A bankruptcy attorney colleague, Don Golden, has started a new Podcast, The Fresh Start for Life, and has graciously had me on as one of his first guests. Tune in to listen to our chat where we talk about options to pay off student loan debt. Links for Itunes, Spotify,…
I regularly ask for hardship letters from our clients in our student loan and other debt settlement cases. One of our clients began his letter “Dear Student Loan Sharks”…. I took that part out, but if you read his letter, you would be very saddened by what has happened to…
Our last client of the day yesterday had this to say: “Navient misled me by having me place my loans on forbearance and deferment rather than on an income driven plan, and also kept me on non-qualifying loans for loan forgiveness for public service. Had they guided me through this…
Debt is to be used sparingly. It allows you to make purchases which you cannot afford. In other words, debt allows people to live beyond their means or to spend more than they earn. While this may appear to be a good thing when an emergency arises, there are serious…
Many folks who have filed applications for Borrower Defense to Repayment seeking to discharge their federal student loans due to fraud by the school, are running into problems with their servicers sending bills that payments are now due — even though the application is still pending and the loans should…
It’s extremely important when consolidating federal loans that you do not add any Parent Plus loans to the consolidation of your own loans. It will taint the new loan and disallow many favorable options. Here’s an excellent example from a current client (Cecelia) who came to see us before she…
In a recent case, Harbin v. Roundpoint Mortgage Co., No. 18-11713 (11th Cir. Dec. 17, 2018), the Eleventh Circuit confronted a situation where a borrower applied for a loan modification and was told that the foreclosure sale was “temporarily postponed.” This borrower decided not to file bankruptcy to stop the…
Anyone with a federal HEAL student loan, should be aware that additional consequences can occur in the event of default. One of these consequences is exclusion from Medicare, Medicaid and all Federal health care programs pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1320a-7(b)(14) for failure to pay your Health Education Assistance Loan(s)…
On January 31, 2019, Judge Stong of the Eastern District of New York denied the Motion to Dismiss filed by SLM Corporation, Sallie Mae, Inc., Navient Solutions, LLC and Navient Credit Finance Corp. In this Memorandum Decision, the Court dealt a blow to the private student loan defendants when it permitted…
Discharge by disability is something that I don’t see enough borrowers take advantage of to eliminate student loan debt. Today, there was a story in the Wall Street Journal, “Over 60, and Crushed by Student Loan Debt” focusing on the large increase of borrowers over age 60 who have student…