Web Wealth: Repaying college loans
College students run up an average debt of about $20,000 over four years. Paying it back isn't easy. Look at these sites for tips on reworking loan terms, or recovering from a loan default.
College students run up an average debt of about $20,000 over four years. Paying it back isn't easy. Look at these sites for tips on reworking loan terms, or recovering from a loan default.
Digging out. Here is advice for the "young and burdened" published by the Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine. Digging out of student debt may mean cutting a deal with lenders, consulting government plans for extending or reducing payments, or requesting debt cancellation, which is available for graduates who enter public service jobs.
http://go.philly.com/payloans1
Understanding loans. As of July, federally backed student loans are no longer available through banks and other private institutions, such as Sallie Mae. Instead, they all come through the U.S. Department of Education. Here's the department's page that explains how the program works, how to apply for aid, the different grace periods before you have to start repaying loans, and how to afford repayments.
More specifics on repayment are here:
http://go.philly.com/payloans2
Sallie may not. The company that identifies itself here as "Sallie Mae (NYSE: SLM), commonly known as Sallie Mae," used to be an intermediary for federal student loans, but no more. Congress and the Obama administration put a stop to that. Still, Sallie makes private education loans (usually more costly than the federally backed variety), and has information on how to sort out the varieties of loans available.
http://go.philly.com/payloans3
Faults with defaults. Failure to repay a student loan puts you in the technical category known as deep do-do. Finding your way out can be tricky. The Education Department provides some guidance here on how to recover and reestablish regular payments.
http://go.philly.com/payloans4
Option bankruptcy? If you're counting on bankruptcy to help you out of paying student loans, count again. Student loans can't be included in any of the "chapters" available for bankruptcy filers. Relief can only be sought in special petitions to a bankruptcy judge. The National Consumer Law Center details what you'd need to tell Yerhonor.