Sallie Mae is a giant in the student loan world. If you have defaulted on a Sallie Mae loan, meaning that you've fallen significantly behind on payments, you'll want to get current as quickly as possible. This will minimize the damage to your credit report and score and ensure that the giant doesn't take you to court, which could lead to wage garnishment.
Instructions
1. Find out if you are truly in default. People often think of default as falling behind on payments. This isn't always true. Defaulting on a Sallie Mae loan is much more serious than becoming delinquent. Delinquency occurs when you miss even one on-time payment. Default typically occurs after nine months of missed payments.
2. Contact Sallie Mae. The lender doesn't want to take you to court to force you to repay, because doing this will cost it money. Thus, it's in Sallie Mae's best interest to work with you. While defaulting on your loan will likely make you ineligible for income-sensitive repayment options, the lender will try to work with you.
3. Try to negotiate the repayment terms. You may be able to get Sallie Mae to tack on the amount of money you're defaulted by to the back end of the loan, so that you can begin repaying each month as usual, but just pay the defaulted amount as extra payments at the end of the loan term. You also may be able to negotiate for a lower interest rate, making monthly payments more affordable.
4. Ask to be placed in a loan rehabilitation program. This program is specifically designed for borrowers in default. By making nine to 12 on-time payments as part of the program, you can have the negative default information scrubbed from your credit reports.
5. Consolidate your Sallie Mae Loan with other student loans you may have to get better repayment terms, such as a smaller interest rate. Plus, making a single payment for all your student loans will make it easier to keep on top of payments each month. Consolidation is usually only possible after three or more straight months of on-time payments.
Tags: behind payments, each month, interest rate, on-time payments, repayment terms