You can repay the loan in full.
You can negotiate a new payment plan with your lender.
You can "rehabilitate" your loan.
You can consolidate your loan.

Obviously option one is rarely attractive or possible for defaulted borrowers.

Option two (renegotiate) should be investigated fully - most borrowers skip this step, but it's probably the best option for most people. Call your lender and ask to speak to someone in the "Workout" Department. Explain your situation to them (there's nothing unusual about it) and ask what options are available to you for switching to a graduated, extended or income-sensitive repayment plan. If your lender will agree to change your repayment plan, a few regular payments will get your default status removed, and the new plan may be easier for you to keep up with.

Option three (rehabilitation) is really a specific form of a workout agreement. It probably won't help you much in your situation, because it requires an agreement between you and the lender that will allow you to make 9 consecutive on-time payments of some agreed-upon amount.

Option four is everyone's favorite, but you must absolutely understand what a consolidation loan will do. To keep this utterly simple - a consolidation loan is a brand new loan that will pay off your old, defaulted loan. A consolidation loan MAY lower your monthly payments, but understand how this works. A consolidation loan never lowers your payments by wiping away some of your debt - a consolidation loan lowers your payments by stretching out the length of your loan. If you pay less every month, you'll make many additional monthly payments, and - in the end - you'll pay far more back than you would have paid on the original loan.

As an example: Suppose I lent you $100 and you agreed to pay me back in 2 weeks by paying me $50 a week. You came back a few days later and explained that you weren't going to be able to afford to pay me $50 - is there something else we could do? "Oh, absolutely," I'd say, gallantly. "Instead of paying me $50 a week for 2 weeks, how about if you only pay me $10 a week for 17 weeks?"

See - in the end, you'll pay me back $170 instead of $100 - that's how a consolidation loan works. But remember - we're not talking a $100 loan for a couple of weeks - by the time you pay that $5000 loan of yours back over many years, you'll pay a few thousand more than you might have paid if you didn't consolidate that loan.

I've attached some information about consolidating from the Department of Education - take a few minutes to read it over. If you do choose to go this route, be sure to consolidate with a reputable lender (or directly with the government) and not with some fly-by-night operation that you learn about from some pay-per-click site shilled on Yahoo! Answers.

Good luck to you!

If you are asking about defaulting the lender will just contract out with a collection agency to start calling and hounding you to mail them payments. If you make 6 to 12 months worth of willing and reasonable payments you can ask your lender to "rehabilitate" your loan. This is when you are issued a new loan and pay off the one in default so you can get federal fin aid again. Again, rehabilitation can only be done after you have made 6 to 12 months of payments.

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As long as you remain a full-time student, you will continue to qualify for "in-school deferment". You won't have to begin paying your loans back until you finish law school.

The only requirement is that you remain registered at least half-time at an eligible institution, and that you don't take more than 6 months off at any time during your schooling.

By the way - this is an automatic feature of government-backed student loans (Stafford/Perkins/PLUS), but it is not necessarily characteristic of all private loans. Also remember that the in-school deferment requires attendance at an "eligible" school. Some students have pursued law or medical degrees at foreign universities, only to discover that some of these schools are not participants in the Federal Student Aid program, and therefore, ineligible for in-school deferment.

I hope that helps - good luck to you!

Try this site

http://free-college-information-usa.blogspot.com/

Free College information on financial aid for students, scholarship, student loans and more.

Once you’ve completed your FAFSA, you’ll want to visit your school’s student aid office. Ask what kind of aid you might expect.

Try this site

http://free-college-information-usa.blogspot.com/

Free College information on financial aid for students, scholarship, student loans and more.