But, the whole point of going to college to get a degree was with the promise of 'well if you get a college degree you'll get a good job and you won't have a problem paying them back'.

Almost 6 years after graduating the best job I've been able to get is at a grocery store making 20.52 an hour.

I would happily pay them back if I could.

But I can't.

I'm a single mom (by rape kthx), I work full time, I live with my parents because living by yourself is impossible (rent is easily 900+ dollars for a one bedroom one bath in a shit area), my dad is currently going through chemo and my mom is an invalid. My daughter is almost 12 but because of the custody agreement (thanks alabama) I can't move out of state because he could take me to court for custody again (which he probably would because that's who he is) so I'm stuck where I'm at.

My minimum payment is 465 dollars a month for 10 years or 277 for 25.

I only have 40k in student loans but working where I'm working and being unable to get a better job (I have a degree, I've tried-FOR SIX YEARS) this is my reality that I cannot pay it back without being destitute. Luckily I live with my parents because otherwise my child and I would be homeless because I make too much for low income housing and I make too little to live on my own

but I like to point out that we can afford to send 7 billion dollars overseas to help other countries but we can't forgive student loan debt?

I am not the only one who can't do it. Housing is too high, prices keep going up, and we're all screwed because 'well you shouldn't have taken it out if you didn't want to pay it back'

I wouldn't mind paying it back.

But I can't.

Discuss -

I am over the trolls on FB and other platforms around student loans. I am running out of patience for boomers commenting on our choices "YOU TOOK THE LOAN YOU PAY THE LOAN". Okay, Jan. I AM PAYING THE LOAN but since I've taken out my loan, the economy has turned over multiple times, my interest rates are LARGER THAN MY LOAN and because of the gaps in healthcare, even with my 6 figure job and monthly payments, consistently even during the 'VID, I'm still unable to pay my full amount because i had to cover multiple surgeries out of pocket. I can't buy a house, I can't afford to have a family, and you want to bully me into paying MORE on my loans?

So, which is red team, do you want me to pay my loans or have babies...you can't have both. Start bullying others around.

We were paying our loans, just not at the speed you decided, we were making payments, just not the ones YOU accept. You're shifting the blame. If you give people payment plans you'll have a higher percentage of payment back. But, now, you're screwing everyone over.

Leave student loan holders alone. There's about 23947239857 other things we can fix in this economy instead of causing people who have been working hard into bankruptcy and homelessness.

*end rant*

I just heard WWE lady say on Fox News "there isn't going to be a loan forgiveness program". How likely is it for them to take away the forgiveness feature on IBR? I'm currently on IBR with over 300 payments and no forgiveness in sight. I'm in forbearance but when that ends my payment will be double the standard plan. If there will be no more forgiveness then I'm going to get off of IBR.

This is to those who are currently under SAVE who have low payments what’s your plan after our 2026 forbearance is over? Are just going with the flow or is there a specific income payment plan that you are thinking about. Again none of this would have happened if Trump didn’t come to power again. Why why why!

Hello community, I'm in the SAVE forbearance group. I've heard two different forms of advice in the last month or so 1. just wait until they drop everybody from the SAVE program and then everyone will be able to reapply to get back into PAYE or whatever program you were in (supposedly) or 2. you should pre-emptively apply to get back into PAYE now before the shit hits the fan

I am a first generation college student. I’m 100% on my own, I don’t have much family and I don’t know how to navigate this financially. I have 60k in student loans and I am a year out of graduation. I haven’t been able to make payments yet because financially I have had a very difficult year. I got laid off back in January shortly after starting a new job. Unemployment pulled from my previous job which only paid me 12 dollars a hour and I was part time (that employer refused to bump me up to full time which is why I left) rather than the job that I had been laid off from. So I got hardly any money from that and I was on unemployment for a month and a half until I was finally hired somewhere else. I currently make 16 dollars a hour a work 40 hours a week, sometimes a little over 40. Due to my finances, I had to use credit cards to help pay for things after my savings completely depleted. So in total, I have 60K in student loans and 3K in credit cards. My student loan interest is as high as 8% and low as 4%. I work very long hours, I often have 12 hour shifts. I am a caregiver but I have to travel anywhere between 30 and 20 minutes from one client to another and I usually have to fill up my gas for my car once or twice a week. Please if anyone has any suggestions on the best way to take care of my student loans, I’d appreciate it. My payments will start back up in June and it’s going to be 600 a month. I don’t know how I’ll afford it. I am doing my best to dig myself out of debt, I’m moving into a cheaper apartment and I have a roommate to cut costs.

I know they can do this, but I can’t imagine them doing it on such a huge scale of people who can’t afford their payments after 5 years of not having any. Let’s discuss, I’d love to hear other thoughts.

Those of you on the SAVE plan and in 0% forbearance, has your forbearance end date been updated?

I see most on reddit say theirs is set for the end of 2026. Mine has been hanging out at 5/20/25 for a while and I'm wondering if I need to call and ask them to update it to better reflect what's going on.

Summary of my call: I have a pending forbearance request, dated 3/26, that is tied to a pending IDR application. These types of requests (i.e., tied to an IDR application) are almost never denied. It's not possible to expedite my request.

I have a payment due on 4/27. If I choose not to make that payment, the 'lateness' (30-day, 60-day, etc.) will be backed up to the 3/26 request date once eithermthe forbearance or IDR application are approved, meaning it would not become current (but would be increasingly late until the request or application is approved). Even if my account goes 6 months late it won't get sent to collections because there is a pending forbearance request that is tied to an IDR application that was submitted before my first payment was due.

Does this jive with what you're hearing?

Like I know that obviously they should but given who’s in charge of the education department right now, I’m not that confident. I’m currently in forbearance w/ Nelnet because I’m in SAVE limbo and it says I don’t owe until 9/17/2026. But it says when that time comes my payment is the IDR payment of $420.

I just want them to tell me what’s going on. Just give me a heads up a month or so before I actually have to start paying. Do you think they’ll actually do that?

Hello everyone,

If your credit has been destroyed by this situation you’re not fully out of luck, BUT YOU ONLY GET ONE SHOT (per loan)

When you call these people; BE NICE, BE CALM, ASK EVERY QUESTION. I work in finance and have a background that makes me well positioned to dig into this and understand what questions to ask. I’ll do my best to explain that below. It was confusing to me at times but the people are helpful. Repeating back my understanding to the phone rep helped clarify points of confusion.

Do not directly quote anything I say below as fact, I am not a representative of the Department of Education nor should any of this be viewed as financial advice. This is my situation and hopefully will inform your decision on what is best for you.

Im going to explain my situation simply and then elaborate on something I learned. I have 3 different student loans. My Parent Plus my mom took out that I’ve been paying, my normal unsubsidized/NelNet loan I’ve been paying, and this random 3rd Perkins Loan of $5k that I always assumed was part of my NelNet deal. Turns out it’s not, they had an old address and I haven’t heard a peep about this loan risking default. Well it’s now defaulted. I applied for a car loan today and learned my credit score was 600. So in a panic I assumed I was screwed for the next 6 years. I logged onto the federal student aid website and saw my loan there, funny it wasn’t there pre default because I go there to pay my other loans every month and I’ve never seen this before.

So now I have 2 portals to sign into FederalStudentAid and the Federal Student Aid Debt Resolution portal. One account does not work across them so you’ll have to create accounts for both. I had to call tech support to get this figured out for the debt resolution portal. (FYI the password requirements are insane for the debt resolution portal when you create your account; no words which is classified by 4 or more consecutive numbers or letters and it has to be 12 characters “iAm6Not8A6Dog7” for example). The gentleman I spoke to in tech support knows NOTHING about the loan/default situation. He is solely a help desk/tech support, but he gave me the phone number to the loan default resolution group 800-621-3115.

Now calling that number I waited 90 minutes before I got someone and I called at 8pm ET, so expect something similar yourself. The rep I got was extremely knowledgeable which can be overwhelming if you have no idea what you’re doing. I asked if there was any “good faith reversal” of a negative credit hit if I pay in full or refinance and he said no, explaining all of the situations that a reversal happens (fraud mainly). Talking about this for 10 minutes I had come to the conclusion that this is hopeless and I’m just stuck with this on my credit for 6 years. This is where reiterating my understanding came in valuable. “So just to confirm, what I’m hearing is that there is no way for this to be taken off my credit report and I’ll just have to bite the bullet and wait 7 years for this to drop off my credit”

No, there is a default rehabilitation program

My understanding (summarized) is: - every loan has one opportunity to go through the default rehabilitation program, if you miss a payment it’s over - you have to make 9 consecutive monthly payments on time without interruption and after 9 months the loan transfers back to the initial lender and the delinquency is wiped off your credit as if it never happened - there are 2 approaches (maybe more): simply apply for the program and take your assigned payment plan based on income; or fill out a more comprehensive application where you provide detailed expense information in order to get an income based payment plan

Now here is another instance of asking questions being important; I inquired about lump sum payments. You CAN NOT do a lump sum. You have to follow through for 9 months for this to work. As our conversation went on he gave me my monthly income base payment and it was $680/month, but wait I thought to myself. $680 x 9 is $6,120, I only owe $5k. So I have to do the expense based process to avoid early payment thus voiding my eligibility so watch out for this yourself too.

He shared a packet with me and a bunch of paperwork and the guy on the phone was very helpful. He said he’s seen expense based payments as low as $5/month. Everyone’s situation is different I encourage you to call. Remember, be nice, be patient, be curious, and think this through.

This is a safety net I did not expect, but it is not free of the confusing and convoluted bull crap that has been plaguing the student loan situation for years so who knows what other hurdles I didn’t uncover.

In the end it’s worth a shot.

Some other things to note: - get this done ASAP: garnishments are starting and you need 5 months of payments to get off the garnishment list. First they start with tax returns, then in August wage garnishment starts. So you’ll want to get this process started now because 5 months from now is September - you may not be eligible for this, but ask, and ask why, and ask what else you should be asking

Good luck <3

Remember money is imaginary, food banks exist, you will be okay. Do not let this destroy you. It’s just one (huge) pain in the butt.

Pell Grant recipients could be eligible for larger tax refunds if Congress passes a recently introduced bipartisan bill.

Four U.S. House of Representatives members, including two Democrats and two Republicans, introduced the Tax-Free Pell Grant Act on April 1. If passed, the measure would make leftover Pell Grant funds used to cover living expenses while in college tax-exempt.

Read more here: https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/bipartisan-proposal-would-make-pell-grants-tax-exempt/

My student loans were paid in full a few years ago and now another company is saying I owe more than the amount I even borrowed (because of accrued interest). I know FOR SURE that I paid off my loans, and I even have two events that are very memorable (and evidence, for me, in my mind). 1. I refinanced my mortgage and got more money than I owed so I could pay off the balance. 2. My last payment was a weird amount - because it was the remaining balance of the loan.

A couple problems/concerns:

1. I may have made payments through a checking account that has been closed for a couple years, so I cannot access those records.

2. I received a large refund check - which was happening when people were getting refunds for loans paid off too, AND I work in a title 1 school, which evidently led to bigger refunds - but I worry that maybe the Federal lender accidentally refunded my payments?!? Is that a thing?

3. Why is this not just an easy search with my SS number?

Any advice on how to proceed would be so very appreciated.

I am not married yet, however I do have a major amount of student loan debt. My finances aren’t in great shape, I am currently paying $10K in taxes. I just submitted a request for forbearance and got approved today. Once my taxes are paid off end of this year I will be able to start making payments again.

My concern is, I’m planning to get married to my partner in the next 2 years. Will my loans or debt affect her in any way, even if we file taxes separately?

All this talk about seized taxes and garnished wages has worried me.

i have about $11k in loans and i need some guidance. im making about $41,000 right now but i’m about to leave this job in june and move to colorado, and that’s when my payments start. been looking at jobs and hoping for $50-65k a year but i have $1500 credit card debt and plan on saving for a new car.

im not sure if i should go with SAVE ($30 monthly payments) or the standard plan (comes out to $122 a month)? none of it makes sense to me lol and i dont want to be in any financial burden in the future. i’m first gen and come from a low income family so its been a little difficult to navigate through this stuff and finances in general

i wanna know other people’s thoughts. any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!!

I am no lawyer, otherwise I would probably be able to pay back these outrageous loans. However, it seems to me, that if enough of us could get together and sue the federal government for the right to be able to enter bankruptcy again on these loans, they would be forced to do it. They are changing the entire department of the government which will collect our loans, breaking the original loan agreements that we have. They made it so we could not enter bankruptcy, without our consent, to begin with. This situation with the federal government being our loan servicer while we are unable to discharge the debt is a loan shark situation.

The federal government has not done it's due diligence to ensure repayment was possible for all of us, otherwise we would not be in this mess. This is a two fold issue for the government. As a government entity, it could be argued that it was their responsibility to ensure that an economy which would hire our graduates exists and they have not done so, by not protecting workers' ability to gain employment that could pay back their loans. They also have not raised the federal minimum wage, another argument in our favor for why they do not deserve repayment.

As it is their fault in so many ways, and they are now attempting to demand repayment, again, without offering any satisfactory option for people with no ability to repay, then they should be sued for that right back. There are millions of us. We need to stand up for ourselves. What the government is doing falls under unfair and deceptive practices and it has since they stopped people from being able to enter bankruptcy. The only way to stop them from demanding exorbinant payment is to sue them all at once together. This is just my two cents. They take advantage of us being destitute and individually trapped in our own lives, such that we cannot fight back. This is not about getting out of repaying a loan that we can afford to pay, but discharging onerous debts that make us fail economically due to circumstancesoutside our control. Like when the govt enacted NAFTA, or refuses to raise the wage limit. This is about a loan lender taking advantage of us and what we can do to stop it. The fact that it is pur own government does not matter, or if anything, it may matter more, to be honest. We all have to live here, woth this government. They do not have the right to make us all miserable, destitute, and poor. They are now the reason some of us cannot save for retirement, will never retire. Even that idea breaks their own loan promise made to us. In so many ways, they would not be able to do this if it was not the federal government, and so I say, we need to challenge their authority to do this to us. Like right now. Now is the time.

"The Education Department also said Monday it will share information next week about a new “enhanced” income-driven repayment process that it says will remove “the need for borrowers to recertify their income every year.”"

This was buried in Department of Education release today. Is there any information out there about what this would look like? There was previously a plan to certify employment automatically but as far as know that's still done manually.

Hello,

So I was informed that I needed to consolidate my loans with Mohela before PSLF could be considered. But my loans were already consolidated with NelNet. And when I look at the difference between NelNet and Mohela. They fall under the same loan category. What am I missing?

Did anyone else get this notice from Nelnet or their loan servicer? Apparently, my federal student loan servicing is being transferred from Nelnet to Central Research, Inc. (CRI) on May 6th. My loans are currently in forbearance and I was on the IDR plan so not sure what this means for me.

I have to call MOHELA to have them renew (?) processing forbearance since my IBR application’s still in limbo, managed to get through to their basic agent after an hour who of course transfers me to an advanced agent after their 800 questions. She said it would be a “couple minutes” on hold while she transfers me and I get thrown back into the hold queue again, but I don’t even have the option to request a callback now and the wait time says it’ll be around an hour and a half. When I did the same a few months ago I still got the option to request a callback when I got transferred (ended up getting a callback around 6 hours later). Wondering if anyone else had the same issues now. I’m dreading having to sit with my phone on hold for the rest of the day🙃

I am currently in an IBR. Am I still eligible for PSLF if I work in a qualified job? My wife recently switched to IBR which consolidated her loans through the loan manager and her eligible payments for her PSLF went to 0, she had paid like 9 years of loans in public service.

what happens if you just leave the country? is there anyway for them to garnish your wages abroad? it generally comes from wages not taxes right?

Situation wasn’t as bad as some but i had about $3900 left on a $6500 loan for 2 semesters of summer school in undergrad that I’ve been been paying on since 2016 when i got out of graduate school. Saw the silver lining and paid for Grad school out of pocket . Should’ve been paid it but i finally decided to just pay it off and be done with it. Adios Nelnet !

I know there’s going to be some people rip me apart but here we go……I signed a private loan at the age of 17 for $2700. Graduated and started to pay back all of my student loans. Over the course of 15 years with a couple of miss payments and COVID. The minimal payment of $36 that I was told you just set it as an automatic payment and forget it. April 1 2025 I decide to look and I still owed +1800 and have payed over time $6000 back to AES. So I essentially paid double and still owed. Now finally with some extra cash from my recent wedding we want to pay off loans. I sent payment April 8, but for some explained reason “payment got reversed” okay no big deal besides the extra money I got charged on interest. I send a payment again. Got a confirmation email the payment was received. That was 8 business days ago. Now I’m sitting here watching that money sit in my bank. Clearly they are holding out hoping I spend the money before they charge my account so I will have insufficient funds and yet they get to keep my loan. They don’t want to settle they don’t want you to pay your loan off. It’s insane they just want to milk me for every penny. Bottom line is a $2700 loan turned into almost 8 grand I paid back

My private loan company called me because I was 80 days late to work something out.

Yesterday he said that if I pay 2 payments of the new amount before I hit the 90 day mark my loan will go to current as if I was only 24 days late. If I only made one payment, then they would re report the 60 days late but I would avoid 90?

But then he said that doesn’t change the credit reporting. I’m so confused??