If you have no student loans, please thank yourself, your parents or whoever paid for that expensive education for the wonderful and unique situation that you are in.

More than 70% of students leave school in debt and one of every seven borrowers falls behind within 3 years of graduating or dropping out.  One out of 8 borrowers are defaulting on their loans.  The average loan amount is $29,400.  Nationwide student debt totals $1.2 trillion.  About half of that debt isn’t being repaid.

Most loans are in either standard 10-year repayment programs or in extended programs, which stretch loan payments and interest over longer periods.  Only about 10% of borrowers are enrolled in an income-based repayment program.

A large number of people have not taken advantage of these income-based programs. These programs can help you with repayment of these loans.

If you are having trouble making your loan payments or have fallen behind with your loan payments or have quit paying at all on your student loans, you should find some help.  These loans are not going away doing nothing.

There are programs that allow you to pay 10% of your discretionary income each month as a loan payment and then loans are forgiven after 20 years if you work in the for-profit sector.   The loans are forgiven after 10 years if you work for a non-profit or federal, state or local governments.

If you are having difficulty finding help, you can contact student.ed.gov that provides you with information about these programs.

If you have loans from the bank-based student loan program that ended in 2010, you are also eligible for income-based repayment plans.

If you are having problems getting answers you can contact the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to make a complaint.  If there are enough complaints about a lender, it will be investigated.

Financial comment:  If you are planning to borrow money to finance higher education, remember two rules of thumb:

1. Borrow no more money than you can pay off in 10 years
2. Borrow no more than what you expect to earn when you achieve your degree.

Kowalczyk comment:  Blogging in Key West is a joy.