Private College Student Loan

Can we do something about these Sallie Mae student loans?

My husband attended ITT Tech after high school for about 9 months. The financial advisor somehow tricked him into getting loans for all 4 years and doing it all at once. He was kicked out the 9 months later (long story) and now we are in a massive amount of debt because of these loans. Is there anything we can do? Since he was only at school for such a short period of time, why should we have to pay for the whole 4 years? He took out both private (Sallie Mae) and federal. We have the federal loans deferred, but the private loans went into serious default and we are making $400 a month payments on them which we can't really afford. Please help! Thank you so much for that information! Very helpful! I'm going to look into that asap!!

Public Comments

1. He could not have borrowed money (either federal or private) for years he did not attend.... (unless something illegal occurred). Loans must be certified by the school and your husband would have had to fill out paperwork every year to apply for these loans. You do not (and should not) pay for school for years he was never even enrolled. He can look up his student loan borrowing history of this website: http://www.nslds.ed.gov/nslds_SA/ It will show the original loan amount, when it was dispersed, to what school the money went to, and outstanding principal and outstanding interest amounts. You should be able to tell if loans were taken out in his name and for how long after high school. I would seriously get to the bottom of this. It MIGHT be that your hubby is mistaken (that he borrowed for all 4 years after high school). I say this because ITT is an extremely expensive private-for-profit school. Because of this, it's students sometimes choose to borrow money WAY beyond the federal limits on student loans (by taking out private loans). One or two federal loan disbursements in 9 months and another one or two in private student loans is entirely probable and possible. Not to mention expensive. That.... compounded with the fact that some are in default... (which hikes the interest rates and allows them to add all kind of fees and penalties) might make it SEEM like he's paying for 4 years of schooling... when he's not really. He's just paying on a poor choice. I would contact this organization. http://www.ombudsman.ed.gov/ They are an entity that was set up specifically to help common folks solve problems with their student loans. good luck.