Anyone Know How to Get Rid of a Student Loan?

[smirkymonkey]

I know it's almost impossible, but I have federal Stafford loans through a NY bank which I cannot afford to pay at all, and the interest just keeps piling up w/ every deferment to the point where it is almost double to what it was.

Is there anything I can do to at least get it back to the principle?

What about bankruptcy, chap 13 maybe? The amount I could afford to pay toward it will never be paid off in my lifetime (It's huge - Grad student loan in a field that will probably never pay more than 75k).

Please share your knowledge and experience!! Thanks!

[Maine-i-acs]

1. Pay it off or change your identity.

Defaulting on a SL will haunt you for years.

I took the full 10 years to pay off my loans. If you're unemployed you might get a break from the lender.

75K ain't chump change. You should be able to afford a basic payment, unless you borrowed a crapload of money or you're living beyond your means.

[underpants]

2. Only $75K? How ever will you get by?

Yes I have done a couple of deferments myself. The only way to get rid of it is to pay it. Bankruptcy just due to student loans should not even be in consideration, it simply isn't worth it you'll end up paying more for everything.

Call them as with any creditor as long as you are generally still paying they will work with you. I know for a fact that the student loan people will really work with you, call them.

[smirkymonkey]

23. I am not making $75K, that is around the top

for earning potential in my field, and I have a long way to go. Also, I live in NYC, so $75k here really isn't much. If I leave, and try to get a comparable job elsewhere my salary would be much less.

If I pay what I can afford, I will be barely making a dent in it.

[NicoleM]

3. The federal gov't holds my loans

so I don't know how it works with banks. I've never been able to pay what they want me to, but I pay what I can. I think they want around $300 a month and I'm paying $50 right now. Can you at least pay the interest every month?

[felonious thunk]

4. Longer term

I have a ton of loans for grad school, and I was able to significantly shrink my monthly payment by extending the loan. It sucks to think that in 20 years I'll still be paying it off, but it is at least affordable this way.

[Paragon]

5. LOL

Change your name, move to Mexico. :silly:

And bankruptcy does NOT expunge student loans - ever. Ask your lender to readjust your payments based on your income. Won't pay it off any sooner, but it'll help.

[Rowdyboy]

7. You could before 1978

I had mine erased in 1978, in the last month it was possible. A whole $5,100.

6. talk to the lenders?

unfortunately, You can't declare bankruptcy on student loans.

Recently, I consolidated all mine and got the interest down to around 4%. My rate is tied to the prime. Not all of them are like that though are they?

Did you try economic hardship deferment? There is something where the payment can only be a certain percentage of your income.

You don't here this talked about much, but I'm betting there are a WHOLE lot of people in the country in this situation & that in 10 or 20 years or so it is going to be as big a problem as Social Security and Medicare because no one will be able to pay them off and the whole system will collapse. The Feds will have to eat the cost or something like that.

[ajacobson]

8. Defaulting is not an option.

Don't let them default. That is BAD and the government will do BAD things to you. I spent two years unravelling my wife's student loan situation, she let them default before we were married.

[grasswire]

9. consolidate?

It's my understanding that consolidating a loan lowers the interest rate significantly. Maybe you can extend the length of the loan.

One interesting thing I've learned: when you die, the loans are discharged.

[NicoleM]

12. Unless

you've consolidated them with your spouse's loans. Then I believe your spouse is on the hook for your portion. I could be wrong, though.

[ajacobson]

17. I wasn't sure

about strict liability for pre-marriage debts but that didn't really effect the situation--I had to clear it up anyway; once my wife resurfaced in the credit reporting system, the agencies were on her like stink on shit.

I paid some loans and consolidated the bulk of them. That got rid of the collection agencies. If my wife gets into grad school, we'll have a few more years of deferment. If not, OUCH, approx. $250 per month.

13. regarding death -- same thing for credit cards

When my father died, credit card companies started calling my mother about the bills. As soon as she said he had died, they zeroed the balance and closed the account & never gave her another call.

[smirkymonkey]

24. Well, that's an option!

thanks for the info - I probably will consolidate and pay the minimum.

[Forkboy]

10. Die

that's how I plan to get out of mine.

[Bertha Venation]

11. Not to be insensitive, but: pay it.

Don't do bankruptcy, dude... don't do it.

You can work w/ the company to get deferments.

[ibegurpard]

14. I'm not sure but I don't think it's possible to default on student loans

Best of luck to you.

[lazarus]

15. I'll add mine in for consideration

Mine are in default, and I'm disabled, going on full disability. The odds of every paying mine off are insanely high. I've paid twice what I originally borrowed, and still owe a huge amount, due to interest and fees (the collection agencies simply double the amount every six months, when they hand the account back and forth to each other).

I've got no hope at all on this front, to be honest.

[ajacobson]

18. Check this out, if you haven't already

You may have some options depending on the nature and severity of your disability.

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DirectLoan/index.html

[lazarus]

19. Thank you

I'll check that out.

[ZenLefty]

16. Do you like to travel?

Perhaps a faraway country that does not extradite people back to the US. :shrug:

[smirkymonkey]

25. I have kind of been thinking about that anyway...

especially if whistle ass wins next year.

[Interrobang]

20. Gee, this really hits home with me, too.

For the last couple of weeks, the bank trolls have been calling me (good thing I screen my phone calls, eh?) saying they want money which I haven't got. I'm certainly not going to talk to them on the phone -- I don't like to be bullied, threatened, or intimidated, and phone trolls seem to have been given expensive corporate training on exactly what they can say that skates right up to the edge of being illegal, and I hate that!

According to them, I'm in default on my one loan for a sum of $60 (I paid the other $93 about a week ago), and the payments on that one go up every year, so while my principal is smaller, my payments are higher. I have about $3300 left on that one. The other two, the big ones, I have about $9000 total on, but because they're gov't loans, I can get 6 months of interest relief at a time. However, I'm not sure what I really do owe, because they seem to send me a bill every two weeks, with different numbers on it every time (usually higher numbers). I also could swear they've either ignored or lost payments that I've made before (I was *sure* I was up-to-date on that one the day I got laid off, and now they're telling me I'm in default?), but the cheques always clear. Bastards!

My normal student loan payments are in the area of $300/mo., so I have to take that into consideration when looking for another job!

In any case, I've made a vow: No more student loans, ever! If I can't do my further education without getting loans, I won't do it.

[smirkymonkey]

26. Fortunately, I think they can

MAKE you pay up to only a certian percentage of your income, not sure what it is, but its pretty low. For me, even that is a lot though (I have a lot of other expenses.)

[blondeatlast]

21. Bankruptcy does NOT discharge student loans.

My advice (I'm doing it myself) is to consolidate as much as possible, then ask for deferment or hardship. I pay enough each month to cover the interest; it will never go away, but my bank account doesn't suffer either. FWIW, I am underemployed due to some health problems, but they are clearing up and I hope ot work full time soon.

DO NOT DEFAULT! DO NOT DEFAULT! DO NOT DEFAULT!

Unless you don't care if you are thought of as a steaming pile of slime. Banks and credit companies will think even worse of you, too.

Pay what you can--it's the right thing to do.

[Sir_Shrek]

22. Things to consider....

For one $75K, in the scope of student loans, is not too bad. I know people who have much more than that UNDEFERRED.

Plus, student loans are not considered "bad debt"...i.e. creditors are not going to freak out if you have a big student loan balance. It's not the same thing as credit card debt. Claiming bankruptcy is not the way to go...you'll damage your credit much more than having a big student loan balance. Please note I'm not a financial advisor, this is just my general understanding.

I say pay off as much as you can as frequently as you can. Further deferrals and bankruptcy are going to hurt more than it's worth.

[Nikia]

27. If you are poor and proove it you can pay less

I don't remember the details, but if you are poor you can send proof of income and your payments will be no more than 20% of your income. If you make every payment of your reduced payment and still don't have it paid after 20 years then you'll be done paying it no matter how much remains. Mine was a subsidized loan so I don't know if that makes a difference. I've been out of school for three years now and have been making a lot of progress on mine. I know that it will take a little while, but just think at least it isn't a car loan or something else expensive that is depreciating in value. You'll always have your degree.

[blondeatlast]

28. I know for a FACT that bankruptcy does not discharge

a student loan. Don't waste your time with that.

Medical bills did it for me; sorry, I'll keep the details to myself.

[southerngirlwriter]

32. ....only under one condition, it does....

....if you've been paying on them faithfully for 7 years.

[smirkymonkey]

29. Thank you so much to everybody!!

and best of luck to everyone else in the same situation!

Maybe I need to have my attitude changed - I always think of it in these terms: I have $90,000 to go just to get to zero!! How will I ever save for retirement? I only have about 30 more years! Ugh!

I do want to do the right thing, but it pisses me off that it's going to our f**ed gubment :grr:

[amazona]

30. go to nolo.com

They have a book on getting your student loan forgiven.

But...it is very difficult to qualify.

Good luck to you.

[smirkymonkey]

31. Thanks, nolo has helped

me out w/ other things...I think they have books as well.