If You Have a Student Loan, Have I Got a Site for You

Almost two-thirds of college grads leave campus owing money on student loans. On average, their student loan tab is close to $20,000 … and growing. Student debt levels grew 8% between 2005 and 2006, while starting salaries rose by only 4%, according to the Project on Student Debt. And another 5 million or so of us take out student loans every year.

Even in good economic times, far too many people find themselves in student loan hell, with huge debts that haunt them and have them paying interest on interest for decades. With the economy tanking, lots more people just starting out are going to join them there. All it takes is a dose or two of career confusion, perhaps compounded by a job loss or an accident, and someone with a bright future can soon face a very dismal prospect: ballooning student debts and financial woes for as long as they live. (I am not exaggerating.)

If you or someone you love has a student loan, here is a site you might want to bookmark: Student Loan Borrower Assistance, which was funded by the Project on Student Debt and painstakingly researched and developed by the National Consumer Law Center. Turning to it sooner rather than later can help you save a fortune as well as untold grief.

I wish it had been there when I was trying to help a young man I'll call Jim. He was the first person in his family to go to college, and although he accumulated some debt there, most of it piled on after that. When we met, Jim was so overwhelmed by his burgeoning debt and the tactics of the debt collectors, that he was seriously thinking of suicide. Until recently, it was hard to find authoritative information on what people should do if they think they'll have … or are already having … a problem paying back their student loans. Jim had a bunch of loans and got conflicting information from people who had a vested interest in the decisions he made.

There are no fancy bells and whistles on Student Loan Borrower Assistance -- just clear information from an independent, reliable source. The focus is on making it easy for people to find answers to their questions and solutions to their student loan problems, ranging from how to figure out what kind of loan(s) you have to how to handle an aggressive debt collector.

You can read about specific loan programs, repayment options, ways to avoid and get out of default, policy issues, and legal briefs. Certainly, the site's very straightforward Find a Solution tool would have been very helpful to Jim. And we sure would have taken advantage of the site's excellent Where to Go for Help section.

If you have student loan woes, you have my deepest sympathy. I've seen how they can ruin a young person's life. Don't ignore them. They will not go away. Instead, please check out this site and let us know what you think.

Nancy Castleman – Co-author of "Invest in Yourself: Six Secrets to a Rich Life" and founder of Good Advice Press. Nancy has spent the last 23 years teaching people how to get out of debt, save money, and live better on less. She writes on all these subjects for CreditBloggers.com.

 

Comments

[Estate Agents Finder]

Most student tend to have huge loan when they leave the college but by usng some tricks they can avoid it and start their career a freah

[dawn]

studentloanjustice.org