Struggling to pay your student loans? Have a question about how to navigate the debt trap?
You aren't alone. There are more than 37 million borrowers with outstanding student loans, and nearly one in six is in default. Millions more are behind on their payments but not yet in default.
Two New York Times reporters and Geoffry Walsh, an expert on student debt and bankruptcy at the National Consumer Law Center, are available to answer questions about ways to avoid default, pay off student loans or try to expunge student loans through bankruptcy court.
The reporters, Ron Lieber and Andrew Martin, wrote recent articles about the difficulties of paying back student loans as part of The New Yo rk Times's series Degrees of Debt, which examines the implications of soaring college costs and the indebtedness of students and their families.
Mr. Lieber described how extraordinarily difficult it is for borrowers to expunge their student loans in bankruptcy court. As told through the story of a legally blind man in Ohio named Doug Wallace Jr., a borrower needs to convince a judge that his or her economic prospects are beyond hope.
“Do I think I'm hopeless?†Mr. Wallace said. “Well, yeah, I mean, by looking at it you would think I am hopeless. “
Mr. Martin detailed how the debt collection industry is cashing in on the rising number of borrowers who default on their student loans. Last year, for instance, the Department of Education paid more than $1.4 billion to private collection agencies and other groups to collect defaulted student loans.
“While the Department of Education debt collection contract has been one of the most highly sought- after contracts within the ARM industry for years, I believe it is now THE most sought-after contract within this industry, centered within the most sought-after market - student loans,†Mark Russell, a mergers and acquisitions specialist, wrote in InsideArm.com, an online publication for the debt collection industry, in October.
