The following are testimonials submitted to this site. To tell your story, please go here.

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David 

To make my story short I'll try to be brief.
I'm a disabled veteran rated at 100% service connected for several ailments. My doctor from the VA helped me apply for loan discharge under the disability act. Of course the dept. of education denied the request because they disagreed with my doctor's opinion.

I'm a registered nurse by trade. I live in Texas. My nursing license came up for renewal recently. It was denied when I tried to renew it. The Texas State Board of Nursing denied my renewal request citing my defaulted student loans as being the reason for denial. Of course when I contacted them about my loan forgiveness request and showed them the documentation from my doctor, their reply was simply: have Texas Guaranteed release your license for renewal. Even though the Texas Board of Nursing is the licensing agency, they can't renew my license unless another agency that has nothing to do with my nursing license releases it for renewal? Give me a break!

So, now that my loan forgiveness request has been denied, my livelihood has also been denied. They want us to pay them back but they want us to work at Mcdonald's to do it. That way they can keep collecting higher interest and collection payments.

This has to stop. There has to be a fair way to do this. The current legislation only singles out those that have professional or occupational licenses. What about all of the other defaulted loans whose borrowers aren't required to have a professional license? Are they going to pass laws  that deny anyone with a defaulted student loan any type of job? I know that sounds absurd but so is the current legislation.

They demand us to pay them back, and then take away our ability to pay by denying us our livelihood.

Are their any legislators out there who are listening?

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Kathryn 

I can only tell you part of my story, because my loans have been passed around so much that I have no idea how my interest accrued or what the costs are. Due to a failed business and serious clinical depression, I had to declare bankruptcy in 2002. I defaulted on my student loans, and now, after a couple of years of repaying, I am "rehabilitated".  The lapse in paying back these loans was no more than a year.  My Sallie Mae bill went from 42,000 to 58,000.  I just rehabilitated another loan (by the way, these loans should be rehabilitated with 12 straight payments, but somehow, they "forget" to send them off to another purchaser).  Following the purchase of this loan by a bank, I received a "paid in full" note.  The current amount I owe on this note is more than $10,000(remember I have been repaying for about 2 years now). The amount of my original promissory note? Less than $4100.  WOW, huh?

I won't bore you with the tales of my other student loans.  All told, I expect to repay them all by the age of 70, based on the payment schedule. Well, that's one way of keeping me from retiring and collecting Social Security.  (These debts were incurred when I was 35 years old, by the way.)

My, my...you would think these student loans would not be given to loan sharks, but...

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Rick 

Well like everyone else here I'm stuck paying huge payments with high interest all because of a dishonest salesman. I am 47 years old and decided that I needed some computer certifications for my job. A fast talking salesman sold me on a school that does nothing to help you get certifications but offers Sallie Mae financing. He said you'll never pay over 6% interest and payments are only $20. Well shortly after signing the documents I had severe heart problems and ended up having open heart surgery. Unfortunately I never went for any of the certifications because of my health. The school wouldn't refund my money and about that time Sallie Mae kicked in with $89 payments. Of course calling them was useless I've gotten better answers from a brick wall. Then at the first of this year interest was going up...I got on their website to lock my rate in, well the website didn't work. So I called and waited on the phone until I get the usual incompetent customer service rep on the phone who assured me that I had been  locked in...well I hadn't. Now my payments are over $100 a month and the original $3500 I borrowed is now over $8000. At this rate I'll never pay it off, I'd been better off to borrow money from a loan shark. At least if I didn't pay a loan shark he'd put a bullet in my head and put me out of my misery. Now I've found this site and realize I'm not the only one getting screwed by these guys. It's a sad, sad world.

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Kathryn 

I was an elementary school teacher when I decided to go to law school. I had gone through college on a full scholarship -- not to the college of my choice, but I didn't want to incur debt, so I accepted. With my background and drive, I wasn't concerned about taking out loans.My motivation stemmed from the reality that I was a single mom trying to make things better for my daughter and me.

When I finished law school, I got a job, but was laid off after 3 years. I opened my own practice, but after about 2 years, I slipped into a deep depression. Of course, I didn't realize this until someone grabbed me by the hand and told me I needed to speak to a therapist.  By then, I no longer had the ability to take on new cases.  I never neglected my clients, but I ended up taking cases with little or no financial value.

I lapsed into great debt.  I received no child support, even though I pursued it through legal channels. I put my daughter through college on my own, but I couldn't take care of my debts.  I defaulted on my student loans and declared bankruptcy.

Because of the bankruptcy and default, $10,000 was added to my outstanding loans.  I cannot buy a house.  I have no credit reputation. I have a very small 401k.  I won't be able to pay off this loan until I'm 70 years old.  Pretty bleak, huh?

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R.T. 

I've been fighting "alleged" defaulted student loans for years.  I've had an attorney on retainer and even flew down to Atlanta, GA in person to try and settle the matter with the Dept. of Education (DOE) and their Ombudsman.  I have very detailed records, for example, cancelled checks proving payments were made.  The DOE and their hired-gun collection agencies have never been able to provide any substantive back-up documentation to support their allegations, they have ignored my documents and their records never tie from one document to another.  Meanwhile, the DOE continues to steam roll along confiscating my tax returns to the point where I will have actually overpaid for the loans.  The only way I see to stop the DOE's ignorance is to sue them in Federal court, which will likely carry hefty legal fees.  While I realize there are many defaulted student loans, there are also a great number of loans that are not defaulted but for the DOE's screwed-up records management, or lack thereof.  Perhaps a civil suit is another measure.  In any case, something needs to happen in order to send a wake-up call to the DOE.  

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Witheld 

Returning to school to complete a BA and MA in my forties seemed a good idea at the time.  In hindsight, I was wrong. What was originally a 52K debt at graduation has escalated to 68K. Yes, I made payments; however, over the past four years there have been times of illness requiring the loan to be put into forbearance. Now, at age