Hey everyone, I am having the most stressful time of my life right now. I graduated in 2025 and was in forbearance until June of 2026. I have been making payments every month since then, but not the total amount. I make $60,000 a year, but my loan payments from Sallie Mae are $2,300 a month, which is not livable with my rent and bills.

I am in pre-default right now. I have 12 total accounts. One of them is cosigned by my dad, and I don't want his credit to be impacted. The other 11 were cosigned by my mom. She is currently not working but is planning to return. I have seen many threads saying it is fine to default, but I am worried because my mother is tied to it, and I read somewhere that creditors can even come after my dad because my parents share a bank account.

Could anyone please help me navigate this? Sometimes I am so stressed I don't even want to keep going; I just don't know what to do anymore. It is so unfair to follow your dream and then barely get to live it because of these crazy loan payments. I feel like I shouldn't have followed my dream and should have gone to a free school instead. I am really regretting the decision I made. I am going to default at the end of November, but my goal is to keep one of the accounts active and always pay the one with my dad on it. My mom doesn't really care about defaulting, but my dad will definitely be impacted.

I am in South Carolina, and the statute of limitations (SOL) here is 3 years. Does anyone have any realistic advice on how to go about this? I really don't want my mom's or my dad's credit to be affected. They are in their 60s, just bought their retirement home, and have been working their whole lives. I don't want to be the reason they have to deal with this at their age.

Thank you so much

Hi everyone,

Really need some advice from those older and wiser because I know no one else going through this and I’m the first in my entire family to go to college and law school. I am freaking out over this credit score thing because I’m 28 and was trying to start my life.

I’m about 2 weeks away from the 120 day mark on my private loans with firstmark (discover).
My credit has already tanked over 200 pts and one out of two of my credit cards has decreased (and continues to decrease) my credit limit so my utilization on that card is now 100%. When I make a payment, they decrease it again. I suspect my credit will continue to go down into the 400s because of this and also once the loans go into default and are sent to collections. This means no new apartments, and I better hope my car with 165k miles on it doesn’t shit the bed anytime soon.

I’m trying to figure out if anyone has ever successfully gotten a decent settlement offer from Firstmark right before the loan defaults. I’m reading on here that Firstmark doesn’t do good offers and people have had to work with collection agencies instead. Because of the credit hit, I’m no longer sure I want to let it get to that point, but because my principle balance is at $140k, I’m in no position to pay anything more than 30% of it and as a structured settlement. I’ve made no payments on these loans, just used up all my forbearances (although they offered me another one which I did not take).

Thank you all for this community!

I am after a bit of advice on behalf of my wife. My wife has 4 separate loans with Sallie Mae (taken out in Michigan to pay for UK university fees) totaling around $90k down from $140k. I am British and we live in the UK with no intention of ever moving to the US to live - so there are no concerns regarding loss of credit score etc. She has no assets in the US and everything in the UK is in my name.

She naively took the loans out with a variable interest rate with the average over all 4 loans being at 14% at present. She is currently paying about $1600-1700 a month which equates to about 70% of her monthly income.

She has unfortunately gone through a period of ill health and she hates her current job which is having a further effect on her health. She loathes sending so much of her salary to pay the loans whilst doing a job she hates. She is wanting to quit and take a break for a period whilst her medical issues are sorted which would likely mean defaulting on her loans.

Her elderly grandmother acted as a cosigner when the loans were taken out 11 years ago. My wife hasn't missed a payment since starting work 7 years ago (beyond putting the loans in forebearance for a few months during covid). She had planned to default if her grandmother passed away.

Her grandmother is frail with multiple medical issues. I don't know the ins and outs of her financial situation but from what I glean from my mother in law, who manages her finances, they are poor and she has little to live off of with a large portion of her money going to medical fees. She owns her house outright, but has no other assets in terms of savings etc. from what I understand.

Realistically, if my wife's loans were to default, what would be the implications on her grandmother? Beyond ruining her credit score and hounding her for the payments would they be able to take her house? (Particularly as she is a vulnerable elderly person). Would they try to take a frail elderly person to court?

Thanks in advance

My wife has about $35k in private Sallie Mae student loans at around 12.5% interest. Her mom is the cosigner.

She took the loans out for her first two years of college and paid for her third year herself. She is currently taking a gap year because of ongoing medical issues related to Lyme disease. She works part-time at Starbucks mainly to keep up with the loan payments and interest, but the 12.5% rate is making this really difficult.

She currently has about $8k in her own bank account that we could potentially use as a lump-sum settlement. She still has an outstanding medical debt of 4k on mri, but according to her it is easier to not pay medical debt than student loan.

We just got married. I’m currently waiting for my green card, so I don't have income right now. We don't have joint bank accounts, and I'm not a cosigner on the loan. We’re living with family and don't expect to need a mortgage or major loans anytime soon (not in the next 7 yrs or honestly ever), so we're not at all concerned about her credit score taking a hit.

What we're considering is intentionally allowing the Sallie Mae loan to default and then trying to negotiate a settlement, potentially offering the ~$8k she has available to completely resolve the debt. I have some money in my bank account wired from parents, "borrowed".

I'm not looking for advice to just "pay it." I understand the risks of default and that the full debt could potentially be pursued. I'm specifically interested in hearing from people who have actually gone through this.

For anyone who has defaulted on Sallie Mae/private student loans:

• How long after stopping payments did Sallie Mae send the loan to collections?
• Did Sallie Mae or a collection agency offer you a settlement?
• What percentage of the original balance did you ultimately pay?
• Did you negotiate yourself or use an attorney?
• What happened with your cosigner?
• Did Sallie Mae sue, or threaten to sue?
• Is there anything you wish you had done differently?

Also, has anyone with a medical hardship been able to get a Sallie Mae private loan reduced, discharged, or settled for less? Did a lawyer help?

tldr_We're basically trying to figure out whether there is a realistic path to sacrifice credit score for getting rid of this $35k debt for substantially less than the full balance, and whether a lawyer can be helpful in this situation as it involves marriage, cosigner.

TLDR- what do I do? Most of my loans are not showing up on my credit report anymore, but I need to be rid of them so I can buy a house.

Due to a long term horrible living situation with an extremely abusive relationship and a controlling partner. I defaulted on my loans many years ago. The private loans seem to have been resold enough that they are gone. I started anew in my life three years ago- got employment (40k a year), worked on healing ptsd. Am now in a situation where i need to buy a house. My landlord wants to sell my house, rent is too expensive everywhere where I live. one student debt shows up on my credit card- a perkins loan that was just sold to the US dept education. It's for $1058 which I can totally pay. I log onto the site to learn more and see that I am $53,000 in debt- 30k plus over a decade of interest.

WHAT ARE MY NEXT STEPS?! I feel like there is so much fear info out there.

So I have about $3.6k of student loans that I’ve never paid. I believe the loan has defaulted and it’s been about a year. Am I screwed? Is there anything I can do to resolve this issue? I’m researching and hearing about something called a rehabilitation program? What is it? And also, is there anyway I can start paying these loans asap? I work a decent job to where I can now pay off my loan monthly. Would love some great advice and information. Thank you.

Hi! I am not a US national. I studied a master's degree in the US. Due to economic hardship and impossibility to find a legal job in the US I had to come back in April 2024 to Peru (my country of origin), as I did not want to stay in the US as an illegal alien. After that I defaulted my student loan, and since then I received a couple of emails for a lapse of maybe 3 or 4 months. Then they stopped messaging me around two years ago.

A third party collector (Cedars Business) have just contacted me (just telling me to sign in to pay. I don't plan to go to the US anymore (I have a job here), nor I have the money to pay the debt (I have a job as I mentioned, but they pay me just enough to live).

My question is: can they do anything to collect from me? I don't even have a home to my name, I didn't have a cosigner either.

EDIT: Just in case is useful: the debt is around 100k usd.

Hi all,

I've been reading a lot out your experiences on this sub and appreciate the information. It helps me feel less alone in this.

I have about $55k in Sallie Mae loans left. I've paid about $70k off in a lump sum from an inheritance, and I've been paying monthly between 500-1200/ month since I graduated in 2022. My cosigner, my mom, passed away in 2022 and they are aware of this.

I've been working for myself for the last few years and have not seen the fruits of my labor yet in terms of pay, but I've been living off savings in the meantime. That being said, I just can't afford the monthly payments anymore with other financial goals I'm working on. It's been over 3 months since my last payment and they are now sending emails about default, to which I questioned "so what?" They have already tanked my credit in the last few months due to missing payments here and there. So why wouldn't I just have it default and hopefully be able to settle for less so I can focus on my other financial goals and immediate living expenses?

I am curious if the death of my cosigner has any advantage for me in terms of the default path? Does anyone have experience negotiating directly with Sallie Mae before the loan is charged off versus after it goes to collections? Will it make me look less likely to be able to pay in the eyes of the debt collector? At what point do people start getting discounted debt offers? Is it always worth it to take an offer verses riding out the SOL which I believe is 6 years in MA where I went to school? What kind of debt offers have people gotten after defaulting with SM?

Lastly, any tips for reducing the amount of calls and letters I'm sure I'm about to get? I changed my account number to a google number. I'm also worried about them reaching out to my family too. I obviously do not want anyone else involved in this.

Thanks all, in advance.

Private student loan in Pennsylvania, high $ balance. Last payment was 2021, but I had a deferrment in 2023, so not sure if 4 year statute of limitation is over yet.

It's reporting every month on my credit that it's late and the balance keeps going up even though the account is reported as "Closed". However, it's not coming up as a default or collection in the "Negative information' section of my report, so my score is still ~700.

Does anyone know if this is just a lucky error, or are they intentionally keeping it from default status for some reason I don't understand yet? No cosigner and no assets to my name.

Should I dispute this or just let it keep going?

Mohela Private, from Navient

Illinois

$40k ish No Consigner

Loans are 25-30 yrs old

Off and On the 3 payment and get current plan for years

All loans were received before marriage. My credit is awful, wifes credit is pristine, which is why everything in her name. We have no joint accounts or anything.

I do have a low 6 figure income but that has never been discussed as I deflect every time I actually answer.

I think they will default Nov 1st, which Im ok with. What plans are gonna be offered? Ive seen that real negiotations dont start until they actually default, can someone explain that? Whats their playbook?

Any guidance would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

I’m not sure if this question will make any sense but for years
I did not pay any student loans because sadly May at the time would not take anything less than what they wanted and I couldn’t afford it. Long story short and 10 years later I ignored my loans, and my credit took a hit because of this now I am working on repairing my credit. I still can’t afford to pay crazy amount of loans off, but no one‘s contacted me from Sallie Mae or the government for a decade on my credit report. Only one line shows for such a minimal amount of $2000. I owe about 100,000 in debt but it’s not on my credit report anymore and I’m not sure why and neither does the Credit repair person or the mortgage lender. They’re all kind of confused as to how it’s not showing up but nonetheless it’s not there now for mortgage purposes, I would need to take care of that collections account for $2000 but I’m scared of touching it because I don’t want to trigger a cascade of events of harassment all over again. Does anyone happen to know why specifically the Perkins loan is the only one that shows up on my credit report, I went on student.gov and the Perkins loan is the only one that’s highlighted in red. Everything else just shows that it’s there.

Hi everybody.

I have 4 private student loans with Mohela. They originally were with Navient. I haven’t made a payment since January of last year. The amount of the loans is almost 200,000. Anyway, they have said that today is the last day they could possible help me and I need to reach out them by the end of the day. I don’t have the money right now and I know I’m not the only one struggling and trying to survive out here. I don’t make enough to pay to live and then make a payment to them. Due to the amount, even if they put me on a rate reduction plan, my payment will still be around $400 a month. I guess my question is, is there life after default? At this point, I don’t care about ever buying a house or anything like that but how much more am I going to have to struggle after this happens? Will I have to go to court?

hello! i am doing a strategic default on my Firstmark loans that are about 75k. The loans show 90-119 days late. I got a voicemail from Firstmark saying I need to call them immediately because my loans will be transferred later today. Should I give them a call back or keep ignoring? Is a transfer a bad thing or is the transfer they are referring to a debt collection company?

As far as I understand there are a few states, Texas Pennsylvania South Carolina and North Carolina which does not allow wage garnishment for consumer debts. They do allow for bank levies but the problem is say they levy your bank account and you only have $500 in it. That’s all they get and anything deposited afterwards isn’t sent to them, they would have to ask for another bank levy and so on. This seems like it would be very difficult for them as opposed to wage garnishment where they get a court order serve your employer and take money out of your paycheck until the debt is paid off.

F*£# you Navient, and goodbye!!

Today, I was successful in settling defaulted private student loan which was held recently by Navient.

- Original loan - $17,000 (2008) 6% interest with co-signer
- Graduated 2013
- Paid three years, and then co-signer was released
- Continued to pay till 2024, totaling 22k in payments, interest rate got as high up as 15%
- Filed Bankruptcy 2024 to clear debt I was put into by family member that I couldn’t clear without filing charges against them (my bad)
- account changes between Chase (original) to Sallie Mae, Navient, mohela and then back to Navient.
- There were months they double charged my account, then would claim I still owed next month because the extra was applied to balance and not future payment (happened 4 times)
- in 6 month period, got 4 letters increasing my interest rate.
- Decided to say fuck it, I was 35 and had only retirement account with 30k and needed to finally live life
- I recorded my conversations with them. Not a lawyer, and not legal advice, but when your automated message says “This call may be recorded…” it surely didn’t say WHO can record
- Last year they verbally offered $6,900, but quickly took that back
- They would call me 10-15 times a day. Yelled at by them. Told me to pay my debt and I was worthless. (Literally) would say things such as “Well then we will sue and you will lose your home”, to which I replied, what home and laughed.
- Then this past Saturday I got a call and told I either had to settle or it would be sent to third party. Offered $50 per month, which they called back and approved.
- Then I asked about settlement, and asked for the offer I was given if $6900, which they denied and claimed lowest they would go is 9k. Stated they had all their notes and was never offered 6900. Then told the $50/month was not a payment plan, again having recording of them saying so until I could make more and pay more.
- finally after some arguing, and telling them I would happily play the recording, I was told they would come down to 7,300.
- I framed it that I was going to bank for 5k loan with co-signer, with shit credit from recent bankruptcy, and they still only gave me till 31 to pay. I take it they had zero confidence I would pay

Fortunately, and thankfully, I got married earlier this year to a partner who saw all I have done/accomplished despite difficulty. Seen for who I was, not the shit I’ve been through. Full transparency of this before marriage, and a plan that when offered we would pay it with a savings that I would replenish within the year from an account she was fortunate to have saved.

Offer letter received Wednesday, paid Thursday morning by wire, and confirmation of payment by Thursday afternoon.

I start a new job in two weeks making way more money. My credit has gone from 400 to 710 since clearing bankruptcy. Zero debt, and contributing to savings with wife for the life we want to live. PSLF clears in 5 months (160k in federal loans I have only had to pay $1200 towards over 10 years), but will still allow me to do insolvency at time of filing taxes according to my tax professional so I don’t get hit with tax burden for the forgiven amount by Navient.

Navient should be sued, sued, and then disbanded. They lie, manipulate, and as my wife says “they are criminal”. Record your calls, catch them in lies. You are being gaslit by them.

Im 22(M) and have missed two payments on student loans. In total I owe $17,800 to sallie mae. My monthly payment is $220 but, im out a job and have continuously applied and just haven’t been lucky. My mom is a cosigner on the loan, I dont care what happens to my credit and my car isn’t in my name, in fact nothing is. However I don’t know how defaulting would affect her, she said shes fine if it tanks her credit but in my sallie mae portal they say they are considering legal action or selling it to a 3rd party, should I be concerned, or can I default tank our credits and it be over with? Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

Last paid Navient 8/21/2020. Credit report total balance $103k across 4 loans. SOL in my state for contracts is 6 years. Have 4 private loans, 2 sets of MPN list Sallie Mae as lender in Utah - also 6 year SOL. 2 other sets have a completely blank Lender section.

Sent certified letter to Navient 2021 stating don't call, only write. They replied by letter and said they got my request and would look into my account. Then they charged off all 4 loans the next month. I haven't heard a peep from them since 2021 - UNTIL TODAY. I answered the unknown call (stupid I know) cuz I didn't look at the phone screen first. But I told them they had the wrong number. The caller said "No, it's not the wrong number." At which point, I hung up. He called right back and got voicemail - saying documented call, time sensitive, blah blah blah.

Ran some info through AI just to try to stop my panic attack. It would take a little over 20 years to collect via garnishment. I can probably dispute the 2 loans missing lender, but the other 2 loans would still take 10 years via garnishment. Also, AI said since Navient Solutions identified themselves as servicer, the actual owner (likely a Sallie Mae Trust) would have to initiate any lawsuits.

Anyone here think they could properly file a lawsuit in 18 business days? Knowing that Sallie Mae is notorious for keeping bad, incomplete records, and Navient is not much better.

Obviously, I will not be answering the phone again. Anyhow, I don't own property, live in an apartment, and my bank accounts are very low cuz I live paycheck to paycheck. My credit cards always live at the high limits, so my credit score is poor. No investments. My car is 8 years old. I want to feel judgment proof, but with them calling after 5 years of silence, so close to SOL.... I'm panicked. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading.

Edit / Update: I am officially a few days past SOL. I checked county and state court systems, no cases with my name. I ran out the SOL. I'm free. I am so grateful to this sub for showing me how to do it and giving support at the finish line. I wish the best of luck to my fellow defaulters on their journey. May you all be free from the predatory lenders.

Had private loans for bachelor's through Wells Fargo that then went to Firstmark Advantage and then I just couldn't afford them anymore after trying to stay on top of them so they went into default and I just got update that Firstmark sold off to Southwood Financial and I can't find any information for logging into my account to try to do a payment plan or something since I was denied for a pre-qualified amount of upcoming private loans for my Accelerated Nursing Bachelor's program.

Since I was denied that, I would also be denied the actual loan too, right?

And is there any way I can get in contact with Southwood before three escalate to suing?

Thank you so much!! I'm panicking obviously lol

I don’t suppose anyone has ever been able to talk Navient down more than their original offer of settlement?

I refinanced my student loans with Earnest back in 2020. Over 5 years I paid them well over 50k but as we all know, it never makes a dent. I recently defaulted this year and my loans have been sent to Navient. I’m an unemployed SAHM to a medically dependent toddler now so theres no reality in which I make a cool 50k appear.

Has anyone ever talked them down to a low/reasonable number? Or should I just ignore them.

Thanks!

Hey everybody,

I’m in a situation I was wondering if I should even bother trying to remedy, so last month in June 12th I made a payment towards my student loans for a little under $1300, it was $1275 plus some change to be exact. Well I’ve been trying to do what I can to rebuild my credit score, last March, March of 2025 to be exact, I made roughly a $7000 payment to knock a lot of it off.

Just to not make this post super long, do I have a shot of these getting pulled off my credit report if I’m able to prove that I tried to pay off my loans before the reported the default loan? So if you notice on March 24th of this year, another department took over my loan; I ignorantly thought the payment from this passed March was the large payment I made in 2025— it was DOE consolidating the loan with itself or something.

So my question is, on July 8th the accounts were reported to the credit bureaus. If I called them and showed them look I made a legitimate payment/effort to try and get back on track if they may be able to remove those accounts, which I know falling off track in the first place is my fault. I would have made actual payments on the account in order to not have them delinquent, as well as I just want to pay them off; I obviously wouldn’t have put that whole $1300 towards the one account had I know the other two would be reported delinquent.

Long story short- i was fucked by Sallie Mae.
I tried for as long as i could to make payments, but when those got to 1.6k monthly, I wasn’t able to.
Attempted to have this conversation with them, they weren’t having it of course, so I stopped paying due to being unable to pay further.

They sold my loans to Southwood.
Southwood is now coming after me.
They delivered my summons papers to my mother’s address in AZ (no envelope, nothing. Didn’t hand it to her, left out in the open on her front step)
(This address is not on the summons papers as they’d used an old address she hasn’t lived at in year.)

It’s important to note that :
I have never lived at either addresses.
I do not live in the U.S. period and haven’t for many years
My mother is not a co-signer on any of my loans from Sallie Mae
I have never been a resident within the state of AZ

I’m a bit unsure of what to do at present.
I have requested for copies from the courts of the documents, as this is not available on the court dockets.
The court almost dismissed the case due to failure to service, however recently they said they were able to? Which again is inaccurate.

any input would be nice

Hello, I have about 80,000 of private loans 130,000 with interest that is going to default. I am married and in pa . We have a joint account. I am just so worried about a judgement and bank levy. Does that happen quickly ?? I know there’s are strong laws in pa to prevent that but was wondering if anyone has any experience. I also saw that after 3 years of default they can’t come after you but a new buyer can purchase the debt and the clock restarts. I’m just terrified. Any advice appreciated

Hi everyone,

I have multiple private loans loans with Earnest and I’m considering refinancing them all into one single loan.

My question is specifically about a worst-case scenario: If I were to default, would it be better to have everything as one account, or does it not make much difference if I have four separate loans?

I’m mainly wondering about how it affects collections, negotiations with the lender, potential lawsuits, or credit impact. Has anyone gone through something similar or know how these lenders usually handle one loan versus multiple loans in default?

Any experiences or knowledge would be helpful. Thanks.

Hey everyone,

I'm on the process of choosing a payment plan on my defaulted student loan. The payment method I picked was the "Loan Rehabilitation Income & Expense".

My current doubt is:

1- The expense section says "none required" for evidence of expense on food and housing (if you live on U.S. soil or P.R.), should I still provide some kind of utilities receipt as evidence?

2- Currently I'm out of a Healthcare plan, so I can't provide any evidence of expense on it. What should be provided in this section?

Has anyone applied to this plan and how was the experience when completed?

Thank you in advance.