Student Loan Default

I need advice before I sign anything. Just found out my 20 year old student loan has been in default since I started making $50 payments more than 20 years ago. Unfortunately, I don't have that in writing. Now it's with allied interstate - wages are about to be garnished/IRS refund garnished. My original $13000 loan, of which I've already paid over $14000, now has over $24000 owed. First step should be? Any way to fight this? Thanks.

Do you know who the OC is, for this loan? I mean, who did you have this with? Maybe you can call the place where you had the loan started and explain your issue/situation. I've dealt with this too. I had a Student Loan in default, at one time. I did alot of paperwork and 'my homework' and got the loan back into a 'good status'. It is difficult to do, I will tell ya. Also......legally, the IRS can take the loan out of Refunds, etc. that are 'due' to you. Please give me an update. Thanks.

...also, I wanna add, if you are married ( don't know if you are OR you can give this advice to someone you know), you and your spouse can file seperate tax returns...'Married Filing Seperately'. This way the default will not 'affect' him. Hope this helps a bit.

Your $50 payment is not even covering your interest. By my calculations you are accruing about $150 per month in interest charges alone. To rehab you would need to make payments of approximately $240 per month or be able to come to some agreement on reasonable and affordable. However, neither the DOE or Allied will consider $50 as reasonable for that size of debt.

If they have sent you the wage garnishment notice, make sure you return it ASAP or they will garnish 15% of your disposable wages.

See what you can do to make arrangements. Most places are pretty good about 'working' with you....bringing your loan out of default, that is. Please let 'us' know an update. Hope you can get this taken care of.

My wife and filed for bankruptcy in 2004 and due to the situation our lawyer recommended including the remaining balance of my wife's student loan. Not fully understanding the situation, when we received our discharge and the Federal Student Loan was on there we "assumed" (yes, I know what that means - now) that they were discharged.
Now, 5 years later, our tax return was withheld. The instant this happened, I sent a letter asking what was going on. Now, over 3 months later, we received a letter from them stating that it was our fault for believing we were discharged.
My wife has been on the phone with GC Services for a week, in which they quoted bible scripture at her (since we volunteer at our local church), led her to believe they would send her to prison (which we know is false), and threatened to garnish wages that don't exist and go after me!
We offered to send them $100.00 and they refused, stating that they would only take money out of our account and it could only be $294.00.
Is there anyone we can go to for help?

You should contact the Dept. of Education Ombudsmans office at 1-877-557-2575.

If you need help consolidating the defaulted loans, a company called Default Management Services can help you.

You shouldnt need to go thru any outside company, especially one that will charge you money.

Use the Ombudsman...that is what he is there for if necessary.

that is a tough spot, did you file the BK yourself? Any BK lawyer would should have told you that no student loans can be discharged under any normal circumstance.

There is probably little you can do until you get out of default. I would pays for awhile and then try to renegotiate.

The main thing is to get out of any negative status

When you file a bankruptcy, all debts, dischargeable or not, have to be listed on the matrix.

Best suggestion is to contsolidate the loan with Direct Loans. You cannot do anything to renegotiate the terms.

I have had a student loan for over 25yrs..paying on and off irs have taken my income tax refund every year since i received the loan. The money i pay isn't enough to cover the interest. I didnt hear it all but on the news there was something about getting help with students loans 20yrs old or older. Do you know anything about that.

What they are talking about is loan cancellation for borrowers in current standing who have been in repayment....loans will now be cancelled after 20 years instead of the previous 25.

Since you are in default, this doesnt not apply to you.