College costs are out of control. Total outstanding student loans hover around $1 trillion, second only to home mortgages as the largest debt Americans carry. Student loan repayment takes a hefty toll on starting salaries even during good economic times. But with so many recent graduates unable to find a decent job — or any job at all — repayment can be a nightmare.
You can’t just walk away from student loan debt. It’s practically impossible to get it discharged through bankruptcy and there’s no statute of limitations on how long lenders can pursue you through collections. Indeed, the government can withhold tax refunds and garnish your wages indefinitely; plus, your credit score will take a huge hit.
It’s against that backdrop that the Obama administration recently accelerated improvements to a readily available, yet underused, student loan repayment plan called Income-Based Repayment (IBR) that had been slated to begin in 2014.
If you’re having difficulty paying off your student loans and want to avoid defaulting, IBR and other options are available that might help:
IBR is available for many types of federally guaranteed student loans and can be particularly beneficial for low-income families, the unemployed and people with lower-paying, “public
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