Federal student loans offer default relief

It looks as though your luck is changing for the better. It's great that you have a steady job, and the $40,000 salary is a super place to begin. I can't tell from your question if your loans are private, federal or a combination. I'm going to let you know the steps to getting your federal loans out of default. You have several options to choose from.

The first thing to do is contact the collection companies. Find out what you owe and what the interest rates are. If you have a defaulted federal student loan -- Stafford, PLUS or Consolidation -- you can enter into a rehabilitation agreement with the agency that guarantees the loan.

This also may help you begin to rebuild your credit history, as one of the benefits of rehabilitation includes the default status being removed from your credit report. That will improve your credit score.

You may also be eligible for other benefits. One possible benefit is deferment, or a temporary suspension of payments. Another potential option is forbearance, which is a temporary postponement or reduction of payments for a period of time because you are experiencing financial difficulty. If your wages are being garnished, a rehab will end that. And the Internal Revenue Service will no longer withhold any tax refunds from your new job.

To take advantage of rehabilitation, you'll need to make nine consecutive on-time payments of an agreed amount to the collection agent, in full. You can only do this once. So whatever you do, don't skip a payment or be late or be short. In other words, make this your priority payment over all others for the next nine months. At that time, your loan could be eligible for repurchase by a lender.

Another option you should investigate is consolidating your Stafford, PLUS, Perkins and other federal student loans under the U.S. Department of Education's Direct Consolidation Loan Program. This may extend the original terms of your loan and give you a lower monthly payment. Consolidating your loans will bring your other loans out of default because they'll be paid when you are issued the consolidated loan. You will have a single lender -- the Department of Education -- and a single monthly payment, which may be lower than what you are now paying.

For your $20,000 loan, the loan term could be extended to 20 years. (The repayment period depends on how much you owe on your education loans.)

Borrowers can choose from multiple repayment plans with various terms to repay their consolidation loans. Among the options are standard repayment, with fixed monthly payments; graduated repayment, where monthly payments rise over time; and income contingent repayment, where your monthly payment is based on adjusted gross income (and your spouse's, if married), your family size and the total amount of your direct loans.

Read more: Federal student loans offer default relief http://www.bankrate.com/finance/debt/federal-student-loans-offer-default-relief.aspx#ixzz1CKwS2Ejr

When Student Loan Consolidation Makes Sense

If you're in default on your student loan, if you want your federal student loans to be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, if you want to lock in a fixed interest rate while they're still low, or if you simply want to make one – instead of several – payments per month, student loan consolidation could make sense for you.

You can consolidate most federal loans including Subsidized or Unsubsidized Stafford Loans, PLUS loans, and Perkins loans through the Direct Consolidation Loans service, but you can't consolidate private loans and you can't re-consolidate your Direct Consolidation Loan, so if you're currently in default, this may be your last chance to rectify the situation.

Be careful to calculate the full cost of your loan(s) in order to determine if consolidation is the right move – be wary of opting for lower monthly payments, for example, in favour of a longer re-payment term, which could cost you a lot more in the long run. Also beware of consolidating federal loans through a private provider – federal loans carry borrower protection that is lost if you choose a private scheme. Federal Direct Consolidation Loans also carry a lower interest rate.

You can apply online for a Direct Consolidation Loan at www.loanconsolidation.ed.gov but you will need to have all of your outstanding loan information handy.

Consolidation study to visit all 18 school districts

CANTON — Researchers hired to study ways to consolidate programs, staff and services among the region's 18 public school districts are scheduled tentatively to make on-site visits to each of the districts later this month.

The in-depth study includes exploring the idea of replacing individual high schools with three large regional high schools.

Dennis M. Sweeney, the project manager from Ithaca hired to lead the research team, said he was in Syracuse on Friday meeting with three regional managers assigned to the study.

Their sessions focused on analyzing student enrollment and other data that were submitted over the past two months by 17 St. Lawrence County school districts and Harrisville Central School, Lewis County.

The study, which carries a $126,176 price tag, is moving forward as planned, he said.

"We're going over enrollment projections and setting up our agenda for the on-site meetings," Mr. Sweeney said. "Enrollment has declined over the past 10 years, but the birthrate in St. Lawrence County is starting to stabilize."

During their visit Jan. 24 to 26, Mr. Sweeney said, three regional managers will meet with school superintendents within their assigned region.

"There are a number of questions we need to ask," Mr. Sweeney said. "As questions get answered, new ones will get asked."

By the end of the month, researchers expect to have preliminary enrollment projections for all districts, analysis of school district capacity and trend analyses concerning expenditures, revenues and tax rates.

Mr. Sweeney said he will travel here as well, and his plans include visiting the St. Lawrence-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services' three technical and vocational centers, in Norwood, Ogdensburg and Fowler.

The regional managers were contracted by the Rural Schools Association of New York State, Ithaca, which was hired by BOCES to conduct the yearlong study in partnership with Organizational Leadership Services, Clifton Park.

Faced with decreased student enrollment and dwindling revenues, small districts across the state are being pushed to help cut costs by finding ways to share, consolidate or merge their operations.

Thomas R. Burns, St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES superintendent, said area school superintendents are bracing themselves for a tough state budget from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

"Over the past week or two, school superintendents have started scrambling and being creative about what they can share. We're talking about things we haven't talked about in years," Mr. Burns said.

Providing driver's education through BOCES is one area being considered, he said.

Larry Kiley has been assigned regional manager of the Northwest region, which includes Hammond, Hermon-DeKalb, Heuvelton, Lisbon, Madrid-Waddington, Morristown and Ogdensburg school districts.

Glenn Walker will be regional manager of the Northeast region, which covers St. Lawrence Central, Canton, Colton-Pierrepont, Massena, Norwood-Norfolk, Parishville-Hopkinton and Potsdam.

The Southwest region has been assigned to Doug Hamlin, who will study Clifton-Fine, Edwards-Knox, Gouverneur and Harrisville central schools.

Debt Advice, Student Loan Consolidation for 2011

Getting a student loan consolidation after getting out of college can be a good way to temporarily hold back some big payments that are going to be due.  Getting a fixed rate for the duration of the student loan consolidation can give you enough time to secure a job and not have to worry about overwhelming debt.  Debt advice can come easily to most, but the only debt advice you take should be from a finance expert professional.

Student loan consolidation debt advice should be followed if you are already running behind in payments.  It isn't too late to consolidate the amount of debt into one, easier to manage student consolidation loan.

Students that are graduating in this current economy are finding that the market is not only flooded with their types of degrees but also that there is very little growth in jobs at the moment.  While graduating students seek jobs in this weakened job market, they are being bombarded with payments that are due and not being able to pay for them.  A lot of students, especially grad students have more than one student loan. Instead of getting hit with late fees on each one, they could use a student loan consolidation and make easy payments once a month until they can find employment.