Student Loan - Loans and Debt Consolidation

WHAT TO DO IF YOU CAN T PAY YOUR STUDENT LOANS

If you graduated college last spring, chances are over the winter holidays the government delivered a nice present to your door: your first student loan bill.

According to the Project on Student Debt, college seniors who graduated in 2010 with student loans owed an average of $25,250 the highest level ever recorded and 2011 debt totals are predicted to be even higher. Additionally, those debt-carrying graduates also faced an impossibly tough job market, as unemployment for new college graduates hovered around 9% for most of the year. All of this means there are likely many more people this year feeling stressed out about student loans and overwhelmed by debt or just plain broke than at any other time in recent memory. If you re one of them, here are five things you should know.

1. Yes, You Have to Pay The first, and perhaps most important thing to know is, yes, you have to pay. This might seem like an obvious point, but according to FinAid.org as many as one-fourth to one-third of borrowers are late or delinquent on their very first payment. And further, the current estimated number of borrowers in default those who haven t paid on their loans for nine months is about 4 million out of 36 million borrowers in repayment. Don t be one of them. As Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org and Fastweb.com says, The government has very strong powers to compel repayment.

The federal muscle includes garnishing wages up to 15% intercepting your tax refunds and, if...[more]