Can You Consolidate Defaulted Student Loans?

If you have recently graduated from college and still haven’t found a job, you might wonder if you can you consolidate defaulted student loans. Student loans will show as defaulted if you haven’t made your payments for at least 270 days, if you fall into this category this article may be able to offer some help.

Negative Aspects of Being Defaulted

There are several reason you want to keep your loans from being in default.

denial of new loans
bad credit reports
possible wage garnishment (up to 10 % of your income)
extra fees and interest that are added to the original loan amount
seizure of tax refunds, and
refusal by your school to release transcripts

What If I’m Already in Default

Life happens. Sometimes it becomes necessary to go in to default. This doesn’t mean you have no options. You can do a few things to get your loan out of default. One thing you can do is to consolidate. You can renew your eligibility for loans, and you can rehabilitate the loans that have defaulted.

Getting New Loans if You’re in Default

If you are planning to re enter the classroom, you can still get student loans, even when you’re in default, but you need to renew your eligibility first.

To renew your eligibility, you need to call the lender and work out an arrangement for payments. It’s very important that you get a plan that you can afford. Sometimes you make your payments for $5, if you meet the right income requirements. You’ll have to make sure that you tell the lender your income information and what you can afford to pay. The key words to use are easonable and affordable payment plan.

When you’ve made a plan, you will have to keep making the payments on time. If you fail to keep up with the payments, you won’t be eligible again for this process. When you’ve made your payments on time for six months in a row then you will be able to apply for loans and grants.

Can I get my loans consolidated even if I am in default?

You can also consider consolidation, which is combining more than one loan into one loan. Typically, you can do this for a very small interest rate and this will cut you down to one payment a month instead of many.

You can consolidate your loans if you are in default. You need to contact a lender that will consolidate for you. One lender is Federal Direct Consolidation Loan Program, to set up a payment plan.