What to do if you don’t know who to believe about your student loan options.

I’m still seeing a ton of misinformation out there.  A perfect example of this is someone who consulted with us yesterday and granted us permission to tell her story to hep others.

First, this client, we’ll call her Debbie, is a retired teacher who had $73,000 in Parent Plus loans.  She was told two different (what I can only say were lies at this point).  First, her servicer told her that if she didn’t pay her Parent Plus loans, her son would be responsible for them.  Not true.

Second, even though she was a teacher, she was told that she would not qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.  While this may have been technically true under her former loan types, the servicer conveniently omitted the fact she could consolidate and apply for ICR in order to qualify for PSLF.  Omissions are usually seen as another form of a lie.  The borrower is left with the false impression that nothing can be done and they are stuck.  Keep in mind that the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program was created specifically to encourage people to obtain degrees, often expensive Masters’ degrees, and go into the lower paid education field.

I provided Debbie’s with published legal resources showing her the falsity of both statements.

So the moral of the story:  reach out to see a student loan attorney who represents you, who is knowledgeable in this very specific and convoluted area and will tell you the truth.  Don’t count on anything else.  Our nominal charge for a consultation – we also offer a guarantee – is money well spent!

The kicker in this case, Debbie received a severance check when she retired.  She put the entire thing into paying down her Parent Plus loan.  I could have saved her that $22,000 and she could have used that for retirement as she’s 66 years old now.