Boston Student Loan Lawyer

So you might know at this point that direct loan consolidation is a great option for federal student loan borrowers. It can simplify the repayment process if you have many federal loans, can lead to lower interest rates and lower payments, and may be a tool for getting out of default and repairing your credit. Loan consolidation is great…

…In theory, at least. The problem is that the U.S. Department of Education is a massive bureaucracy. The loan consolidation application is a confusing mess. There are many different types of federal student loans; some can be consolidated, some cannot be consolidated, and some can only be consolidated under certain circumstances. Customer service representatives have been known to be unhelpful and rude, and in some situations, they have been providing misinformation. Department employees also make frequent mistakes. For example, they sometimes leave certain loans out of the consolidation that should have been included (this actually happened to me), which means you have to be vigilant about tracking which loans are included and which loans, if any, were accidentally left out; you’ll then have to fill out another application to get those forgotten loans added back to the consolidation loan later. Mistakes like these can cost you, since you still have to make your payments while the loans are being consolidated– even if the Department messes up.

The loan consolidation process is tedious and confusing at best, and at its worst it can be so defective that it actually impacts you financially. This is why it can be very beneficial to seek out a professional who is familiar with the consolidation process and the Department’s bureaucracy. To read more about defective loan consolidation (and some rather nightmarish stories), click here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.

Heather Jarvis is an excellent advocate for student loan borrowers and is doing some great work. For years, she has dedicated herself to helping students and graduates make informed decisions about their student loans. As Senior Program Manager for Advocacy and Outreach at Equal Justice Works, Heather played a role in the passage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which made IBR and Public Service Loan Forgivenessa reality.

Heather maintains a very informative website. She provides very popular free webinars, and offers free tools and information for student loan borrowers. Check out her site here: www.askheatherjarvis.com

When student borrowers fail to pay their student loan bills for any reason, lenders will try to get them to pay. The longer the borrower doesn’t pay, the harder the lender will try. Sometimes, the lender will hire a collections agency to pursue a student borrower who is in delinquency or default, and often these agencies will use aggressive, intimidating, deceptive, or irritating tactics.

The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) and many state consumer rights laws provide substantial protection to consumers who are the subject of debt collection actions, including student loan borrowers. Unfortunately, collections agencies routinely violate the FDCPA because many student loan borrowers are unaware of the laws that protect them. Here are some common ways that they violate the FDCPA:

• Calling you at unreasonable hours (i.e., in the middle of the night)
• Calling you at work after you’ve told them not to
• Threatening to take criminal action against you (i.e., arresting you)
• Contacting you if they know you are represented by an attorney
• Engaging in obscene or abusive conduct (i.e., calling you names, using profanity)
• Repeatedly or continuously calling you with the intent to annoy, abuse, or harass you
• Making false, deceptive, or misleading representations
• Misrepresenting your rights with respect to federal student loans
• Contacting family members, friends, or co-workers about your debt
• Using deceptive means to collect information about a consumer

Borrowers who have been the subject of FDCPA violations can bring suit against the collections agency in federal court and collect damages. Often, these suits will settle before trial. If you are being aggressively pursued by a collections agency, you should keep careful, detailed records of all communications.

If you’ve got student loans, chances are at some point during the repayment period you’re going to have difficulty making your payments. Given today’s still-sluggish economy, you may have trouble making your payments shortly after you graduate from college or grad school. Don’t panic– you may have options. The worst thing you can do is do nothing. If you don’t make your payments, your loans can become delinquent or even defaulted. That has serious consequences (which I’ll be discussing in a subsequent post).

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It’s May. It’s Spring. The weather is warm. Summer is near. And millions of students are graduating from college and grad school. Most have at least some student loans. This is certainly an exciting time, but don’t let your student loan obligations surprise you in a few months. There are important things you need to know now so that you are prepared to manage your debt burden in the months ahead.

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Recent graduate? Or graduating this spring? 6 reasons why you should think about consolidating.

If you’re like me (and millions of other student loan borrowers), you got through school with a wide variety of different federal student loans. Stafford Loans. Perkins Loans. Subsidized Loans. Unsubsidized Loans. Grad PLUS loans. Maybe others. Managing the repayment of each of these loans can really turn into a full-time job, and if you accidentally start missing payments, you’re in trouble.

You may be eligible to combine all of those loans into a single federal consolidation loan. Here are some of the benefits.

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Adam S. Minsky’s article, “Student Loans and Bankruptcy” is featured on Boston Bankruptcy Answers:

In general, most student loans will not be dischargeable in bankruptcy. There are some limited (and important) exceptions to this general rule which I will not be discussing in this posting, but for many people who have student loans, bankruptcy may not be an option.

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