There is no procedure or mechanism in place to change a private loan into a federal student loan. Borrowers with Sallie Mae and Navient private loans can slowly convert them into eligible federal debt via creative repayment.

Private student loans cannot, in general, be consolidated with federal student loans. The low interest rates on federal consolidation loans are not available to private education loans. So the main benefit of such a consolidation is obtaining a single monthly payment.

There are legitimate private lenders that refinance both federal and private loans into a new private loan, but you’ll lose federal repayment options. It’s also highly unlikely that private lenders would agree to consolidate defaulted loans.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and September 30, 2021, student loan borrowers will get more than $90 billion of student loan forgiveness. While these four fixes are proposals, both President Joe Biden and Cardona are interested in simplifying the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

If you’re making payments under an income-driven repayment plan and also working toward loan forgiveness under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program, you may qualify for forgiveness of any remaining loan balance after you’ve made 10 years of qualifying payments, instead of 20 or 25 years.

Best repayment option: standard repayment. On the standard student loan repayment plan, you make equal monthly payments for 10 years. If you can afford the standard plan, you’ll pay less in interest and pay off your loans faster than you would on other federal repayment plans.

By law, Social Security can take retirement and disability benefits to repay student loans in default. Social Security can take up to 15% of a person”s benefits. However, the benefits cannot be reduced below $750 a month or $9,000 a year. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) cannot be offset to repay these debts.