Very old student loan lapse

[Vijoge]

Is your friend employed? What kind of work does she do and how much does she make?

 

[robinb]

I do have sympathy, but why in the heck was she still paying back student loans over 25 years after graduation?

I don't think she has a snowball's chance in hell to discharge this debt. She needs to face the music and contact whoever holds her loans and arrange a payment schedule.

 

[Vijoge]

I do have sympathy, but why in the heck was she still paying back student loans over 25 years after graduation?

I don't think she has a snowball's chance in hell to discharge this debt. She needs to face the music and contact whoever holds her loans and arrange a payment schedule.

Good point, but I'm confused. The lady in question is 57. She hasn't paid her student loan since 2010. Did she finish school at 22 (35 years ago) or did she go to school later in life?

 

[Purrrrfecta]

Thanks for the link I'll share it with her.

It seems they are on public assistance for food and medical care - I believe she gets support from public assistance for food and medical care so I think they'll be able to qualify for anything that requires proof of need

My friend was in the same situation. He said all she has to do is call the Department of Education and explain financial situation. They will send her a form to fill out with her financial information, and she can negotiate a lump sum payment amount, or she can get back on a repayment plan. She better hurry before the rules change in the coming months since there is going to be a change in political administration.

This is the BEST time to be paying back loans. She better hurry.

 

[redsonja76]

We need more information. How much is the debt, when was it incurred, how behind is she, how much does she make, what other debts does she have? This can be fixed, it really can, but we need more info.

To everyone battling back and forth about college prices 30 years ago and how awesome you are for paying it off, not helping. Obviously this woman made poor choices, we aren't all perfect, but now she needs help, so we could, oh I don't know, HELP HER?

 

[LizzyS]

Ditto to the fact that she needs to face the music and get this sorted out ASAP. I don't understand people who don't take care of their business and simply ignore it as maybe it will go away on its own because it certainly won't.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I don't know too much about the details of the amount. she does not currently have a job but she's got a terrific personality and experience working with autistic population so with a little support she's heading for a job interview tomorrow at a local school district. these folks are not people who are living high on the hog. She is simple and they live a very meager hand to mouth lifestyle. I think that once they've lost the store she just drifted into a funk and stayed there for a good long while. I don't know where the notion of discharge came from because I don't think that that's the sort of thing she'd ever do even if she could, i'm just sort of trying to figure out who can help her navigate getting back on track

 

[SirDuff]

I don't know too much about the details of the amount. she does not currently have a job but she's got a terrific personality and experience working with autistic population so with a little support she's heading for a job interview tomorrow at a local school district. these folks are not people who are living high on the hog. She is simple and they live a very meager hand to mouth lifestyle. I think that once they've lost the store she just drifted into a funk and stayed there for a good long while. I don't know where the notion of discharge came from because I don't think that that's the sort of thing she'd ever do even if she could, i'm just sort of trying to figure out who can help her navigate getting back on track

I think that it came about from you asking about her defaulting on the loan.

so a good friend of mine, 57, went to college years ago and defaulted on her student loan when she and her husband lost all their money in a failed business venture. She's only married to this guy seven years and in that time she sold her house to live with him in his house and he talked her into putting all their money into a store. Now she's got one son in college and he is getting pretty reasonably taken care of due to their financial situation. However, the marriage is falling apart ( I think her husband is a ConMan the marriage fell apart as soon as the son's Social Security ran out when he turned 18 over the summer) and she is living in the house that her husband owned with his first wife Who passed away. So now she find herself in the unenviable position of trying to figure out the rest of her life. needless to say she's never going to be able to get a house or anything else unless she sorts out her credit. Has anyone else out there ever had a situation where you defaulted or know somebody that had to default on a student loan and how did it end up? I told her she's got to get on fixing it because it this point there's probably a ridiculous amount of fees that have been piled up against her since 2010. i'm thinking maybe a credit counseling agency but since the student loans or federal money maybe that won't work

 

[robinb]

I don't know too much about the details of the amount. she does not currently have a job but she's got a terrific personality and experience working with autistic population so with a little support she's heading for a job interview tomorrow at a local school district.

Good luck on her job interview tomorrow!

 

[kymom99]

See that, I can believe. I don't remember room and board costs, but I DO remember my tuition bills, since I paid them:

1981: $5800
1982: $6700
1983: $7200
1984: $8100

That's in line with what you're saying, just moving out a few years.

I also remember the regular loan was $2500/year, then a secondary loan was $1500/year. Private loans were also available at that time--I remember getting mailings. The names have changed through the years.

Of course, if this woman also took out graduate school loans, she could have borrowed much, much more. Also, some types of loans begin accruing interest from the loan origination date, rather than deferring until graduation. So, that's potentially 4 more years of interest.

If she had all that education, how on earth would she be in this financial situation?

 

[QueenIsabella]

If she had all that education, how on earth would she be in this financial situation?

Well, I'm not the OP. My degree is in electrical engineering--believe me, it was money well-invested for me! I know that not everyone's cut out for that path, but even at the tender age of 17, I knew that my loans needed to be paid back, and I needed a career that would support the level of borrowing I was undertaking.

I'm not a fan of discharging debts. You borrow, you pay it back. Then you can fund whatever lifestyle choices appeal to you.

 

[LuvOrlando]

No I get it now, default just means failure to pay. It does not mean you have no intention of every paying, but anytime you don't pay something back as soon as you miss a payment you're in default. Just because she missed some payments it doesn't mean she wanted to run away from the obligation.