Resolve student loan payment problems | USAGov (2024)

FAQs

How do I dispute a student loan payment? ›

Disputes can be sent to the loan servicer's or holder's general customer service address, which you can find on their website or by calling them. Like you did during your initial phone call, provide a clear, concise description of the situation and be specific about how you would like the situation resolved.

If you are having trouble paying back your student loans, you may qualify for: Loan deferment - Payments are postponed. In most cases, the interest money you owe will continue to accrue (grow). Forbearance - Payments are suspended or reduced, but the interest you owe continues to accrue.

Can Borrowers Sue a Student Loan Servicer? In general, borrowers can sue a student loan servicer. If there is a class-action lawsuit against a provider or school, borrowers automatically become a part of the class-action lawsuit but are not directly suing any party.

Borrowers who have reached 20 or 25 years (240 or 300 months) worth of eligible payments for IDR forgiveness will see their loans forgiven as they reach these milestones. ED will continue to discharge loans as borrowers reach the required number of months for forgiveness.

Student loans don't go away after seven years. There is no program for loan forgiveness or cancellation after seven years. But if you recently checked your credit report and wondered, “why did my student loans disappear?” The answer is that you have defaulted student loans.

Key Takeaways. If you find an error on your student loan bill, call your loan servicer immediately and ask the servicer to fix it. If you're having trouble getting in touch due to long wait times, try email or online chat features.

If your issue has to do with private loans or student loan servicing, you can file a complaint with the Consumer Federal Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal agency that works on protecting consumers, or the Federal Trade Commission, which also protects consumers.

Although lawsuits are not very common in federal student loan collection, they can happen.

There is no specific age when students get their loans written off in the United States, but federal undergraduate loans are forgiven after 20 years, and federal graduate school loans are forgiven after 25 years.

How to get rid of student loan debt without paying? ›

Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) Discharge

This can be a physical or a mental disability. If you get a TPD discharge, you don't have to repay any of your federal student loan(s) or complete your TEACH Grant service obligation. In most cases, you'll have to provide specific kinds of proof of your disability.

Borrowers enrolled in SAVE who have made at least 10 years of monthly payments and originally took out $12,000 or less for undergraduate or graduate postsecondary studies are eligible for forgiveness. For every $1,000 borrowed above $12,000, a borrower can receive forgiveness after an additional year of payments.

Can I still request a refund for payments I made during the COVID-19 forbearance payment pause period? No, you can no longer get refunds for payments you made during the COVID-19 payment pause. The refund benefit ended on Aug. 28, 2023.

If you work full time for a government or nonprofit organization, you may qualify for forgiveness of the entire remaining balance of your Direct Loans after you've made 120 qualifying payments—i.e., 10 years of payments. To benefit from PSLF, you need to repay your federal student loans under an IDR plan.

Once the loan amount is repaid, get a “No Dues” certificate from the lender, and request the lender to update the cleared status against the loan. You can also raise a dispute with CIBIL regarding the same.