Can’t Pay Your Student Loan?

With one of the bleakest job markets in decades has translated into quite the challenge in landing a job in the adult world for about 1 in 6 graduating college seniors.  Even those who do manage to score a job have to cope with low starting wages.  This only adds pressure to those who graduate under the weight of a mountain of student loan debt.

Student Loan Repayment Options

By law, students are given a six-month grace period after graduating or leaving school before they must begin paying student debt.  Once upon time, when the average length of a job hunt was three to four months, this was a generous window.  However, with job hunting increasingly creeping into the six to nine month range, it’s no longer adequate time for one to get on one’s feet.  Once one does secure a job, the beginning salary is typically not enough to accommodate payments that range from several hundred dollars to well over a thousand.  More and more former students are finding themselves looking for other options and want to know about bankruptcy.

Unfortunately, at this time, bankruptcy is not an option for eliminating student loan debt or even simply getting it under control.  Student loans are guaranteed loans because they must be paid back.  However, student loans are now centrally-managed by the federal government.  What this means is that student loans can be consolidated to make managing payments easier.  Student loans can also be deferred or placed into forbearance under certain situations such as financial hardship or unemployment.  If one is looking for answers to student loan debt, it’s best to contact either your guarantor or studentloans.gov.