They can try for outright Forgiveness, but its unlikely. They made it harder to do that. They can garnish wages. If your friend is low income or can't afford their payments, they should get on one of the Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Plans immediately and that'll get them on a lower (maybe even zero) payment plan. And if they can get on the zero payments (usually through IBR) then can they run out the clock like I'm trying to do and their loans will be forgiven after 20 or 25 years. lol.
this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2025
21 points (100.0% liked)
chat
8584 readers
142 users here now
Chat is a text only community for casual conversation, please keep shitposting to the absolute minimum. This is intended to be a separate space from c/chapotraphouse or the daily megathread. Chat does this by being a long-form community where topics will remain from day to day unlike the megathread, and it is distinct from c/chapotraphouse in that we ask you to engage in this community in a genuine way. Please keep shitposting, bits, and irony to a minimum.
As with all communities posts need to abide by the code of conduct, additionally moderators will remove any posts or comments deemed to be inappropriate.
Thank you and happy chatting!
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
If you request a forbearance, you can delay payments for up to a year at a time, depending on the servicer. The catch is that interest still accrues during this time, so if your friend got screwed by the absurdly high Trump/Biden-era rates, this may come back to bite them. But it's something you can do while applying for forgiveness or otherwise setting up income-driven repayment. Or, if the rates were low enough, you can just keep requesting forbearance every time the last one expires. As long as you're in good standing, they generally don't give a shit.
The other caveat is that your friend will still have a fuckload of student loan debt sitting on their ~~social~~ credit report, and that definitely dings your score.
The debt itself doesn't matter much as long as it's current, which it will be if it's in forebearance
Pay them a bit, establish good credit. Take a personal loan to pay it off. Then decalare bankruptcy
Unless the regulations changed again, personal loans explicitly include a provision stating that you aren't allowed to do this.
They only make laws to ban stuff that helps you. Do it anyway
Incidentally, this one was one of Joe Biden's pet projects back in the 80s.
They need to go on their loan servicer's website and change their repayment plan to income based repayment. They will have to submit proof of low income, probably a tax return or a couple of pay stubs.
I think the new trump bill raised the minimum payment from 0 to 10 bucks a month.
There should be a customer service number on the bill they got that they can call, the agent will talk them through everything they need to do. Tell them not to worry the reason to get federal loans instead of private ones is precisely to have access to these protections
I guess it's best to pay, if possible to about avoid the hit to credit. Sounds like the loans haven't been sent to collections yet but if your friend doesn't pay then they default and they get sent to collections. It's not good to have on record like that, can impact even their future possibility of renting places. I hear they can garnish wages but never actually met anyone whose wages were garnished, just some had tax returns withheld. I don't know about forgiveness.
I'm not particularly confident in what I'm about to say.
I believe that there is a way to defer payment. Payment was paused for some time and is now required by default, but I believe there is a way to file for an exemption and they may qualify. If so, do this ASAP and pay in the meantime to avoid a credit hit. It's okay to pay the minimum while they wait for a result.
With loans it is generally a good idea to pay off whatever is highest interest first and as fast as you can afford to because those interest charges are just awful. It is not generally possible to discharge federal student loan debt thanks to legislation pushed by Biden decades ago for his finance buddies. There are some ways to do it but they take a long time and are pretty specific circumstances, like working a particular kind of job for 20 years. It is not a good plan to just hold the debt forever and not pay it. They'll just end up paying more overall. But it is okay to pay the minimum until it is possible to pay more.
There are also debt consolidation services that can essentially refinance student loans. This has fees but can still save money. Do very careful research to ensure that anyone you use to do this is highly reputable. Note that you usually need a good credit score and proof of income to secure refinancing.
Also sorry this is happening. Student debt is an evil grift.