?

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I’m a US citizen living abroad since 2007, no intention to return. Dual citizen. No financial interests in the US, nor any ambitions to get any.

I defaulted pretty much as soon as I left. Sallie Mae managed to find me in my first year abroad, so I emptied my last US bank account, closed it, and that was the end of it. To the best of my knowledge, my co-signers have also not been chased, but I fell out of contact with them over 10 years ago so I guess it’s not impossible.

I don’t have a good recollection of what kinds of loans I had. Been doing some reading and I remember terms like Pell grants, Perkins loans, etc but I can’t remember whether I had any of them - I would have signed these documents in 2002 so it’s hazy!

From what I’ve read here, it sounds like I’d likely be well out of the SOL for at least the private servicers to be coming for me, but I don’t know what the deal is if I have federal loans. I am looking at renouncement which is why I’m thinking about it - otherwise I’d keep on keeping on as I have been.

Is there any way I can find out whether there’s still existing federal (or private) debt without putting myself at risk of being pursued?

TIA for any support! This is a fab SR, have learned a lot. 🙏

I defaulted on my Discover student loan a few years ago. I know alot of individuals whose loans have defaulted and with the transition of discover ending loans they’ve just not made them owe anymore money bc they see it as a loss anyways, but is this what that means? Or does this mean that the new servicer paid for my discover loans?

Has anyone on here had experience defaulting with Earnest? I know it’s not always recommended to default on loans, but I pay $1600 monthly and have watched my loans increase as I still make payments. We don’t even pay rent because we live with my in-laws & are still scraping by. I owe $181k in private loans. So, even if my wages were garnished, I would owe 10% (head of household in Missouri) which would SAVE me money STILL. Right? My fiance is on board and realizes that my credit might be shot for the next 10 years or so. He agreed to co-sign for future purchases, if needed. Not paying will set us so free… I’m in desperate need of a change. Am I making an ok choice? Will we/I be ok even in the worst case scenario?

For anyone wanting to make comments about budgeting, not buying coffee, looking for a better job, etc., please spare me. We pinch pennies & still can’t make it work.

Planning to default next year but am trying to gather appropiate information before doing so. Currently have 120k+ with Sallie Mae and my dad being the cosignor. The plan is to default once I refinance to rid my dad of this bullshit and also not to disturb my relationship with my parents. But my dad is 70, already retired and receives disability from the military and SS. He isn't working officially but I'm worried if I default with him still assigned, they'll look at his assets and try to go for them potentially.

I live in France so I doubt they'd even try to sue me but could they go for my dad who is still in the US? Has anyone heard or experienced a situation like this before? I spoke with Sallie Mae and they won't discharge unless I pay 12 months in full or make 12 qualified principal+interest payments and rn I'm only doing interest-only but no way am I spending the rest of my life paying this debt.

Any advice or insight would be appreciated.

Hi so, I got off of the phone with the debt collector because I wanted to follow up with a disability claim I made & basically they told me that they received paperwork from my physician & that my loan is now on hold. That there isn’t anything they can do about wiping out the loan, that it will just be on hold & to tell them if my situation changes & I do start working & that they would follow up with me.

My original loan servicer was Sallie Mae and they wiped out my other two loans but since these other two discharged and was sent to debt collectors that they can’t waive the loans anymore.

So my question is—-should I be worried that they’ll go after me? Bc I still plan on working like 1x a week on social security just so I can maintain my nursing credentials & have some extra income (God willing my disability allows me to).

I’m just so frustrated that my loan was sold to a debt collector because now I can’t get my student loan forgiven. I’m so angry.

Any thoughts?? Is being put on hold just as good as it being waived?

Also they mentioned that southwest has my loan and Weltman & Weinberg is just servicing it—should I contact Southwest and say I’m disabled??

This is my private student loan that is about 10 years old. It has recently been transferred from Navient to mohela. When I call Mohela, I want to ask them to validate if the debt is mine. what do I need to ask them specifically because I have tried to search and I am not sure because I am new to this.

Do I need to ask "can you validate my debt"? Or do you have proof that the debt is mine? Or is there anything more I need to ask?

Basically, how do I go about this. And will it affect my credit score if I go this route. I need to rent a place soon and I need a good credit score for that.

Background: The Sol should have already expired if I had not contacted them, but I made the mistake of starting repayment.. when it was at navient. This was a really scammy internship that I went to, but they don't consider it a scam and I cannot convince myself to pay this debt.

I need an idea of how bad of a situation I'm in. For context, I'm in California. I graduated in 2022 and immediately got a part time job around 2,000 a month. I defaulted last year on my 4 loans totalling 200,000 and Sallie Mae set me up on a plan where I pay 1300 a month for 12 months. I regret my degree and my choices. I have a co-signer who is affected and she has a house and car but she can't help me pay very often but she has covered some months with difficulty. Halfway through this year my work hours dropped and I only have 1500 a month, with my rent being 1000. I'm on food stamps and I do odd jobs to cover my utilities. I have been actively looking for a full time job and housing all this time but I can't find more affordable housing that has affordable commute to my job, or the a new job. I keep thinking if I just have more time I can find the work and housing, but I've been sending ACH payments that return to avoid default and I need need need to stop this. I'm aware of the penalties for that, but I don't want to go to jail or something if it's more serious than I think so please let me know. I have been locked out of my account and only interact with SM over the phone. The last attorney I contacted was for bankruptcy and said he couldnt help me about student loans and it would be bad since I have a cosigner. I know I need to have conversations but I don't know where to start first. I'm mainly asking for advice on the next steps legally, or how do I start really looking for CA lawyers.

I know I need to find better housing and more work and I've been trying and I've cut out everything that isn't food/utilities/commute. I've sold or am trying to sell valuable things I have. I can't move to my parents or anything without losing this job. I don't know what else to do, any advice helps, I'm sorry.

After Uni I moved abroad, found a job and got married. I have no intention of moving back to the US but as a citizen I file taxes and take advantage of the tax credit which makes payment zero. Thinking long term about retirement and the limited investment options plus punitive taxes I am looking into renouncing citizenship.

If I do this, hypothetically, since I'd no longer be American I wouldn't be required to file taxes or report income. So what would happen to my PAYE status?

Ideas, or even what professional service I can reach out to for clarification would be helpful.

I signed up for "fresh start." I got a letter when I got accepted. I wasn't really clear on how it works. I was under the impression that it would get me out of default, reduce or zero out my debt, and stop my disability payments from being garnished (or as much), but that the government was who I'd be paying anyway.

I did not understand that they are going to hand my loans to some private company. And this will be soon, in a week or so. I assume that means trying to get them discharged due to being on SSDI won't work anymore because the loans will be owned by a private entity...

(I should have dealt with the discharge issue years ago. Executive functioning is one of my problems, which is how I got in this position in the first place... And I don't understand which agency I should be dealing with at this point.)

I wish they had at least said how much I would have as a payment with fresh start but the letters I got don't mention this.

Does anyone have any experience with getting their loans discharged due to a disability? How does it work?

Is it possible to ask the DoE to hold off on transferring my loans while I try to get the discharge? I have no clue how long it takes, and I don't want to miss the opportunity to have the loans transferred if they won't discharge them.

Apparently I don't even know what I am asking. I'm just confused about what I should do.

I didn't mean this to be so long. I'm just going back and forth and hoping someone here can help me figure this out. TIA anyone who has any useful information/advice for me.

Hi, Firstmark defaulted me, I thought I had my loans in deferment until October and I was only a little behind, they are saying since March even though they’d put me in forbearance. They sent me two emails one in May and one in September and 0 paper statements, no texts or voicemails. Is that typical?

Also I have two disabilities under ADA, they don’t keep me from working thank goodness, but are they supposed to make any accommodations? Can I ask for any now?

I feel like a huge failure and dumbass for not staying on top of this situation, but like a ton of people life has just kept on F-ing me over and over again… and here comes the next drama. Ugh!!!

Hi everyone,

First of all this reddit has been incredibly helpful, it makes me actually have hope in my student loan mess.

Right now for context, I'm a US citizen living abroad, I don't plan on going back anytime in the future and already settled in my mind that I'll take the credit hit and have a write off in 7 years etc/ settle for a certain amount when the time comes. I'm defaulting on Citizens currently, and my federal loans will soon be $0 as it works under the IDR plan.

However, now I have to figure out what to do with my Sallie Mae loans which are due for repayment in December. I do plan on defaulting on them but would it be easier if I consolidated/refinanced through a different company then default? Does it even matter?

At the moment if I did choose to refinance, living abroad is making it more complicated since the logistics of not having an address or US number but also the fact that my credit is currently taking a hit anyway because I'm missing payments on my Citizens.

Does anyone have advice on what to do? Should I just wait it out with Sallie?

Thank you!

I received a letter in the mail about my loans through William and fudge saying if I don’t respond in the next thirty days they will consider giving it to an attorney. How often do they send these letters out and should I be worried.

If they eliminate the DOE - what is the outcome for people with student loans?

What are our options? It seemed we were close to some sort of relief, but now what?

This is a question for a family member, but as the title suggests, the loan was taken out 30 years ago and no payments have been made. No garnishment ever despite working for the federal government as well as a few different private jobs over the years. She was just approved for disability with 3 yrs back pay and is worried that they’ll take the back pay for repayment. Her husband is deceased and she has no income at the moment. Surviving on life insurance until the disability comes through. Has anyone dealt with something like this? What are the chances they’ll take the money?

Here is the scenario. I recently got hurt on the job possibly not able to return to work and go on permanent disability. I do not know the outcome yet as I am still out of work. I default on my student loan of 150k private, it’s been sold to another bank. I hired a law firm to negotiate, their fee is about 22k equate to 15 percent of the total loan.

I don’t think I qualify for TPD since it private student loan. The worry I have is they may sue and place a lien on the property.

I got no co-signer and don’t care if my credit goes to zero.

I like to get some advice as to what to do?

I have a bajillion student loans. Most are from 1998,1999,2000. The remaining was in 2016 for a masters that I didn’t complete. My life is just fckd right now tbh. In the space of 3 years I’ve applied for disability due to treatment resistant depression and autoimmune disorders that cause extreme pain and fatigue. My relationship with the father of my 2 yr old ended in June. I spent July, August, and September of this year in and out of mental health treatment. I have 23k in medical bills and am currently applying for forgiveness on those.

***the student loan debt question is:

I was in treatment when I found out about Fresh Start. My only option was mail. It postmarked on Sept 30, the last day.

I haven’t heard a thing so I logged in today and got to the screen I’ve posted. Does this mean I’m too late? And, regarding the status, does this mean they can take my disability back pay if I’d receive it?

I feel sick over this. Please be kind or don’t answer? I’m not in a great space. Thank you

Went out of deferment on my Sallie Mae loans about 4 months ago and haven’t paid them. Keep getting calls from them requesting me to call back. Most recent one explains that they may have to make a decision without me (whatever the hell that means)

Even if I could pay these loans, I don’t want to. So my question is, what can they really do? What’s this “next step” they could be referring to? Selling it to a debt collector? I know I can’t go to jail for a private student loan, so what should I expect in the coming months?

I am an international student with +$150k in student loans in default (long story) and my university has sent a collections agency after me. The loan is a promissory note from the university, so the collections agency is collecting on their behalf, and the loan hasn't been sold to anyone. Since they have my home country address they have an affiliated local debt collector in my home country chasing after me over email (though I now live in a third country).

I'm wondering if anyone knows what the chances are of my university suing me in the US (I have no idea how I would be able to defend myself when I have no US address to receive mail, and live halfway across the world), then having the collections agency take that judgement, re-litigate it in the local courts of the country where I now live, and then obtain a local judgement to collect on my debt here?

It's an Ivy League-level school so I'm afraid since they have billions of dollars they don't care about spending the time/money to go through all these steps to chase down the debt internationally.

The collection agency they've sent says they work on international debt collection, which is why I'm afraid they'll jump through all the hoops to sue me internationally. https://cedarfinancial.com/international-debt-collection/#countries

Pretty convoluted but hoping some of the people who have heard stories of folks evading debts abroad might be able to speak to this.

Also: I do not live in the US anymore and do not intend to ever move there in the future.

Hello Reddit.

Sharing my experience here to see if I can get some feedback and/or advice. I'm sitting at 6 months of not paying my Navient student loans. They've sent me a letter telling me I'm getting close to entering their litigation pipeline. Then, they sent my cosigner a letter offering to settle the debt for 70% of what I owe. I got on the phone with one of their agents to see if that was workable. I made an offer at 55%. They said no but then I said no to 70%, then they said 60%, this went back and forth a little bit until I gave them a number that I could live with. Now, I'm waiting to see if they accept that.

My question is, should I keep holding out? They tell me I still have 2 months before the litigation department starts looking deeper at my situation. I'm not really sure if I'll ever have more bargaining power than I do right now. Also, with the transfer to Mohela, I'm wondering if this is something that they are concerned about because of possible student debt forgiveness. Any input or insight would be appreciated.

I took out some private loans for college and racked up quite the debt - about 100k. I had a really hard time finding a job after graduation and was only making 29k a year for several years. I struggled paying those loans about 1100 dollars a month and I was only bringing in about 1300 bi-Weekly. On top of some other debts and payments I didn't have much for myself. Fast forward a couple years and I got a better job but have more payments that I can really handle at this point. The job pays better than the previous one.. but now I am now having a reduction in payment now. So I'm basically back to square one for a few months until the end of the year. I'm afraid to talk to the lenders about my situation bc I know that they really don't care about my financial hardships and just want their money. They're now emailing me and threatening to default on my loans with a laundry list of actions they could take. Should I default on the loans ? What should I do ?.[m sort of in a panic and very very stressed out

I have a student loan in default due to my ability to not able to work (soon to be disabled) unless there is some type of healing miracle worker around. If my doctor later deemed me TPD will I be able to apply for forgiveness even when my private student loan is in default status?

Hello, there to whom I am speaking too,

I have 4 loans with Sallie Mae and my forbearance ended on October 11th, and I found out how much I owe, like $405.50, for November 7th. I know that after 15 days as a mini grace period; you are considered late. I owe 24,000 in debt. I am applying for SSI, and going to talk to my lawyer about my application summary for SSI my cosigner is my mother, who is on SSI due to her back problems and can't work anymore. I will call them tomorrow to say that I am filling out for SSI, with my mental problems like GAD and PSTD will this help delay the payment, or able to lower it, too? Or a bad idea to mention that to them? I am not working right now, and I am trapped in a corner. I have been having a major freakout for days, completely scared of them taking everything from my mom. I had major mental breakdowns for weeks. I am terrified of Sallie Mae. Thank you all for the help. Looks like Mom and I are going to be defaulting on Sallie Mae. Hello, there to whom I am speaking too,

So yeah I just got off the phone with a representative who said I owe this loan or else I have to make an arrangement with sali Mae in relation to an attorney. I was pretty pissed since I spoke to them late August regarding the loan of about 13k, me and representative who got my information regarding my living and economic situation results in lower my monthly bill to 102 dollars a month but pay the 1st month to be around 240 since I'll be attending school but I also handed in a in school deferment form to pause the payments for until the semester is over since it's my last semester.

Rush to mid to late October, now, they sent me a paper mail around 15-18, received it today, telling me my loan has defaulted. I was pissed, the card payments didn't go through. I was livid. It was hard for me to focus but yeah he told me that Sallie Mae sent me emails through my email but it got full and now, I didn't pay attention since I don't normally check it and I was sure the payment went through since either was using a debit card. I spoke to him if I could reverse this and he told me to call a number to send them if I was indeed attending school prior to default. Idk I feel like them mentioning an attorney or civil case or whatever is just a scare tactic and he wants to speak to my co-signer to figure out the matter, like what we can currently pay, he's retired, which I already stated months ago. Also now I think about it I already sent them an in school deferment, so they already should know that I am in school.

Funny how they can send me mail for months and months about not making payments, or making phone calls every few days for months! But they can't bother to contact me through either when the payment was first rejected. Fuck this company. He told me it was my responsibility to keep an eye on the payment but he'll I would appreciate a phone call.

Not sure if I should call back or simply ignore, I did say I was going to call back with my cosigner. But fuck, fuck my credit score and it's only 13k, I asked him if I could let it go in collections. Idk what do you guys think? I'm starting to think it was better off ignoring, since every time I'm notified of something and call, it always makes me anxious AF.

I have $55,000 in student loan debt with Sallie Mae. No co-signer but I am married. My spouse wants a kid. If we have a kid, that means I won’t be working for at least the next 5 years with no income and I wouldn’t be filling taxes since no income.

I don’t plan on paying all this back. I’d be willing to settle though. How likely would it be for Sallie Mae to just eventually fuck off? Anyone in a similar situation?

Hi I finally had the courage to seek help and speak the truth about my disability & my doctor said it’s severe enough that I could possibly obtain social security checks. I was wondering can Sallie Mae garnish EDD SDI or SSDI checks to pay for the student loan? I’m scared bc I’m not working anymore.