Dear Steve,
My husband and I both went to school at ITT Tech, a for-profit college. My husband got a Bachelor's degree and I have an Associate's degree. We each owe $100,000 in federal student loans. I am unemployed and my husband just started getting his wages garnished. We live paycheck to paycheck. If we could afford to pay we would!
I have heard about loan forgiveness for for-profit colleges. How likely is it to get loans forgiven? Do we need to hire a lawyer to get the loans forgiven?
Jessica
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Dear Jessica,
First off, if you have federal student loans there is absolutely no reason to let them get to a wage garnishment when the Department of Education offers payments as low as zero dollars a month through an Income Based Repayment plan. For more on how this works, click here.
These plans are free to enroll and can eventually result in loan forgiveness after a couple of decades.
However, the easiest loan forgiveness program is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. In that program your loans could be forgiven in full after ten years while you are making payments as low as zero dollars a month. Certain fields of work qualify for that wonderful program.
There has been some discussion and action of late regarding efforts made by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) against for-profit colleges. See this story for more.
On February 26, 2014 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau did sue ITT Educational Services. - Source
That suit seems to focus on ITT's Temporary Credit operation but did state, "Federal aid, mostly loans, taken out by consumers comprises the overwhelming majority of ITT's revenue."
That case is still ongoing and probably will be for a couple of years.
Your best bet at this time would be to click here and learn about the alternative repayment plans available. I also just answered a reader question about using a Direct Loan to get out of a wage garnishment. click here to see that.
Before I go I wanted to leave you with three easy action items you jump on right now to address your situation. Just click here.
If you have a credit or debt question you'd like to ask, just click here and ask away.
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