Saturday, August 9, 2008

Student Loan Default - Pay up or Else.

By Judith Rene


Defaulted student loans can be devastating to your credit as well as your current budget. Government income tax refunds can stop and you may acquire wage attachments if you fail to take your student loan seriously and default on it.

Defaulting on your student loan is avoidable if you jus do a few simple things. Before you do anything you will regret, make sure that you keep in contact with your lender.

You may find it nearly impossible to go default if you immediately contact your lending institution once you face serious financial problems. I had a difficult time making my monthly payments for my college debts I had accumulated over the years.

It was a strange situation; one of my close friends even thought it was amusing because he had this vision about them the finance company trying to repossess my schooling. This really isn't the right way to deal with the situation and is often the reason students default on their loans.

There isn't usually a problem if you get in touch with your lender. In retrospect, telling the finance company and obtaining a deferment was the easiest part of it all. A representative from the company explained carefully how the deferment process worked and what would happen until I was able to commence payments again.

I couldn't believe how quickly it was all arranged, the debt was frozen and I would only start payments again when things had improved for me. I had other obligations which would not be so readily dealt with so it was so helpful when my student loan provider was so accommodating. I managed to avoid a defaulted student loan but I knew that many of my other creditors would not be so helpful.

Although a deferment is a useful facility, interest is still being added on whilst the loan is suspended which means in the long term you will pay more. Keeping my financial record clean of a defaulted student was more important than the extra amount I would pay. In many cases it is possible to make small partial payments to the lender.

Don't forget though that interest is still adding to your loan whilst the suspension is on and it will cost you more in the long run. It is worth checking with you bank to see if they will agree to accept interest only payments on a loan for a temporary period. The fact that the loan will not shrink during this time is a small price to pay to avoid a defaulted student loan.

One thing to remember about these debts is that many students applying for college depend on this kind of financial support. If the percentage of student loan defaulters gets too high then it will affect how much money is available for people who need financial assistance. Your debt doesn't have to be a burden that threatens to over whelm you if you just stay in contact with your lender.

It is not hard to avoid an adverse credit record by making payment adjustments or deferring the loan for a period of time. This sort of action has other benefits in that the money available for new students is less likely to dry up.

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