Take Control of Your Student Loan Debt

Bankruptcy: 1. Many former students consider filing for bankruptcy to get rid of their student loans. Filing for bankruptcy seldom forgives you from paying your student loan. The student loan is guaranteed by the government and the debt is usually not dischargeable. Before 1998, you get rid of student loan debt by filing bankruptcy, but Congress eliminated the seven year limit to debt forgiveness. If you can show extreme hardship to the bankruptcy court rare exceptions may be made for debt forgiveness. Undue hardship is defined as, your present income is not adequate to pay the loan payments and your potential earning will not change the situation. Poverty or Health handicaps could cause this situation. The courts do not define what is undue hardship, so the rule may be very subjective. 2. Most courts have held that a school must release college transcripts upon the act of filing bankruptcy. 3. Bankruptcy is not a process by which the court has your debt erased. To fill out for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you fill out a two page petition and several forms describing your money, property, expenses, debts and income. Most states let you keep clothing, house furnishings, an inexpensive car, social security payments. A few states let you keep your house. 4. Chapter 7 bankruptcy puts into effect an automatic stay. The automatic stay stops your creditors from trying to collect what you owe them. The bankruptcy court is in control of your case file. The bankruptcy court is in legal control of your debts and the property you own, except for your exempt property. Nothing can be bought or sold without the permission of the court. You must obey the bankruptcy rules and conform to advise by the bankruptcy trustee. The trustee's primary duty is to make sure the creditors are paid. 5. If you pledge property for a debt, this is called secured debt. In most cases, if you default on the debt you will have to surrender the collateral or make arrangements to pay for it during or after bankruptcy. The creditor can record a lien on the property, claiming a financial interest in the property. 6. If you change your mind and want to dismiss the bankruptcy case , you can ask the court too dismiss your case. The court will decide whether to keep or dismiss your case. The court looks to see, if you have done harm to your creditors. 7. At the end of chapter 7 bankruptcy, your debts that are qualified are wiped out. You no longer legally owe these creditors. 8. Most student's seeking bankruptcy are forced into Chapter 13, reorganization bankruptcy, a more expensive option. In Chapter 13, you discharge most debts by paying all or a portion of them over period of time. If you have a regular income chapter 13 may be a good option. The minimum amount you must pay is equal to the value of your nonexempt property. You make payments for three to five years. In addition you must pledge your disposable income - net income less expenses. Chapter 13 stops yo

This book is amazing!!!! I have read all of the other books out there... searching for the detailed information that I needed to help me get out of default one step at a time. This book finally did it! There is NO way that I could have rehabilitated my loan without learning how to negioitate with my guareenteer from this book!

I an an ex-lawyer with considerable exposure to some student loan issues. This book still told me things I did not know. I recommend it for people with minor, moderate, or severe student loan difficulties who are not thoroughly familiar with the rules governing their loans, or who are looking for new ideas on how to deal with their loans. This is not to say that anyone should rely on this book by itself. Things often get complicated when you proceed past the general-purpose advice to the specifics of your own case. The primary value of this book is to alert the reader to the overall shape of the problem or solution. My copy describes itself, on the back cover, as a "substantially updated 2nd edition." Its title page indicates it was last revised in February 2000. This may well be true. If so, I would distinguish "substantially" updated from "fully" updated. The book repeatedly refers to court decisions that are now a number of years old -- describing a 1993 case, for example, as "recent." In addition, I have some concerns about the book's accuracy. For instance, in discussing the legal defense known as "laches," the author says, "[I]n only one case has a former student defended against a lawsuit claiming laches." (Pg. 7/37.) This is incorrect, and I believe it was mistaken even at the time of the first edition. I would say that the author also misphrases the state of affairs when s/he says, "In general, you cannot assert the defense of laches against the government." A more accurate phrasing would be that "the defense of laches is unlikely to succeed against the government." There appears to have been some softening on the issue in other contexts in recent years, and other courts reviewing the one case to which the author refers have not generally said that the case -- granting a discharge to the student on grounds of laches -- was decided wrongly under its particular circumstances. To provide one other example of error, on page 10/13 the author lays down the blanket rule that a student loan cannot be discharged in bankruptcy if it was made by a government unit. This is not what the law says. In context, I suspect the author meant to say that it CAN be discharged in bankruptcy if it is NOT made by a government unit. The book does explain the relevant laws more carefully elsewhere; the net effect of this error will probably be (a) to mislead a few people who do not read those other sections and (b) to confuse everyone else. The important thing is to use a book like this to gain a general orientation to the issues, and take seriously its final chapter, which offers a bit of advice on how to do your own legal research. If you proceed that way, you will tend not to be confused by the occasional imperfection in general-purpose books like this one (and at this point, I don't believe anyone can help making at least an occasional mistake), and with a fair amount of effort you will probably be able to save yourself the expense and ha

The average college grad "earns" about $11,000 of student loan debt on the way to a diploma.Those who go on for an advanced degree can wind up $100,000 in the hole! This book details what you'll need to know to stay afloat in the sea of student loans. It explains your repayment and consolidation options, and offers strategies for getting and staying out of default.