College is expensive but there may be a way of getting out of paying for it or at least make the payment more manageable—if you qualify.
People who work in public service are eligible for loan forgiveness after making 120 qualifying payments for 10 years.
Some professions include teachers, nurses, librarians, even some utility workers. Check here for a full list of requirements.
Another loan forgiveness program is for students of colleges that either closed or were found to have misled students about job placement rates and other claims. But getting approved is getting tougher. According to several reports, none of the 15,000 loan forgiveness applications submitted from January to the present have been approved by the US Department of Education. There’s no clear reason for the delay. Still in order to begin the process students need to apply. If you’re one of the thousands waiting for approval apply for a forbearance and start calling your representatives.
If you need to lower payments Christine DiGangi withMagnifymoney.comsays to talk to your loan servicer first. Find out how to apply for a hardship or income based repayment plan. In some cases, you can take out a federal consolidation loan or refinance with a private lender. But going private mean you’ll lose the more flexible repayment benefits that come with government backed loans.
And if you are a parent with a PLUS loan, you can delay payments with a deferment but interest still accrues.
Whatever you do, don’t ignore it. The loans rarely go away in bankruptcy and can cause a lot of damage to your credit rating if they are in default.
We had an in depth discussion with even more information during our livestream on the Let Joe Know Facebook Page
