I have federal loans from undergrad and I took out one last loan for grad school, around $20,000. Using inheritance money from my grandparents, my mother has been assisting with loan payments. I had dumbly assumed my grad school loans were also being paid off and I even logged in probably a year and a half ago to make sure payments were going through okay.
Since I graduated, I moved and also lost access to the original email that I first used for the FAFSA. I did have all of my mail forwarded to my new place. I thought everything was going well until my mother received a letter in the mail saying that I went into default on my grad school loans. This was the first time I am aware of that I have been (at least successfully) contacted about this.
While I understand now that I was being irresponsible with not updating my email and checking in on my loans more, I am also surprised that there was literally no other communication prior to this. I have been given the option to enter a loan rehabilitation plan with the dept of education, however I am wondering if this is my only option? I just can’t help but be frustrated that I never received any mail or any other form of contact prior to getting to this point. Do you think there is any chance of resolving this with the original loan servicer?
I screwed up with paying back loans, is there any way other way to resolve this?
byu/Mfeen inStudentLoans
Posted by Mfeen
3 Comments
> Using inheritance money from my grandparents, my mother has been assisting with loan payments
So they paid your undergrad loans but not your grad?
No. It is your responsibility to keep up with your loans and ensure that you have your information up to date. It is an accurate reporting that federal loan servicers are required by law to report. They are not allowed to do goodwill adjustments.
Ask to be put in a retroactive forbearance and do the rehab. You’ll need to make 9 on time payments to get the default removed from your credit report. The late payments will stay, and it’ll take about 2 years for your credit score to really recover.
Consider it an expensive lesson. Best of luck, genuinely.
Yeah, you can resolve it, by rehabilitating the loans.