Not much of an extended update today, but rather a quick note on my attempts to close in on another major milestone in my student loan repayment plan. As of today, my student loan debt is down to about $51 thousand – another thousand down since my last update! As I’ve written in the recent past, pending a few financial things going in my favor, I’m getting ready to ramp up my repayments again and hopefully put a significant dent in the remaining $51 thousand balance.
$51 thousand left...
For someone who might be termed as “financially anal,” you might imagine that I don’t like throwing anything to the wind!
Keep an eye on the blog in the next few days. I’m working on a few entries that should be uploaded soon. The past few weeks have been very busy for me professionally and personally, so bear with me and the lack of fluid updates. Hey – if I’m going to try to aggressively repay this student loan, I’m going to have to work myself like crazy. At least for a little while more…
In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. After completely repaying over $61 thousand in student loans from the federal Perkins loan program, the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, and CitiBank, I currently owe $51 thousand to the United States Department of Education’s Direct Loans program. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.
Just came across this blog, and I found it very interesting.
Over 15 years ago I attended a private university in Washington D.C.
I completed over 3 years, and took out some student loans with NJHESAA.
At the time I was still in my early twenties and not very responsible.
I eventually rebelled, dropped out, said “screw it” to my loans, and spent the next ten years working and traveling.
Eventually I realized that my future was coming up against without my degree.
To get back into school to complete my degree, I spent over a year rehabilitating my student loans in not one, two but three programs. Over 150 hours in telephone calls, emails, and compiling and mailing out documentation. While I was able to resolve most of the issue, my NJHESAA loan for $5000 had BALLOONED to over $25,000.
I’ve gotten back into school and reinstated the NJHESAA loan, but it still remains in default status. And I’ve Never Never been able to find any assistance to reduce the interest that accrued over those last 15 + years.
Nor does it make sense to consolidate it because then I’d be forced to Begin To Pay all that interest, plus lawyer fees, in my mid/late thirties.
So I just wanted to share this with everybody out there. Share my experience of what life is like when you make a mistake, try to make amends, but remain in Student Loan Hell.
Just came across this blog, and I found it very interesting.
Over 15 years ago I attended a private university in Washington D.C.
I completed over 3 years, and took out some student loans with NJHESAA.
At the time I was still in my early twenties and not very responsible.
I eventually rebelled, dropped out, said “screw it” to my loans, and spent the next ten years working and traveling.
Eventually I realized that my future was coming up against without my degree.
To get back into school to complete my degree, I spent over a year rehabilitating my student loans in not one, two but three programs. More then 150 hours in phone calls, emails, and compiling and mailing documentation. While I resolved most of the issue, my NJHESAA loan for $5000 BALLOONED to over $25,000.
So I’ve gotten back into school and reinstated the NJHESAA loan, but it still remains in default status. And I’ve Never Never been able to find any assistance to reduce the interest that accrued over those last 15 + years.
Nor does it make sense to consolidate it, because then I’d be forced to pay all that interest, plus lawyer fees. That might be OK, but if you’re just beginning that long process in your thirties with little savings and nothing for retirement it would be keeping you in the poor house for decades.
I just wanted to share this with everybody out there. My experience of what life is like when you make a mistake, try to make amends, but remain in Student Loan Hell.
I hear you, Peter. The NJHESAA was horrible to deal with – HORRIBLE! I repaid those punks $66,240.30 in principal, interest, and fees over the course of about 5 years so I know all of their tricks.
The thing that made me the most sick as one of their borrowers was that they listed me as missing a few payments while the loan was in deferment because I was still in school! When I called and complained to them, it took me over an hour on the phone (bring switched from person to person) for them to admit their mistake – AND THEN – they said there was nothing they could do about it and they were “sorry.” REALLY?! These bastards tried to ruin my credit and they said there was nothing they could do about it. Unacceptable.
Thankfully, when I complained to the credit agencies they immediately understood the problem and wiped away the NJHESAA mistake so it never had a negative impact on my credit. But in the mean time, I had the “honor” spending hours, days, and weeks fixing a mistake that the NJHESAA idiots made. They’re the worst.
Good luck, Peter.