11 Steps to Relief From Federal Student Loans

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In my experience, Sallie Mae sets up students TO fail by stating they are not qualified to have anything but the standard repayment rate UNLIKE the Feds, which give you at least five options to adjust to according your current circumstances and the Fed will work with you, Sallie Mae will not.

psych of AZ 2:01PM September 15, 2012

In my opinion, the schools and students are more to blame that the lenders. Everyone complains that they can't afford to pay back their student loans, but take a new loan year after year never giving a thought to how they will pay the loan back after school. A student loan isn't a grant, it a LOAN! Getting a degree should be viewed as an investment. When you calculate the future increase in earnings with and without a degree, most times it's a negative return and makes no sense to get the degree. Most university degrees are a collosal waste of money. Most would be better off in a vocational program or with no degree at all unless you pursue an advanced degree AND plan to use it.

Dave C. of UT 5:31PM August 29, 2012

We are not trying to be un responsible and not pay what we owe, or trying to get out of it, but the gov. needs to be fiar to every body not just the big companies that he gave money to and they just spent it soooooo unwisely. Why cant we get that kind of help?? Come on these are people that are trying to better them selfs and the future of the country, Please help us!!!

Diana.G. of TX 12:06AM May 09, 2012

I have $900.00 that I will have to start paying in november!! how am I going to do that? I have other bills to pay. there are 3 at around almost $400.00 each and salie mea wont lower the payment because they are fed loans and then some because they are parent plus loans. I cry every time I think about it I am so sad, I did not know the payments would be so high!! HELP!!! WHAT CAN I DO??? I WICH THE GOV. WOULD STOP AND THINK WHAT THEY ARE DOING TO THESE STUDENTS AND WHY DOES EDUCATION HAVE TO BE SO COSTLY? AND SO MANY YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE TO DEAL WITH SUCH A BURDEN?? PLEASE HELP US SOME BODY!!

DG of TX 12:01AM May 09, 2012

It has been revealed that most of the "Ombudsmen" are actually employees of the lenders.

NL of OR 3:49AM May 18, 2010

I have massive students loans that are being serviced by the DOE and they do not allow borrowers to prepay on the principal balance of their loans. It is either double up on payments or payoff the balance entirely, there is no middle ground. This really needs to be changed so that responsible borrowers can pay down their debt more quickly.

SM of MA 3:30PM May 14, 2010

It's a shame this is something that needs discussing. We want all the educated young people we can possibly muster since so many jobs these days require a college degree. The solution isn't to offer discouragement, it's to offer federal loans at low, preferably no interest rates and with generous payback time frames, ten or more years if necessary and with a percentage of wages the way payments are designed.
The fact that we've been hiring abroad to fill jobs requiring college-level training is really all we have to know. We should prefer home-grown people as the first choice and should design loan programs that will encourage, not discourage our young. While saying that we all ought to be individually responsible sounds good and works for some, it obviously doesn't work for all or there wouldn't be the kinds of default problems we're in fact encountering. (Individual responsibility, remember, was the way things were in the Middle Ages and Victorian England, just to name two times tried with collosal failure the outcome, not to mention that all the wealth ended up in the hands of the few, all the risk in the hands of the many.)
We need to go back to the times of National Defense Education Act loans and mimic the particulars. They worked for hundreds of thousands then, they can again today.

Ron W. Smith of UT 3:09PM May 14, 2010

Here's another approach - simply create a budget and begin making payments on the money that you borrowed. While this may be a novel idea, it's what was done by millions of adults that came before today's borrowers.
In the old days, you were considered an adult when you reached the age of 18 - some consider it to be 21 - and the current administration in Washington recently raised it to 26. Incredible!

JR Gordon of FL 2:25PM May 14, 2010